The Substitute Bride

"What are you talking about? When did I fool around with Rachel?" Charles asked, fixing his eyes on Sheryl. Sheryl had finally opened up on the matter which was troubling her for so many days. But what she said left Charles completely speechless. 'How could Sheryl suspect me to have an affair with Rachel? What made her to even believe that?' Questions flooded him. He felt like it was completely out of the blue. He waited for Sheryl to speak more about it.

"If you didn't see Rachel, how can you explain those photos? And why would you stay with her alone that night at Lavender Bar?" Sheryl blurted out. Finally, as Sheryl spoke her heart out, her emotions came overwhelmingly. Her eyes were red and she seethed with a distressed face.

"What photos?" Charles asked, looking bewildered. "As for that night at Lavender Bar, it was a misunderstanding."

"Why are you even asking me? Now that you cheated on me, you should have known that your secrets would be exposed one day. I saw you and Rachel flirt with each other in the photographs. So stop playing as if you don't know anything," Sheryl snapped back with a sneer.

"Calm down, Sher. It looks like Mr. Lu isn't lying. Besides, what pictures are you talking about? Why didn't you tell me?" Isla chipped in. "Where did you get those photos? Did Rachel give them to you? If you got those pictures from Rachel, you should have investigated them first. Perhaps it was a trap. You can't believe her words," Isla mediated. Sheryl became quiet after hearing Isla. Now she felt that perhaps she had been in a hurry to judge Charles.

"Yes, Sher, Isla has a point. Where did you get those photographs? Are you sure that they are not processed?" Charles asked after regaining his composure. Charles was completely flabbergasted by the entire thing. All these days, Sheryl kept it all within herself without even bothering to tell him the reason behind her coldness towards him. Now that Isla put things into the right perspective, he suspected that Sheryl might have been fooled by Rachel.

After introspecting the entire situation, Sheryl began to speculate that the photographs might have been morphed. She opened her phone quickly and showed the pictures to Charles. To give the couple some time to clear the air, Isla bid farewell to them and left the restaurant.

Very soon the misunderstanding was cleared. Sheryl was regretful of the fact that she did not speak about this openly with Charles, while, he was relieved to have won back his wife's faith on himself. They sat and chatted at the Japanese restaurant until it was closing time. It had been quite an ordeal for both of them. Now, after having all her doubts cleared, Sheryl was back to being the candid and loving wife she had always been. Charles was happy to see her smile again. Having been through this, they realized how lucky they were to be with each other. It would be a pity if they had split up due to some nasty trick played by someone.

It was not just Charles. Even Sheryl owed some explanation to her husband regarding her relationship with Nick. Charles told Sheryl ever

ope. Melissa led her into the living room with utmost hospitality. When they entered the house, they ran into Sheryl. Melissa was surprised that she was still at home during the working hours. She wondered whether she should use it as an excuse to make fun of Sheryl. But before she could open her mouth, Sheryl questioned harshly, "Mom, why did you bring this woman home? Do you know that she stole my son..." Melissa interrupted her furiously, "Where are your manners, Sheryl? Leila is a good friend of mine. I know that there is some misunderstanding between you two. But she is my guest. I hope that you give her some respect and be courteous with her. You're not the head of this family."

With a slight smile, Leila cut in, "Sheryl, I know I did something that made you misunderstand me. But I really want to make peace with you because I don't want to put Melissa and Charles in an awkward position. Can you forgive me? I hope that we can get along with each other."

Sheryl was completely dumbfounded. Firstly, getting to see Leila was the last thing she had expected. And secondly, Melissa and Leila hurled their own arguments on her and denied her a chance to voice her opinion. All of a sudden, Sheryl felt like an outsider in her own house. 'Am I in my dream? Did I enter the wrong house?' she wondered.

"Leila could get out of the jail because of Charles. It was me who told him that I didn't want to see her suffer in jail once, and he helped her out. So you should be friendly to Leila if you don't want to make him unhappy," Melissa added.

Each and every word uttered by Melissa pierced into Sheryl's heart like sharp knives. Today she has realized the true meaning of the popular proverb—words were sharper than weapons. She wanted to ask Charles whether he had thought of her feelings before agreeing to help Leila out of the jail. She wanted to ask him if at all he loved her honestly. However, given the soft nature of Sheryl and since she had gotten too far in this relationship, she was also scared to figure out the answers to her questions.