The Substitute Bride

"Okay. Let's ask Dad to come with us next time," Sheryl promised as she held Clark's and Shirley's hands to lead them to the park gate. Suddenly, Clark stopped walking and shook Sheryl's hand.

"What's wrong, Clark?" she asked with concern.

"Mom, I want to go to the bathroom."

"Mom, me too," Shirley chimed in. With all that had been going on, Shirley seemed to have forgotten about even going to the bathroom before Clark brought it up.

As Sheryl wondered how she would manage to take them to separate bathrooms on her own, Leila seemed to understand what she was thinking and offered to help.

"Sheryl, I can take Clark to the bathroom while you take Shirley," she suggested. Though she spoke casually, she was thinking about the evil plan she was about to carry out. She would have someone kidnap Shirley on their way back from the bathroom and she was expecting to see that Shirley's missing would trigger some kind of breakdown in Sheryl.

Meanwhile, Sheryl was oblivious. Nodding at Leila, she turned to her son and said, "Clark, Aunt Leila will bring you to the bathroom. You two have to wait for me here after, okay?"

"Okay," he replied obediently. With that, he followed Leila as she led him to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Shirley held onto her mother's hand as they followed behind.

Since the park bathrooms were a little far from the front gate, they had to walk past a small bamboo grove area. Because it was already evening, most of the visitors had already left, and there weren't many people around the bathroom area.

Everything was going well until Sheryl led her daughter out of the bathroom and began walking back to the front gate. Suddenly, a masked man struck her from behind, and she fell to the ground in an instant. Scared out of her mind, Shirley screamed as hard as she could. The man covered her mouth immediately and picked her up to take her away.

Meanwhile, Melissa and Leila waited at the front gate for over ten minutes. Not seeing Sheryl or Shirley return, they were assured that their plan had been carried out successfully. Though the two were glad that everything went as planned, they knew they had to pretend to be worried because Clark was still with them.

The boy, who was genuinely concerned about his mother and sister, stared at the bathroom area in worry, waiting for them to come into sight—he was so anxious that he kept trying to drag Melissa to the bathroom.

"Where are they? Let's go to the bathroom in case something's wrong," Leila suggested finally. Then they rushed to the bathroom, only

get the first car he saw in the garage to drive to the amusement park.

When he arrived, he ran to the gate the minute he got out of the car.

There were only a handful of people around the gate, so Charles found Melissa easily.

Before he was even close enough, Melissa began complaining once again. "Charles, you're here! What should we do? My poor Shirley…If only Sheryl had taken good care of her, she wouldn't have been missing!" she sobbed, grabbing Charles' arm as he approached.

"Mom, stop blaming Sheryl. We don't even know what happened yet. Our priority is to find her!" he replied urgently.

Annoyed at Melissa taking every opportunity to speak ill of Sheryl, Charles shrugged off her hands and ran up to Clark.

"Dad!" the boy cried as tears rolled down his cheeks. Unable to control himself, he threw himself into Charles' arms and burst into more helpless sobs.

Shirley's disappearance was too much for him. Because his mom was out looking for Shirley, he had to wait for her, feeling so alone and scared. The fear overwhelmed him to a point where he was at a loss what to do.

Seeing Charles was a great comfort for him—he believed that his father would be able to find Shirley and have the family back together in no time. 'Shirley… Come back to us!' he shouted deep in his heart.

"Don't worry, Clark. You're strong. You don't have to be scared. I'll find Shirley and bring her back!" Charles said gently but firmly, assuring the boy.

With that, he picked Clark up and glanced around to look for his wife.

"Mom, where is Sher? I don't see her," he asked in worry. It was important for him to ask her directly about what really had happened before Shirley went missing.