The Substitute Bride

Melissa approached slowly and reluctantly to the door of the ward. Even though she felt humiliated that Charles had yelled at her in public because of Sheryl, his stern look made her feel afraid.

Charles didn't want to ruin Sheryl's feelings and mood by speaking in front of her, so he followed Melissa out and closed the door quietly behind. Leila felt awkward being alone with Sheryl, so she left the room right after Charles. When she stepped out of the room, she heard Charles scolding Melissa in the corridor.

"Mom! Did you forget what I told you? You and Leila cannot to leave Dream Garden before I find out who wanted to kill Sheryl. Why don't you listen to me? Don't you regard my words seriously?" Charles said harshly, staring at Melissa with a stern look on his face.

Melissa didn't dare look Charles in the eye. She turned away from Charles' tongue-lashing and knew that she was out of line for shouting at Sheryl just now.

"I...I'm here to see how Sheryl is doing! What's wrong with that? I'm just trying to be nice," Melissa explained, stammering.

"You? Being nice? Have you already forgotten that you shouted at Sher just a few moments ago? Mom, Sher is really sick now. She needs as much peace as possible and to rest. You would never have shouted at her if you were genuinely trying to be nice to her!" Charles said furiously.

His heart was full of anger, and he shouted at Melissa, unleashing all of his anger and frustration out on her.

"Mom, I warn you, for the last time. If I catch you disturbing Sher again, I assure you that I'll kick you out of Dream Garden and never see you again!" Charles was so disappointed in Melissa, so he made himself very clear that this was her last chance.

Melissa froze, feeling shocked and startled by what Charles had just threatened her with. It was as if she had been struck by lightning.

After a while, she finally opened her mouth and said meekly, "Charles, I won't do it again. I did only come here to see how Sheryl was doing. However, she didn't greet me nicely, and that's why I lost my temper. I didn't mean any of it."

She grabbed Charles by the sleeve pleading with him. Melissa was afraid that he would kick her out of Dream Garden.

She knew her son very well. If he had made a decision, he

eved that his mother could behave so mean to Sheryl until he saw it himself. When he overheard what his mother had said and done to Sheryl, it shocked him and made her look like an uneducated ill-mannered woman.

Melissa's face froze for a few seconds at Charles' solemn words. She was his biological mother, but it seemed that he didn't care about her at all now.

She was the woman that gave birth to him and brought him up. She felt so upset that he had blamed her just because of a woman like Sheryl.

Melissa didn't believe for one second that Sheryl was the nice woman that Charles had described. She wondered what Charles could see in Sheryl to marry her. 'Sheryl never treats me nice! Never Ever!' Melissa shouted to herself.

At that moment, her resentment towards Sheryl began eating her up. Anger burned in her fiery eyes. The fury inside her was like a balloon growing bigger and bigger, and it would explode at any minute with a bang.

Swallowing the anger, Melissa clenched her teeth and cleared her throat. "Yes, Charles is right. Sheryl is such a nice woman. I'll never cause any trouble for her in the future. I was terribly wrong. I'm so sorry, Sheryl. I hope you can forgive me and we can get along with each other from now on," Melissa said in a low voice.

Sheryl felt some satisfaction seeing Melissa finally bow her head to her. However, she didn't care about these small things and how Melissa treated her. The most important thing for her to do now was force Leila to hand over Shirley.