The Substitute Bride

Charles wanted to rush home. But when he saw the conference room, he hesitated.

It wasn't good for him to leave in the middle of the meeting and the Marketing Department and the Sales Department were fighting. As the president, he was responsible for stopping the fight from escalating.

The kids were just having a moment. Sooner or later, they would calm down. And Clark was considerate and mature enough that Charles believed that he could comfort his little sister.

After giving it some thought, Charles took a deep breath before he walked back to the conference room.

On the highway, Sheryl sped up a little, eager to go back home. She had been out for so long. She wondered how the kids were doing. She couldn't help but worry about her kids even though she had asked Nancy to take good care of them.

Therefore, Sheryl decided not to visit Nick today. She took out her phone and dialed Nick's number again.

Nick answered the phone on the first ring.

"Hello, Sher." Nick's voice was low, which Sheryl noticed. It shocked her. It sounded noisy on the other end of the phone. 'Where is Nick?' Sheryl wondered.

"Nick, where are you? I need to talk to you, face-to-face," she said.

Nick was silent for a bit. A few minutes later, he replied, "Sher, I want to spend some time myself. Can you leave me alone?"

"Where the hell are you? Cheer up, Nick! And please don't hurt yourself. I'm sure things will get better. I've talked to Cassie and I know what happened. Tell me where you are now so that I can explain it to you face-to-face."

Nick paused. He thought about her words for a while before opening his mouth again. "What's the point? Cassie will never trust me again. And I…"

'I will never trust anyone else, ' Nick sighed silently.

What hurt Nick most wasn't the fact that Cassie misunderstood him. It was that Cassie still ca

arms around each other, hugging so tightly that it would be hard to pry them apart.

At night, Sheryl finally came home. Although she was tired, the first thing she did was find Shirley and Clark. She went to their bedroom and saw them. It was dark, which confused Sheryl. When Sheryl turned on the light, she found that Clark and Shirley were holding each other tightly, like two injured puppies.

Shirley's eyes lit up when she saw Sheryl. She ran to Sheryl and Sheryl pulled Shirley into her arms. Sheryl noticed Shirley's swollen eyes. Her anxiety and worry grew bigger.

"Ouch!"

Shirley cried and Sheryl quickly let go. She had accidentally touched Shirley's bruised arm as she was hugging her.

Her heart tightened. Why was there a bruise on her daughter's arm? Did someone bully and punch her? Sheryl got more and more confused.

Before she could ask, Shirley spoke. Clark was too upset to speak, and too mad at their grandmother. She needed to tell her mother what had happened.

"Mom, Grandma brought a lot of people home to play cards today and they kept saying nasty things about you. I asked them to stop talking about you and Grandma hit me. Clark and I are very upset. Mom, say something to cheer Clark up please."