The Substitute Bride

Holley was panting as she arrived at the cafe. So the moment she saw Leila, she expressed her irritation, "Oh, Leila! Do you know that it almost killed me to get here in such a short time?"

"How long do you think I can afford to stay away? Now that Charles is in a coma, I will only earn Melissa's wrath if I stay away for a long time. And that will just get in my way of getting inside Shining Company. Maybe I will then lose my last chance to get into that company. Do you want that to happen?" Leila reasoned with Holley, expressing her displeasure as well. 'I didn't question her once for asking me out on such short notice. But she is blaming me for asking her to hurry to the cafe?' Leila angrily thought to herself.

Holley realized that her words had offended Leila; hence, she checked herself at once. She hid her dissatisfaction as she reasoned in her mind that it was important for her to remain cordial with Leila at the moment.

'I need Leila's help right now. I can't afford to make her angry. Although I've paid her well for doing numerous things for me in the past, it seems like she doesn't care about that money at all. Last time, she even laughed at me when I threatened not to pay her again. There must be something bothering her that I am not aware of. So I'd better play it nice and be respectful towards her for now.'

"No, no. Sorry, Leila. I didn't mean to blame you for that. I was only nervous about something. I didn't mean to say that. By the way, haven't you got into the Shining Company, yet?" Holley replied in an amicable tone. She was not in the mood to argue with Leila now, so she changed the topic.

Leila shook her head in frustration and replied, "No, I haven't. But that's not the reason why you called me here today. Just stop beating around the bush and tell me what you want. You said there's something urgent. What's up?"

"Look at this," Holley said as she furtively placed the file she got from Ferry in front of Leila. On the way to the cafe, Holley had thought about how to convince Leila to complete the task. She knew very well that if she alone asked Leila to blow that project off on her own, Leila would never agree to do that. After all, Leila thought of herself as the future Mistress of Shining Company, and she would not do anything that could hurt the interests of Shining Company.

"What is it?" Leila asked with a frown as she picked up the file and flipped it open.

As she carefully read through the file, she was stunned. Her eyes went wide open. "Holley! How did you get this file?" Leila stared back at Holley slack-jawed.

"That's not important, Leila. The important thing is that we already have it. Although it's just a piece of paper, you must know how important it is to the Shining Company. Do you know what this project is?" Holley asked inquisitively.

Leila nodded as she scanned the pages with her roving eyes.

'It's a project that is worth billions of dollars. It must, therefore, be a project crucial to the Shining Company. I'm not a fool. I know how important it is!' Leila thought to herself.

Holley saw Leila's excited reaction and persuaded in a low, yet excited voice, "Great. Then, you know, you can secretly blow this project off..."

Holley's suggestions felt like whiplash to Leila. Sh

could finally touch his face now. Looking at him silently, she marked how his face still looked a little pale. He looked weak. Tears pooled in her eyes as she looked down at his face.

On the one hand, she was overwhelmed that she could touch Charles' face once again, while, on the other hand, her heart bled to see him suffering.

"Charles, wake up..." Sheryl whispered in a trembling voice. Slowly she broke into an uncontrollable sob.

After a while, Sheryl decided to leave. The moment she saw Charles, her mind would get flooded with thoughts about the things that had happened between them. She could not take it anymore. So she just turned around and ran from the room.

'I thought that I could just come by and visit Charles, but I couldn't. I am not as strong as I thought I could be, ' she thought to herself as she ran away.

She ran with only one breath until she came out of the hospital and stopped there. Finally, she stopped and gasped for a fresh breath of air.

After a while, when she felt that she had calmed down, she thought of going back to the hospital. But just as she was about to turn around to go back inside, she spotted Melissa at the gate of the hospital.

Sheryl realized that Melissa must be coming to the hospital to visit Charles. She didn't want to meet Melissa at that moment, so she gave up on her plan to go back inside.

In a big house outside the city, Rachel was waiting for Bernard to come back home.

Bernard had been out all day.

Ever since Bernard met Tom the other day, he left home very early in the morning and returned home very late at night. Sometimes, Rachel felt that she hadn't seen Bernard for a long time, even though they lived under the same roof.

Rachel knew that Bernard was trying his best to complete his task. If they did not help Tom to kill Ferry, Tom would not spare their lives.

Whenever Rachel thought of that, she became extremely nervous.

She felt that she should do something. She couldn't just let Bernard do everything on his own. Bernard would never be able to handle a gang all by himself. Hence, Rachel had to get in on the action if they wanted to swim through the situation successfully.