The Substitute Bride

It didn't take long for Cassie to wake up. Nick was busy looking at her, and he was excited to see that she opened her eyes. "Hey, how are you doing?" he asked in a low voice.

"I'm doing great," Cassie replied with a smile and lifted her hand to touch his cheek.

Nick leaned forward so Cassie could reach him. Cassie had just come out of the operating room, and he could see that she was too weak to hold anything.

"Oh, thank goodness you're awake, Cassie! This is all my brother's fault. You wouldn't have passed out if he didn't say that to you!" Cora said with both relief and guilt. It took her all of her strength to finally speak out because it was so embarrassing. If something happened to Cassie, she would never have forgiven Jordan for this.

"What? Are you serious? What did he say? I'm going to kill him!" Nick shouted as he got up and stared at Cora.

Cora was taken aback by his sudden outrage. She stepped back and avoided his gaze.

Cassie hurriedly sat up and tugged Nick's shirt, as if to make him calm down. Nick then sat down, still holding Cassie's hand. She took a deep breath and lay back on the bed again. "It's alright, Nick. If it weren't for him, then I wouldn't have regained my memory. I remember everything now. It was Leila who pushed me down the stairs from the rooftop after she told me something terrible. It was she who had plotted Charles's accident! But her target was Sheryl, not Charles. It was Sheryl, Nick!"

Cassie spoke so fast that she had run out of breath. She gasped for air as her head started spinning again. She closed her eyes to relax.

"I'm afraid you two need to go out now. It's not good for Cassie to get too excited or too overwhelmed. She needs some rest for now. You can visit her later," the nurse said. She had just come in and immediately saw the pallor in Cassie's face.

Nick squeezed Cassie's hands and stroked her hair before leaving with Cora. He waited outside Cassie's room as he thought about what she'd just told him.

As they had expected, it was Leila who was behind all these accidents.

Nick felt a chill run down his spine. He called Sheryl right away to tell her.

When Sheryl heard this, she wasn't surprised at all. She had been suspicious of Leila from the start, and now that Cassie had told them the truth, she knew she was right. She also couldn't help but blame herself for getting Cassie involved in this whole mess.

"Nick, please, take care of Cassie. Don't leave her alone. I'm afraid Leila won't stop if she finds out. I promise you I'll make her pay for all of this!" Sheryl clenched her hand into fists out of anger. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain shoot through her palm. Her fingernails had dug into her flesh so deeply that she had started bleeding.

As soon as Sheryl hung up the phone with Nick, she called the police right away as she didn't want to waste any more time.

Meanwhile, Leila had just returned to Dream Garden after being confronted by Sheryl.

been running into some bad luck lately, one after another, and she couldn't help but think it was her fault. She needed to make it up to them, but she had no idea how. She could only hope that nothing else would happen to any of the people close to her.

However, Cassie shook her head and looked into Sheryl's eyes. "No, please, don't say that, Sher. You have nothing to do with this. It's not your fault. Please, don't blame yourself. Look, I'm alive and kicking. I've never been better! You must take care of yourself. Leila is a beast in human form. Promise me you'll watch yourself around her. I'm afraid she won't stop until she's got Charles," she said, sounding worried.

Cassie thought that things like this only happened on TV, but now, more than ever, she knew how possible it was for stuff like this to happen in real life. What was more, she'd seen it with her own two eyes. A woman was hurting innocent people just to get the man she loved.

She didn't know whether Leila loved Charles, but what she had done was ruthless and inconsiderate. Cassie might be too young to know what True Love was, but she was sure that love wouldn't ever want to hurt anyone.

Cassie and Sheryl chatted for a while before Cassie fell asleep. Now that everything was clear, she could finally sleep well.

When Cora had finished her rounds, she visited Cassie's ward and found that Cassie was sleeping.

"Sheryl, I talked to my brother. He's realized that it was his fault, and he said he'd never do anything to hurt Cassie ever again. I can watch him too--just to make sure. We don't have to get the police involved this time. If he does something again, I'll take him to the police myself," Cora said sincerely. While she knew she was being unreasonable, she had no choice, and she needed to watch out for her brother.

Sheryl put her finger over her lips as if to tell Cora to keep it down. Then she quickly glanced at Cassie before grabbing Cora's hand and leading her outside.