The Substitute Bride

Sheryl stopped talking, and shot Charles a decisive look.

"Smack!" The crisp sound of a slap was heard.

The silence was broken by a sudden harsh slap.

Charles drew back his hand. Trying his best to contain his feelings, he still couldn't help but tremble in a blind rage. His palm felt the pain and stung, as much as Sheryl's cheek did.

Anger rose and coursed through his veins. His eyes were fierce and then reddened, as his heart pumped faster.

He had never thought that one day he would lose his temper at Sheryl, his wife. The woman he loved the most! Charles had never expected that he would ever hurt her physically.

The very instant that Charles slapped Sheryl's cheek, he immediately regretted it. However, there was no point in crying over spilled milk; what was done was done. No matter how remorseful he felt, he could only be realistic about it.

Charles didn't dare to look Sheryl in the eyes. But he was stunned when Sheryl seemed relieved, after suffering the slap.

Even though she tried to keep her pride, bitter tears welled up in her eyes. The side of Sheryl's face had swollen angrily after the slap. She put one hand gingerly to her pink cheek, while she held onto the table, to keep herself from falling with the other.

As the atmosphere turned more and more charged, no one was happy at the moment, except for Leila.

Leila was singing in her heart when she observed the red mark on Sheryl's face, which had been left there after Charles' slap.

She wanted to add more fuel to the fire and make the situation even messier for Sheryl. At the end of it all, Leila was waiting to be the one who would stand out to Charles.

Thinking of that, it didn't take long for Leila's devious mind to concoct a plan at once. She quietly approached Charles before she put her hand on his arm and gently comforted, "Charles, you shouldn't get so angry. It's bad for you. I guess what Sheryl said was just on a whim. How could she possibly want to divorce you?"

Leila had no intention to be their conciliator. She just wanted to make the situation worse. She stressed the word 'divorce' on purpose, to provoke Charles even more.

"Shut up!" Sheryl shot a fierce look toward Leila as she shouted.

Her eyes were burning with rage.

Sheryl's sudden aggressive outburst intimidated Leila, who stumbled a few steps back.

Turning to face Charles, Sheryl continued, "Sign it or not, I won't be coming back to Dream Garden anymore! Also, the kids are going to live with me!"

Then Sheryl threw the divorce papers at Charles before she turned on her heel and left.

It all happened so quickly that Charles didn't have a moment to brace himself.

Watching the door slam shut after Sheryl left, Leila was thrilled. An evil grin crept onto

nd Sheryl's marriage on the wrong path and make sure it wasn't repairable, Leila needed Melissa to meddle as much as possible. Leila smirked in her head, pleased with herself, 'Even if Sheryl and Charles failed to reach an agreement on the divorce, it's only a matter of time.'

"Lewis! It's that man again! Divorce! Charles must divorce Sheryl! Sheryl and Lewis, both of them are disgraceful and shameless. They're a perfect match for each other!" Melissa scoffed in rage.

"Wait! Perhaps she has an ulterior motive on her mind that's not as simple as we have expected. She might be planning to steal a portion of the assets from the Shining Company!" Melissa narrowed her eyes as she also came to that conclusion. At the thought of that, she couldn't help but tremble in fear.

"No, she just demanded custody of the children in the divorce. But Charles won't give them to her in the divorce." Leila promptly dispelled Melissa's suspicion.

"Why? Why did Charles disagree with the divorce? She has been so eager to dump him, and throw herself into that rogue's arms. Then why won't Charles grant her a divorce?" None of it made any sense to Melissa. She wondered what was going through her son's mind.

Melissa looked blankly at Leila, waiting for her to fill her in on the answers.

However, Leila looked even more confused than Melissa. She couldn't understand why Charles had tried so hard to stop their marriage from breaking. Sheryl had been clear with what she wanted and completely unemotional about it. Charles should know better than trying to salvage their marriage and divorce her without more delay.

Leila knew she had to act fast to make the divorce happen as soon as possible. The longer the marriage lasted, the more complicated it would become.

There was nothing that Leila wasn't prepared to do to make that happen.