The Substitute Bride

"Mommy, is Daddy planning to abandon us?" Clark asked as he looked at Sheryl with tears brimming and overflowing down his cheeks. She could tell his eyes were turning red with sadness.

Shirley stopped sobbing as soon as she heard Clark's question. Her focus shifted back to Sheryl. This question was on her mind too. "Yes, Mommy. Is it true? Does Daddy want to abandon me and Clark?"

Both the kids were in a miserable state. The mere sight of them made Sheryl sad. She walked up to them and hugged them tightly. For a while, the trio cried, holding onto each other.

Alex stood aside and felt sad while witnessing this.

In fact, Alex had heard from Nancy about what had more or less happened between Sheryl and Charles. She knew that Sheryl was going through a tough time, and she couldn't help but shed tears when she saw this.

"Ms. Xia, don't sit on the floor. It's cold." Alex hurriedly walked over and helped Sheryl and the kids up.

Sheryl stopped crying and told the kids with tears in her eyes, "Mommy knows your intentions were good, but it was still a bad thing to do. Do you understand?"

Sheryl endured the pain and forced a smile. She didn't want the kids to see how weak she was feeling. After all, her tears wouldn't save the situation. No matter what, she and Charles couldn't go back to being a couple. The only thing left for her was to make her kids happy.

"Mommy, I am sorry. It's all my fault! I just wanted Mommy and Daddy to patch things up. I didn't mean to make you sad."

Earlier, Clark had told himself that he should be strong. But at the end of the day, he was only a child. Facing this situation, he couldn't control his feelings any longer.

Seeing how sad Clark was, Shirley looked at him and shook her head. "No, Mommy! It was my fault, not his," she said, trying to take the blame for her brother.

Sheryl looked at the two kids, and her heart ached painfull

er eyes and smiled at Isla as if nothing had happened.

"Stop pretending in front of me. I know you better than you know yourself. I have seen how gentle you usually are with your kids. If you weren't so angry, you would have never beaten them!" Isla said and sighed.

At the moment, Isla could see through Sheryl, but the latter wouldn't admit it. Of course, it was not that she didn't want Isla to know. It was just that she didn't want Isla to be worried about her.

"Fine. Since you and the kids are okay, I am relieved. If there is nothing, I will go now."

Isla knew that Sheryl was tired, so she offered to leave so that Sheryl could get some rest.

"Hmm, be careful on the way," Sheryl warned as Isla got up and prepared to leave.

Unexpectedly, as Isla walked to the door, she suddenly thought of something and turned to Sheryl. She hesitated for a while and then said to Sheryl, "Eh, Charles came to the company to see you."

"Can you not mention his name in front of me?" Just the mention of his name brought fury to Sheryl's face.

"Okay. Don't react so strongly. I am sorry. I won't mention it again," Isla said apologetically. Isla didn't want to offend Sheryl, so she put up her hands to surrender.

After that, Isla quickly went downstairs.