The Substitute Bride

"Phoebe, what's wrong?" Isla rushed toward Phoebe and grabbed her hand.

Phoebe, equally worried, struggled to tell Isla about Sheryl's bizarre behavior. She had to choke back her sobs as she spoke.

"Ms. Zhao, I'm concerned. Ms. Xia is acting very strangely. All of a sudden, she claims that she has thought things through and that she's okay. How is that even possible?" Phoebe thought out loud, her voice quivering with fear and concern.

"Alright. Stay here. Let me take a look." Isla marched into Sheryl's office. Nick, who had been waiting for so long to see Sheryl, saw his chance and followed Isla in.

As usual, Isla let herself in, followed this time by Nick. What use was there in knocking?

When Sheryl saw Isla come in, she beamed with delight. She cleared her throat and jokingly scolded her friend, "Isla, I've told you a million times. If you walk into my office without knocking one more time, I'm going on leave for a month and give you that month's worth of work. Is that what you want?"

"Sher, I'm in no mood for jokes. Tell me what happened." Now that Isla saw just how fine Sheryl seemed after this whole thing with Charles, she understood what Phoebe had meant.

Now, she was just as bothered as Phoebe had been.

Just a few hours prior, Sheryl had been acting as though the world was ending. Now, she appeared perfectly fine. She was back to her usual self, or so it seemed. Isla racked her brains, trying to figure out what had happened to her friend.

"What do you mean? Nothing happened. Don't I look like I'm fine?" Sheryl, wearing the same goofy smile, shrugged and shifted her gaze to her brother. "Nick, what brings you here today? I thought you've been really busy recently."

"Sher, I've been trying to meet with you. I've dropped by several times, but I never got to see you. Now you're asking why I'm here?" Nick looked at Sheryl as though it was her fault that they couldn't meet.

Sheryl smiled bashfully. She scratched her head to ease the tension.

Isla interrupted, "Nick, I'm sorry. Can you excuse us? I have to tal

mean, Ms. Zhao? You're scaring us. What's happened to Ms. Xia?" Phoebe asked. Almost instantly, her eyes were again welling up with tears.

"Alright, stop crying. I have to figure something out." Isla was determined to save Sheryl, but she was just as scared as Phoebe was. When she saw tears running down Phoebe's cheeks, her mind went blank. She wanted to help, but right now, she didn't know what to say.

Beside her, Nick was trembling, his eyes as huge as saucers. Clearly, he was still waiting for an answer, so Isla tried to piece together whatever snippets she could retrieve about Sheryl's story from her subconscious. Nick contemplated for a moment and said, "Isla, maybe Sher's right. Maybe he's indeed out there, alive and safe."

"Of course. Do you think I'm stupid? Let's say Charles is still alive. How do you explain Sheryl's reaction? Mere hours ago, I was worried that she might harm herself. Take a look at her now. Look at that grin that's plastered on her face. Don't you find it strange?"

Isla's brows almost met, for there was an indescribable sense of worry that kept haunting her.

"What should we do now?"

Nick asked. Finally, he understood what Isla was trying to say. Silently, he reflected on Sheryl's situation. 'Indeed. Sher's behaving so strangely. A stable person in a similar situation wouldn't react this way. Something must be done.'