The Substitute Bride

Melissa was feeling ill at ease.

She had expected Leila would react when she said that but it seemed as if Leila didn't even hear her. She couldn't help but wonder whether Leila really wanted to talk to her.

She folded her arms as she glared at Leila, who was lazily lying on the bed.

Leila was already half awake. She'd heard Melissa but just ignored her.

She knew this wasn't the time to talk to Melissa, so she acted as if she'd just woken up. She rubbed her eyes and acted confused, then asked, "Aunt Melissa, what are you doing here?"

"Are you awake now?" Melissa groaned.

Her dissatisfaction was obvious in her voice.

Leila quickly got up and tugged at Melissa's arm. She shyly said, "Aunt Melissa, you know I've been busy with work recently. I need to take advantage of the times when I can rest so I can sleep. Did I say anything wrong?"

Melissa decided to let it go. It was true that Leila was very busy with work, and she was apologetic about it, so she just let it slide.

"Not really. I was just coming to wake you up, but if you're still tired, you can sleep more," Melissa answered. While her face was emotionless, her tone had become softer.

"I don't feel like sleeping anymore. Why don't we go on a walk, Aunt Melissa?" Leila was actually annoyed by Melissa, but, of course, she didn't show any of this on her face. She needed to make sure her plan was going to pull through.

"Alright. Since you can't fall back asleep, maybe we should just take a walk." Melissa beamed at Leila. Then she left the room to give Leila time to prepare and waited for her outside.

Leila's face turned grim the moment Melissa left. Her eyes were gleaming with shadiness, but she shifted to her tender expression when she followed Melissa outside.

When Melissa and Leila were already prepared, Nancy had just finished preparing their breakfast. She was just about to tell them that their breakfast

nodded.

This confused Isla. 'Is she saying yes or no?' she wondered.

"Sheryl, say something." Isla was getting impatient and anxious. "What's going on?"

"It seems as if Leila's doing a good job running the company. Just recently, the company won the bid for a project worth more than a billion. Just a few days after, the company lost a project with the same worth. Don't you think that's kind of suspicious?"

Isla fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

After a pause, Isla took a deep breath and commented, "You're right. It's suspicious. It's way too coincidental."

"Plus, Sean was the one who noticed this. His company's been working with the Shining Company for so long. So the fact that he's suspicious too tells me something's up." Sheryl was so worried. If Charles isn't coming back, Leila's just going to take over the company for good.

"Damn it! Leila's such a bitch! She's such a terrible woman! What does she have to do with Charles anyway? Why is she the one taking over?" The more Isla thought of Leila, the more infuriated she became. She was so angry that it took all she had to not walk out of the office right now and confront Leila herself.

"Wait!" Sheryl was the most affected one out of anyone else, but she wasn't as angry as Isla was.