The Substitute Bride

"Really?"

"Clark, don't worry. Father will come here to pick us up soon. We just need to wait for him." Shirley looked at Clark with a big smile.

As she saw the two chatting by themselves, Sheryl stood awkwardly beside them. Her presence was long forgotten, which made her feel useless and unneeded.

Shirley and Clark had spent the whole day playing together. Although they're safe now, Sheryl still felt worried.

The next day

All the bodyguards, who protected her and her children, would leave. Before they left, the bodyguards approached Sheryl respectfully and said, "Mrs. Xia, the issue has been resolved. You're all safe now. We will escort you back home." They had already done their job remarkably well.

"All right. Thank you!" Sheryl sincerely thanked them and nodded her head politely.

At that time, her children woke up. Sheryl and her children packed up everything for the journey home.

On their way home, the two children chatted happily and didn't notice that they had arrived at their villa already. The whole ride only took them less than half an hour.

The bodyguards helped them unload their belongings and led them inside the villa before promptly leaving.

As soon as they had unpacked, the two children went out to play with their friends. Sheryl advised them not to stray too far from home and to return early.

All of a sudden, the doorbell rang.

After she heard the doorbell, Sheryl was baffled. She wasn't expecting anyone and didn't know who it might be.

Without trying to guess, she directly opened the door.

Before her stood a smiling Damian.

"Why are you here?" Sheryl smiled at Damian and let him come into the house.

Damian scrutinized and looked at Sheryl up and down with a grin. This made Sheryl both self-conscious and embarrassed at the same time.

"What's up? Why are you looking at me like that?" As she felt and touched her face, she wondered if there were some dirty smudges on her face. And perhaps that was the reason why Damian was staring at her.

"Where did you go without saying goodbye to me?" Damian didn't worry about Sheryl any further because she was already in front of him, safe and sound. His perturbed heart finally calmed down. However, he felt aggrieved. He was indignant that she didn't even bother telling him she'd be leaving or where she was going.

She took notice of his feelings showing on his face and felt embarrassed. Forcing a smile, she scratched her head and explained, "I had to leave urgently to deal with some problems that cropped up. I left in a hurry and didn't have time to say goodbye to you. I'm sorry."

"Did you know how much I

stairs with his sister.

After the trio left, Charles moved forward to hug Sheryl because he just yearned to see her very much. Yet, all he embraced was empty air as Sheryl dodged to the side.

"What do you want to do?"

"Sher, I missed you so much."

Unlike his usual expression, Charles affectionately looked at her. She knew all of it wasn't fake. His feelings for her were all true. His eyes only had her in them. But, she still pretended to be calm as she announced, "We have divorced." Sheryl couldn't help feeling sad as long as she thought of their divorce.

"Didn't you have any doubts about it when it happened? These days, the rate of partners divorcing is so high. But, that day, there were only the two of us." Charles' eyes connected with hers as he mischievously smiled at her.

Sheryl thought about the whole thing for a while. She scrutinized his demeanor as she tried to confirm her conjecture before she finally believed that they truly didn't get divorced.

"You arranged for it?"

"I will never be willing to divorce you!" said Charles in a spoiled manner.

Given his gentleness, Sheryl was not used to dealing with it at all. They had been apart from each other for too long.

In fact, Sheryl speculated as much. Still, she couldn't forgive him so easily. If he arranged it that way before, why did he have to get close to another woman? He was so kind to Leila before. Did that mean he only pretended to be close to her?

But still, every time she remembered the fact that Charles had hugged Leila, she would feel anguished.

"All right, come and have a dinner." Sheryl didn't know what to say anymore. She set it aside, not knowing what to do. For now, she called the children to come downstairs and have dinner together.