The Substitute Bride

The rest of the day remained busy and hectic for all the employees in the Cloud Advertising Company. Had it not been for Aron's insistence, Sheryl wouldn't have let Isla leave early.

"No, Sheryl. I can't just leave you here. I don't care what Aron wants to do with me, I will stay with you!" Isla said determinedly to Sheryl.

Sheryl was reading an agreement. It was the last round of checks. She looked up from the document and was amused to mark the determination on Isla's face. Sheryl shook her head and convinced Isla, saying, "You've already finished your work here, Isla. We're not even having dinner with any of the clients. You should be going back to your husband now. If you stay here, he may get angry at me. He may blame me for keeping you occupied."

Sheryl tried to reason it out with Isla so that she could leave the office for the day.

"Sheryl, you're teasing me now!" Isla pouted to show her annoyance.

"How dare I?" Sheryl giggled. "But if you still stay with me, I'm going to tease you for real!" Sheryl winked at Isla.

"Alright, Ms. Zhao, you should go down now. Aron has been waiting for you for quite some time. If you don't go, he may be coming up soon. Then everyone will witness the public display of affection between you two!" Phoebe chimed in.

Sheryl nodded to show her support to Phoebe.

"Look who's talking about public displays of affection? Aren't you doing the same with Josef?" Isla rolled her eyes at Phoebe, but then, gradually, her face turned red.

Sheryl and Phoebe exchanged glances with each other and laughed out loud unanimously.

Isla decided to finally rest her case and leave before being subjected to further leg-pulling by Phoebe and Sheryl.

Aron had a very tight schedule at work in the past few days. When he finished everything today, he rushed to pick Isla up from the Cloud Advertising Company, hoping to spend some quality time together with her. However, unfortunately, it had been a very busy day for Isla.

"Why are you here?" Isla blurted first as she met Aron. She feigned annoyance only to break into a smile moments later, betraying her outward facade.

"I'm missing you, Honey. But you don't look well. Is there anything wrong?" Aron sensed a trace of anger in Isla's demeanor. 'Who triggered her?' he wondered.

"Nothing important. Let's go back home now!"

"Sweetie, my mom is there to take care of our child today. We don't need to rush back home. Let'

t she became speechless.

"What do you want to say? Please tell me. It's already very late now. I have to go back to take care of my kids," Sheryl urged Melissa, wanting her to stop wasting more time.

Snapping back to reality, Melissa smiled and sighed. "Nothing that important. I just felt that I haven't seen you for a long time, so I wanted to come and visit you."

"I'm okay. I have my friends to take care of me. How about you? Are you feeling better?" Sheryl remembered that Melissa had been unwell. 'She looks much better now. I guess she has recovered from her illness, ' she pondered.

"I'm fine. I feel good. Charles has taken good care of me." Melissa couldn't help smiling. 'Sheryl seems as if she still cares for me. I'm so moved, ' she thought.

"I'm glad to hear that," Sheryl replied politely.

"Sher, are you very busy with your work? Remember to take care of yourself. You must not fall ill!" Melissa said with her eyes filled with concern for Sheryl.

Sheryl could see the sincerity in Melissa's eyes. 'She indeed cares for me, ' Sheryl realized in surprise.

What a drastic contrast to how Melissa had been with her before! It left Sheryl bewildered to find the same person, who had always picked on her, to show such a motherly concern towards her. In fact, Melissa's caring words made Sheryl feel a little uneasy.

Melissa could gauge Sheryl's state of mind. Heaving a sigh, she apologized sincerely, "I'm so sorry, Sheryl. I have been a terrible person in the past. Can you please forgive me?"

Although she did not have any hope of Sheryl forgiving her, Melissa still made her apology.