The Substitute Bride

"What's wrong? Why are you apologizing to me?" Actually, Autumn knew why Chris was saying sorry, but this had nothing to do with Chris. There was no reason for her to apologize.

"I've heard all about Aunt Jane. I'm really sorry to have gotten you involved." Chris couldn't express her guilt enough. She had no idea it was going to be like this, and she didn't know what to do.

"Please don't feel guilty. You had nothing to do with it." Autumn smiled. "I just hope that it won't affect your relationship with Sam..."

"Autumn..." Chris was moved beyond words, her eyes gleaming with gratitude.

The next morning, after breakfast, Autumn went to work. All morning, the projects of the company kept her busy. Before lunch time, Sam called her. When she saw the caller ID, she hesitated and let it ring for a long time, but finally she picked up the phone. "Sam, is there something important that you had to call?" she asked directly to the point.

"Thank god you answered the phone." Sam was relieved to hear her voice. He was really afraid that Autumn was avoiding him.

"How could that be?" Autumn answered quietly.

"I'm downstairs in front of your office now. It's almost lunch time. Let's go to lunch together, " Sam suggested. Hearing this, Autumn looked perplexed.

"I don't think..." Autumn paused for a second, "that's a good idea." In this sensitive time, she did not want to have any contact with Sam at all, for fear of being misunderstood after being seen by others. She wanted to keep her distance from him as much as possible to avoid unnecessary trouble. And she actually wanted to end this phone call with him as soon as possible.

"Why? Tell me, " Sam persisted. Sam knew Autumn was still upset because of Jane's unreasonable behavior towards her. But that was why he was inviting her to lunch. He wanted to personally apologize to her.

"Whatever, I will wait for you at the restaurant two blocks form your office. Come over whenever you are ready. Or do you want me to come get you?" Sam declared in a decisive tone.

"Sam... " Autumn felt that she

g on me all over the place. Now she doesn't even answer my calls anymore. Before that she threatened to break up with me."

Sam looked at Autumn helplessly. "So, I can only ask you for help."

Autumn knitted her brows, pondering for a long while. She finally said, "I can help you, Sam, but... there's one condition that you must agree to."

"Just say it. I'll agree to ten conditions as long as you help me." Sam responded with excitement.

"I don't have that many conditions, " Autumn said, rolling her eyes. "You know, your mother really knows nothing about me yet she has decided that she hated me. It's been so many years since we broke up, but she still remembers it. I want you to explain our relationship to her. If you really want to marry Chris, this must be settled once and for all. As you said, there's no way that we can avoid each other. If she continues to be like that, we'll both be miserable every time we meet."

"Rest assured. Even if you didn't ask me to do it, I'll explain it to her, " Sam nodded in agreement. Somehow, he had a vague feeling that someone was feeding bad ideas to his mother, so he had to find out.

"Then wait for me to say when it is okay, " Autumn nodded slightly. "I have to get back to work now, Sam. There's still a lot of work for me to do. I'll call you when it's done."

"Okay, goodbye." Sam didn't insisted that she stayed.