The Substitute Bride

"Come here, Yvonne." Wendy waved at Yvonne to come closer. She said to her daughter, "I want to ask you. Am I a good mother to you?"

"Mother, what are you talking about? Of course you're a wonderful mother." Yvonne felt goose bumps all over her. She wasn't used to Wendy talking this way and it was a bit scary. Something was wrong but she couldn't tell which. All she could do was walk towards her mother.

Simon was good to her before, but everything had changed since Aron reappeared in their lives.

"Let me tell you, your father now has Aron back in his life. He does not want us any more, " she said gloomily. "Not only that. He is going to give everything, the house, the car and the company... all to Aron."

"How could that happen?" Yvonne frowned and she said to Wendy, "Who does he think he is? All these things were supposed to be mine. I'll never let him have them. Over my dead body."

"That's it. That's my good girl." The conning mother pat the back of her daughter's hand and said, "Yes, mom will take all these things back for you."

"Mom... What did you mean?" Yvonne looked at Wendy nervously. Wendy whispered something to her ear. Yvonne freaked out, almost jumping away. "Mom, are you crazy? How would you do this?"

"Don't blame on me for his unkindness. That's not my fault. Don't you want the family fortune for yourself?" Wendy sneared, "If you want it... this would be the only way. You just need to be tough and make the decision."

Yvonne fell silent and thought about it long and hard. Finally she nodded, "Okay, let's do this."

The next morning, Wendy called Simon to come home for dinner, saying there was something important to discuss with him. She said it sincerely and convincingly on the phone, that Simon finally agreed to it, for the sake of their marriage all these years.

Wendy swore to him, "I will agree to the divorce after dinner. No excuses, no conditions.''

wenty years of being together was extremely difficult for her to just throw away into the gutter. But unfortunately, Simon had made up his mind. "I thought we had made a deal."

He pushed the agreement towards Wendy. "Let's not waste each others' time. Please just sign it now."

"Don't worry. I'll sign it a bit later." Wendy sneered, as she said, "You hold my handle in your hand... How dare I not sign it?"

The man who was all but fed up looked at her coldly. "I hope you understand. It would not have come to this if it was not necessary."

"Actually, I called you today to have a nice dinner with you. We have been so busy that I can't remember the last time we had the chance to sit and chat like this... And what's more, I just want to ask you how you knew about that." Wendy thought that she had kept many secrets and concealed a lot, but now, after twenty years, she realized that she was really naive, expecting them to remain secrets forever.

"There is a saying, 'If you don't want people to know what you do, don't do it.' How did I get to know things that happened for so many years? Does it really matter?" Simon scoffed.

"Yes, it does." Wendy looked down at the spareribs soup and gently said, "If you want me to sign it, my only condition is this..."