The Substitute Bride

A flustered Leila responded,"Impossible! I will never agree to it." The woman had been planning this for so long. She had always intended to use the child to get Charles to marry her. Leila became frantic after hearing the proposal to take Charlie away from her. She needed the boy to succeed in her plan.

"Mr. Lu, he means everything to me. I will never part with my son," Leila declared. Her eyes and voice were steady as she spoke.

The only way Charles would get his son was to accept her as well.

"Is that so?" Charles asked, looking at Leila with bored eyes. "It is not my wish to separate the two of you. If you want to stay with the child, I am okay with it. I will give you money every month for your needs. But that's all I can do," he explained.

She stared at him in disbelief. "How can you be so mean to us, Charles?" she cried out. Leila was confident that everything would go as planned. But hearing Charles' proposal made her realize how na?ve she was, and how ridiculous her plan had been.

'The only woman Charles would ever treat with respect is Autumn, ' she conceded.

"I should have learned my lesson from the past. So I wouldn't have gone through all this scheming. But, there is no turning back now. I still have to try," Leila mumbled to herself.

She took a deep breath before speaking again. "I gave birth to your son four years ago. You can never imagine what I suffered during this whole time. I never dared approach you because there was Autumn. But she's been gone for three years already. Will you continue to hold on to her memory and stay single the rest of your life?" Leila argued. Glancing at Charles, she continued,"You came to me first. If only for your son, you should consider marrying me so he can grow up with a happy family. Have you ever thought of that?"

The man's eyes turned cold. "Whether I decide to get married or not is my business, and it has nothing to do with you!" he snapped. This time he sneered,"Since you bore the child, I will not turn back on my responsibilities for him. I will take care of his living and other expenses. But, it is not my duty to care for you. If you allow him to live with me, I promise to give him the most comfortable life

. It astonished him that even the little boy could sense that his father could never love his mother. But Leila refused to accept that.

"So, if you don't like her, why did you date her? And why did you have me?" Charlie fixed his eyes on the man that was his father, while peppering him with questions. He may only be four, but his wisdom was far beyond his age. But as intelligent as he was, there was one thing that he couldn't understand. The boy could not help but wonder what was going on between Charles and Leila.

To his mind, lovers were supposed to be together. So, he couldn't comprehend why two persons who didn't even like each other would have a baby. He bowed his head and played with his fingers like confused children usually do.

Finally, Charles spoke and using a fatherly tone, said,"Come here." He gestured for Charlie to come closer. After a brief hesitation, Charlie flung the quilt that covered his legs, and crawled towards his father. Charles took the boy in his arms and began to explain,"It was a mistake."

Unsure whether the boy could comprehend what he was saying, he thought carefully before continuing,"Like kids, adults also make mistakes. It's not a shame to do something wrong. And for as long as you can make things right and take responsibility for your actions, everyone deserves to be forgiven. Do you understand what I'm saying?" He looked at his son in the eye.

Charlie was watching his father intently and nodded in agreement.