The Substitute Bride

"Don't move!" A furious Charles pulled Anthony by the collar and growled,"Autumn was pregnant with twins when she disappeared. Why is there only one child now?"

After spending a lot of time to trace what happened to the missing twin, Charles had no other option but to ask Anthony. Since he had conspired to hide Sheryl, Charles believed he knew the truth.

"I don't know," Anthony said while shrugging. 'There is no way I am telling him what happened, ' he thought to himself. But he felt like gloating when seeing how anxious Charles was. With mocking laughter, he taunted Charles,"That's what you need to find out yourself. As for myself, the only thing I have to do is make Sheryl happy."

"You…" Charles sputtered, his face turning red. He was indignant but could do nothing, short of beating Anthony up to make him talk.

Anthony raised his chin, removed Charles' hands from his collar and shook the suit coat in his hand before turning to walk out the door. David, who was standing outside the door, rushed inside and gasped at the bruise slowly forming on Charles' face. At first, he stared blankly and then asked,"What happened to you, Mr. Lu?"

"Nothing!" he mumbled. Gingerly, he touched the swollen corner of his mouth. Fortunately, he only sustained bruises, and there was no blood.

Anthony's words kept playing in his head. If Leila did anything to get Sheryl into trouble, Charles vowed to take drastic measures.

Sheryl never expected to be slapped so hard on the face by Leila when she took Shirley to eat out. Her ears were still ringing, and she felt her cheek immediately swell up due to the force of the slap.

After the shock of seeing her mother hurt, Shirly stood beside Sheryl and with sad eyes comforted her. "Do you want me to blow on your face to make the pain go away?" she asked. The little girl remembered how her mother would blow on the area when she was hurt.

"I'm fine," Sheryl assured her daughter. Despite the pain and embarrassment she felt, Sheryl was pleased with her daughter's heartwarming behavior. So, she patted the girl's face and urged her,"Go ahead and enjoy your food."

Today, Shirley was remarkably well-behaved. After finishing her food, Sheryl took the little girl back to the hotel, where they saw Isla holding Amanda's hand, waiting at the lobby.

Isla initially planned to have someone pick u

her out of her miserable life.

"Then what happened?" Sheryl asked eagerly. "Tell me, what happened next!" Charles and Autumn's story now fascinated Sheryl, and she kept urging Isla to continue with the story.

Isla paused to drink coffee and gather her thoughts. She squinted trying to remember and said,"Then Autumn became pregnant with twins. Unfortunately, the Lu family servant was blackmailed to poison her food. She became mentally unstable, and would break down even with insignificant things."

Hearing this, Sheryl sighed heavily. "The girl truly suffered much."

The truth was Sheryl felt a little heart-broken. She couldn't understand why she identified with Autumn's tragic experience. "How can she be so ill-fated?" she spoke aloud.

"You're absolutely right!" Isla said with a wry smile. "On her ninth month of pregnancy, Autumn suddenly disappeared. We had no information about how to trace her and Charles went utterly crazy searching for Autumn everywhere. He nearly turned Y City inside out. Still, he couldn't find his wife." Sheryl stared at Isla with a horrified look.

Isla continued her story about Autumn's disappearance. "When Charles found the warehouse where Autumn was held captive for a while, he broke down after seeing a pool of dried blood. There was no sign of her. That was when he fell seriously ill. Since then, he stopped smiling and hardly ever talked. All he did every day was to eat, sleep or leave the house to get drunk. For the past three years, he lived like the walking dead. But, he never gave up searching for Autumn."