The Substitute Bride

Holley smiled wryly and thought, 'It seems that Sue truly loves Anthony. Maybe, I could use her sometime to do something.'

In Zhao family house

The house was empty for years, but the housemaid kept cleaning it regularly. It was in such a clean condition that the Zhao family could move into the house, at any point of time.

Shirley felt a little tired after playing with Rick as she was just recovering from the severe illness. So Abby carried her to the room for a nap. Cindy and Rick kept silent for fear of waking her up.

"Mom, will Autumn take Shirley away later?" Cindy asked Abby as she silently walked out of the room and closed the door gently. Abby smiled and softly replied,"Don't worry. Autumn will come here and check on Shirley."

As soon as Abby took Cindy downstairs, Andy came back.

"How come you are back so early today?" Abby enquired in surprise. Zhao family didn't live in Y City. However, Andy still had business here. For the last couple of days he had been so busy in his work that he came back very late every day. That was why Abby was surprised to see him back early.

Andy had intentionally come back earlier today. He hadn't been able to spend time with his wife and children for many days. He put an arm around Abby and said,"I finished my work earlier than expected. So I decided to come back home to spend time with you. Why don't we freshen up and go out for dinner?"

Saying this, Andy turned round and quickly moved to go upstairs. Abby hastily grabbed his arm and said,"Don't go upstairs. Shirley is sleeping now."

"Shirley?" Andy paused in puzzlement. He could not remember who Shirley was.

"Yes, Shirley. She is Autumn's daughter and is sleeping in our room. She will get disturbed if you go in there." Abby explained Shirley's identity to Andy in a soft voice.

She continued,"Shirley has just fallen asleep. I don't want her to wake up because of any noise."

"But why is she here?" Andy as

Angrily she questioned him,"What has happened to you? You have been so weird recently."

"I…" Andy struggled to give a satisfactory reply. His secret fear couldn't be told to Abby. So he had to bury it in his mind and heart and never reveal it to Abby.

"I am too stressed from doing too many things in the company. I am somewhat tired these days. Please bear with me." Andy tightly squeezed her arm.

"Are you really…" Just as Abby wanted to ask Andy more about this, the doorbell rang. Resigned, she glared at Andy and finally got up saying,"I will get to the bottom of this later on."

"Is it Autumn?" Amy walked out from the kitchen and asked excitedly.

"Let me open the door and find out, Mom," Abby replied. Abby opened the door and found Sheryl standing on her doorstep with many gifts in her arms.

On seeing Abby, Sheryl paused for a moment. Then she remembered that they had met each other once before in front of a breakfast stall. Feeling shy, Sheryl said to Abby,"Excuse me, is Amy at home?"

"Yes, yes, she is home. Please come in," Abby enthusiastically replied. She moved aside to let Sheryl enter.

Sheryl came in and looked around for Shirley. Amy walked up to her and smilingly complained on seeing the many gifts," There is really no need to bring so many gifts!"