The Substitute Bride

Sheryl was taken aback by Laura's sudden appearance and snarky remarks. Her mind suddenly went blank. She was glued to the spot. It made Charles' heart ache to see Sheryl suffer. He gathered her into his arms in the twinkling of an eye to protect her. His only focus was to shield Sheryl at that time. He accidentally brushed against Laura while moving towards Sheryl. Also as Laura had slapped Sheryl with too much force, she lost her own balance and fell down.

"Oh my God..." Laura howled in pain in an exaggerated way to draw Anthony's attention. When he saw his mother on the floor, Anthony rushed forward to help her to her feet. Though Sheryl was also slapped hard on the face, he was more concerned about Laura's health. Laura had high blood pressure and a tumble like this could threaten her life. Anthony chose to help Laura at that moment.

"Are you all right, Mom?" Anthony asked in a worried voice as he helped Laura stand on her feet.

Meanwhile, Charles held Sheryl protectively in his arms. Charles gazed at her red and swollen face and asked lovingly and tenderly, "Does it hurt very badly, Sheryl?"

"It's fine, not too bad." Sheryl shook her head slightly. She had been through a very rough day. She had too much on her plate and she was unable to think straight at the moment. Everything that happened today went against her wishes.

After she regained her balance, Laura shot a venomous look at Sheryl. Then she took Anthony's hand and complained at the top of her voice, "Son, do you really want to marry this woman? You are truly blinded by love. She has a daughter out of wedlock. Even worse than that, she flirts with other men. Now one of her lovers even dared to push me. Did you see that? Just remember, you can only marry her over my dead body."

Laura's angry words caught people's attention. A large crowd gathered around to see what was going on. Although they didn't know the actual story, they put two and two together and made five. They assumed that Sheryl was promiscuous. They pointed at her with one hand and whispered comments about her behind the other. They murmured she was a shameless temptress. Their words were so shaming that Sheryl couldn't bear them any more.

Her face turned crimson and her head was filled with the hum of people's voices. Charles put his hands over her ears to block out the sound after he noticed her stupefied expression. He said gently to her, "Ignore them."

Although she couldn't make out what Charles said, she was

be respectful to her. Earlier, no matter what she said or did, she had respectfully tolerated it. But Laura seemed to treat her worse than a doormat. She had gone too far with her words. Sheryl decided not to pay any further respect to her.

Sheryl's eyes bore into Laura and said to her determinedly, "Aunt Laura, you are Anthony's mother so I respect you and have avoided fighting or arguing with you. You can say anything you like, but that won't change who I am. You deliberately demean me because you want Anthony to break up with me. But I also have feelings. If you keep on slandering me, you'll suffer the consequences."

"Anthony, look! Listen to this bitch! Did you see that?" Laura was pleased to see Sheryl boiling with anger. Her lips curved upwards into a wicked grin. She yanked at Anthony's arm and said to him, "She reveals her true colors in a few minutes. Anthony, take a close look at her. Do you still love her? I had a problem with your relationship because I have seen through her. She thinks you are beneath her and considers you as a back-up boyfriend. Haven't you realized that?"

Laura smiled coldly and continued, "She says she doesn't remember her past. I don't think so. She is just trying to mislead everybody. It's very likely that she had a promiscuous lifestyle so she doesn't want her shameful past to be revealed. A woman with a child born out of wedlock wants to be my daughter-in-law? That's hilarious."

"Aunt Laura, don't go too far. You are dragging my daughter into all this ugliness." Sheryl gnashed her teeth. She was really pissed off. She would never forgive Laura for labelling Shirley as an illegitimate child.