The Substitute Bride

Sheryl kept probing about Charlie. She thought she could get some clue to resolve her dream that had been giving her sleepless nights for last three years. "Yes, Leila told me that he is four years old. It seems like his fourth birthday just passed. What happened? Why do you ask about this all of a sudden?" asked Charles.

"Nothing," Sheryl replied as she looked down quietly and kicked the stones beneath. "It was just a random question."

"Charlie." Charles stopped and ordered Charlie, "Take Shirley to play around. I need to have a chat with Sher for a short while."

Charlie nodded and walked away holding Shirley's hands. There was an amusement park nearby equipped with just the basic facilities, but still it attracted a number of kids. Charlie was not interested in them, so he took up the responsibility of taking care of Shirley.

After the kids had walked up to a distance where they could not hear them, Charles sat down on the bench, took Sheryl's hands in his and asked, "Sher, what is it that you want to say? I've been noticing you for the last few days. You've been quite weird recently. Is there anything that you want to tell but you are not being able to tell me?"

"No, I..." Sheryl stammered. Sheryl frowned and looked downwards. She could not understand how to say something that was so bizarre and unbelievable. She had no idea that what she was considering to be unbelievable was actually the truth that could put her world back together. It was the one missing chord that could complete her family.

She heaved a deep sigh and there was restlessness all over her face. She could not find the right words to speak them out to Charles. Charles could feel her dilemma and said, "Sher, we haven't met each other for these three years, but I've always felt your presence around myself. Everybody said that you were dead, but only I had a very strong intuition about you being alive. And see, today, you are right here with me. I don't wish to see any gap between us now. I don't like to see you hesitating to speak out about anything with me. Feel free to talk to me. Please."

Seeing Charles turning anxious, Sheryl forced a smile and replied, "It's not that I don't want to share with you. I just feel that it's too strange. Maybe it's just a figment of my imagination."

"What exactly is that?" Charles was getting increasingly impatient.

Sheryl looked into his eyes and realized that now she had to tell everything to him. Then she started to talk about her dream

Shirley. I won't let any of you to get hurt even a tiny bit!"

Taking Sheryl into the car, Charles planned to ask for help from the police to see if there was any clue from the CCTV. On his way, his phone rang. Andy was on the other side.

After his confession to the Zhao family, Andy felt much more relieved. It was as if a heavy weight had gone off his chest. After much consideration, he decided to tell Charles about what had happened with Charlie. That was the reason why he had called.

Such a vital piece of information reached Charles at a point when both Charlie and Shirley were in Leila's grasp all over again. Hardly able to sustain his patience, Charles burst into anger as soon as Andy finished speaking. "Andy, what's the use of telling me now! Just if you told me earlier!"

If Andy told him earlier, he would have been more cautious with Leila. Then she would not have gotten a chance to take the kids away.

Charles did not want to disclose it all to Sheryl at this point of time. Hence, he brought down his volume and almost whispered into the phone, "I'm not going to talk about this right now. Andy, I will look for you."

Then he ended the call. Andy didn't expect the reaction from Charles as he thought that Charles would be very happy to hear that. He felt that something was not right.

Abby had been with Andy all the time. As soon as the call ended, she hurried to ask, "How was it? What did he say? Did he blame you?"

Andy didn't reply. After pondering for a while, Andy made several calls with people from his past associations. Charles did call them, and it seemed that the kids went missing.

Andy froze into a stone.