The Apple of My Eye

The rest of the day remained busy and hectic for all the employees in the Cloud Advertising Company. Had it not been for Aron's insistence, Sheryl wouldn't have let Isla leave early.

"No, Sheryl. I can't just leave you here. I don't care what Aron wants to do with me, I will stay with you!" Isla said determinedly to Sheryl.

Sheryl was reading an agreement. It was the last round of checks. She looked up from the document and was amused to mark the determination on Isla's face. Sheryl shook her head and convinced Isla, saying, "You've already finished your work here, Isla. We're not even having dinner with any of the clients. You should be going back to your husband now. If you stay here, he may get angry at me. He may blame me for keeping you occupied."

Sheryl tried to reason it out with Isla so that she could leave the office for the day.

"Sheryl, you're teasing me now!" Isla pouted to show her annoyance.

"How dare I?" Sheryl giggled. "But if you still stay with me, I'm going to tease you for real!" Sheryl winked at Isla.

"Alright, Ms. Zhao, you should go down now. Aron has been waiting for you for quite some time. If you don't go, he may be coming up soon. Then everyone will witness the public display of affection between you two!" Phoebe chimed in.

Sheryl nodded to show her support to Phoebe.

"Look who's talking about public displays of affection? Aren't you doing the same with Josef?" Isla rolled her eyes at Phoebe, but then, gradually, her face turned red.

Sheryl and Phoebe exchanged glances with each other and laughed out loud unanimously.

Isla decided to finally rest her case and leave before being subjected to further leg-pulling by Phoebe and Sheryl.

Aron had a very tight schedule at work in the past few days. When he finished everything today, he rushed to pick Isla up from the Cloud Advertising Company, hoping to spend some quality time together with her. However, unfortunately, it had been a very busy day for Isla.

"Why are you here?" Isla blurted first as she met Aron. She feigned annoyance only to break into a smile moments later, betraying her outward facade.

"I'm missing you, Honey. But you don't look well. Is there anything wrong?" Aron sensed a trace of anger in Isla's demeanor. 'Who triggered her?' he wondered. "Nothing important. Let's go back home now!"

"Sweetie, my mom is there to take care of our child today. We don't need to rush back home. Let's have dinner at one of your favorite restaurants. How about Japanese cuisine?" Aron grinned at Isla indulgently.

The warm grin on Aron's face expelled all Isla's uneasiness. She had felt guilty to leave the office because she thought that she should be helping Sheryl right now, instead of spending some personal time with Aron. However, on second thoughts, she felt it was appropriate to leave Sheryl alone for a while. 'Sheryl must be feeling depressed. Maybe she will get better if she immerses herself in some work,' she thought.

Shortly after Isla left, Sheryl asked all the other employees to leave for the day. It had been a very long day for all of them. The work was more or less nearing its completion. All that was left was the final wrapping up, which could also be completed on the following day.

"Ms. Xia, let me finish my work!" Phoebe said to Sheryl.

"There's no need," Sheryl said, shaking her head. "Just go home now. Even I will leave in a short while. Let's carry on with the work tomorrow morning. It has already been a long day. Just go home and get some rest."

On Sheryl's repeated insistence, Phoebe packed her stuff and left.

"All right then. Ms. Xia, I'll leave now."

Sheryl nodded while still submerged in the files. After Phoebe had left, Sheryl fell into deep thought. 'When I'm occupied with work, I can indeed forget everything else.

I even forgot to eat lunch today. It was Phoebe who reminded me. I didn't think about Charles even once in the entire day, ' Sheryl pondered.

Sheryl heaved a sigh and focused on the file that she was reviewing to give it a final check. Then she packed her stuff and got ready to go home.

The moment Sheryl stepped onto the ground floor, someone rushed to her.

Sheryl was extremely tired after such a long day. She was so taken aback when she was approached by this unexpected visitor that she almost lost her balance and was about to fall.

"Sher, are you alright?" Melissa held Sheryl's arm, preventing her from falling as she asked in a concerned voice.

Sheryl looked at Melissa and heaved a sigh of relief, thinking, 'Thank God. It's not a criminal.' Then, of course, it stirred Sheryl's curiosity as to the reason for Melissa's coming here. Melissa seemed like she was going to say something, but eventually, she didn't say anything.

"I...I'm alright. Thank you." Sheryl forced a smile.

Melissa could understand why Sheryl felt so embarrassed. She thought of what she had done to her, and now, she became embarrassed as well.

"Sher, do you have some time to spare now? Can we have some coffee together?" Melissa asked and stared at Sheryl's face, anticipating a positive reply from her.

Sheryl wanted to reject, but she found herself to be at a loss for words or a good reason to refuse Melissa.

Melissa seemed to be elated, and she took Sheryl's silence as agreement.

Then the two of them walked to a nearby cafe.

After they were seated, there was a moment of awkward silence between them. Evidently, both felt embarrassed in each other's presence.

Melissa had so many things on her mind that she wanted to tell Sheryl. She had been rehearsing them all this while in her mind. Yet, now, when she sat face to face with Sheryl, she was dumbfounded. Sheryl was expecting Melissa to say something since it was Melissa who invited her to the cafe. As Melissa kept silent, Sheryl had no choice but to start first, "Is there anything you want to tell me?" "Sher, it's been such a long while. I..." Melissa replied trying to begin the conversation.

Sheryl was startled to find a completely different Melissa sitting in front of her. Indeed, Melissa had changed drastically.

Earlier, when she had still been in Dream Garden, Melissa had bullied her, had mistreated her, and had been so indifferent to her.

When the miserable memories came back to her mind, anger started to rise in Sheryl's heart. However, since Melissa was her mother-in-law, there was nothing much she could do.

But now Melissa seemed to be so repentant about her misconduct that she became speechless.

"What do you want to say? Please tell me. It's already very late now. I have to go back to take care of my kids," Sheryl urged Melissa, wanting her to stop wasting more time.

Snapping back to reality, Melissa smiled and sighed. "Nothing that important. I just felt that I haven't seen you for a long time, so I wanted to come and visit you."

"I'm okay. I have my friends to take care of me. How about you? Are you feeling better?" Sheryl remembered that Melissa had been unwell. 'She looks much better now. I guess she has recovered from her illness,' she pondered.

"I'm fine. I feel good. Charles has taken good care of me." Melissa couldn't help smiling. 'Sheryl seems as if she still cares for me. I'm so moved,' she thought.

"I'm glad to hear that," Sheryl replied politely.

"Sher, are you very busy with your work? Remember to take care of yourself. You must not fall ill!" Melissa said with her eyes filled with concern for Sheryl.

Sheryl could see the sincerity in Melissa's eyes. 'She indeed cares for me,' Sheryl realized in surprise.

What a drastic contrast to how Melissa had been with her before! It left Sheryl bewildered to find the same person, who had always picked on her, to show such a motherly concern towards her. In fact, Melissa's caring words made Sheryl feel a little uneasy.

Melissa could gauge Sheryl's state of mind. Heaving a sigh, she apologized sincerely, "I'm so sorry, Sheryl. I have been a terrible person in the past. Can you please forgive me?"

Although she did not have any hope of Sheryl forgiving her, Melissa still made her apology.