The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 530 Nightmare

Noticing how anxious she was, Holley tried to reassure her. "Just take a rest in the hotel," she said. "Don't worry too much about work, and take a good rest," she further added. Sheryl stood still as Holley patted her shoulder gently and bid,"Farewell, I'll visit you another day."

After finishing these words, the girl calmly turned her back and walked away with George. Stunned, Sheryl fixed her gaze on the woman's back as her shadow slowly faded.

Although she treated Sheryl in an ardent manner, it seemed as if she approached her with other intentions in mind.

'I've never met her before. What does she want to get from me? What's her motive?' she wondered with a frown.

"Autumn? Is that you? It's me, Eric," a man's confused voice reached her ears. Turning around to see if somebody else was there beside her, she found a man who was staring heavily at her.

Upon meeting her gaze, the man was dumbfounded by what he saw. "Perhaps, are you talking to me?" she asked. Stunned in confusion, she tried to examine the man from his head down to the shoes he was wearing. He wasn't familiar at all.

"It's you. It's really you!" Eric exclaimed, ignoring her question. "Where have you been all these years?" he started. "Do you know that Charles have looked everywhere for you, to the point that he almost lost his mind?" the man asked in one breath. Eric was standing behind her all this time from the moment he stole a glance at this woman who was emitting some familiar and elegant aura. As she stood there, Eric was captivated by her.

Soon enough, he realized that not only was she familiar but he knew her very well. The woman's name was Autumn. She was the same Autumn he knew very well, but he didn't dare to speak to her in doubt.

A person who had gone missing for three years showed up out of nowhere in his hotel. He couldn't believe that such coincidence would happen.

After hesitating, Eric finally took his courage to step closer and raised that question to the woman. When he saw her face, he knew right then that his assumption was correct.

The woman whom Charles had been looking for a long time was now right standing in front of him.

"Excuse me, but I think you got the wrong person," Sheryl replied, perplexed. "My name is not Autumn," she further added, hoping that the man would leave her be. Staring at Eric warily, she ended, "I don't know you. So please excuse me."

"It's not funny at all, Autumn. We might not have met frequently, but you could at least remember my face," the man explained. Noticing how baffled the expression of the woman's face was, he knew right then that something must've happened to her.

"I truly apologize, but I really don't know a guy called Eric. I just came back from abroad. You really got the wrong person, sir," Sheryl responded while staring at him with her furrowed brows. "I'm not the one you're looking for," she said as she tried to squeeze a courteous smile.

"I'm sorry. You look just like someone I know," Eric said courteously. Aplogizing, Eric added while scratching his head, "You two look exactly alike." Focusing his gaze on Sheryl, he made sure that his cover wasn't blown. He pretended not to know her so he could ease the tension between them.

Eric didn't see any suspicious signs on her face.

"If there isn't anything else I can help you with, I should better take my leave now. Enjoy the rest of time, sir," Sheryl said, feeling uncomfortable under a stranger's gaze. Sheryl was anxious all the while. Knowing she once lived in Y City, she assumed that the man must've known her or the father of her daughter.

No matter how curious she was of her past, she resisted her impulse. Fearing that she must've had a lot of bad memories in the city, she chose to run away from the possible truth.

"Please wait a minute," Eric exclaimed as she was about to leave. "Perhaps, did you book a room in this hotel?" he asked.

"Yes, I did," Shery nodded. In fear of what the man would further ask, she turned around and walked away.

Staring at Sheryl quickening her pace away from him, he felt overjoyed.

Charles could now finally reunite with his wife, he thought to himself. All he could think of doing right then was to inform his friend.

Eric couldn't stop himself from the excitement he was feeling. He quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket. As he was about to hit the call button, he thought about Charles' indifferent attitude towards him and slowly placed his phone back to his pocket.

'I'll tell you this good news a bit later. It's just a small punishment for your attitude towards me,' he thought, with a wicked smile on his face.

Since he owned the hotel, he was able to get a hold of Sheryl's information. He found out about her present name and learned that she was currently working as a model.

'Once Charles knows about this, he will definitely jump off his feet,' he giggled inside.

'But..' Eric knitted his brows when he recalled Sheryl's flustered look.

'It seems like she doesn't have any hint of her past. If she really did lose her memory, then this explains why she never came back after the accident in the past,' he thought to himself, trying to understand why Sheryl was acting indifferent towards him.

Preoccupied, Sheryl returned to her room. Her uneasiness grew after she met Eric. Initally. She just wanted to finish the fashion show successfully. But ever since coming to Y Ciy, she felt that things didn't go as expected. She felt that something was definitely going to happen, something that would disturb her present life.

While trying hard to recall what happened to her before she lost her memory, she fell asleep instead. She woke up screaming from her nightmare, with sweat dripping down her forehead.

Suddenly, the lights went on. Startled, Sue rubbed her hazy eyes and still managed to ask, "What happened, Sher? Had a nightmare?" "Are you feeling fine now?" she continued.

"I'm fine now. Sorry for waking you up," Sheryl replied while wiping the sweat off her forehead. 'I have to keep this to myself and bear it alone. I should not make others worry about me,' she thought to herself despite the uneasiness she was feeling.

'If I told Sue about this, she would definitely relay this to Anthony. I can't allow that,' she reminded herself.

Sheryl didn't get any sleep after her nightmare. George already informed the team who was in charge of the fashion show that Sheryl didn't need to rehearse for the following days. This way, she could take a rest. Since she had nothing to do in her hotel room, she decided to go out and have a look around.

Knowing that Sheryl was a guest in his hotel, Eric came over frequently. He even gave special instructions to his hotel staff to take good care of her.

Learning about Sheryl's plan of going out, Eric immediately asked to prepare a car for her and waited outside. As she stepped out of the hotel, she saw him standing beside the car.

Seeing her baffled expression, he explained that the car was one of the hotel's free services. Upon hearing his words, she didn't dub his intention and hopped on the car.

"Miss Xia, if there's a place you wish to go to, please feel free to tell the driver and he'll bring you there," Eric said to her attentively, as he stooped and looked at her. With the days passing by, Eric remained silent about Sheryl's presence and hadn't told Charles about such good news. To lessen Charles' possible anger towards him, he decided to treat Autumn well. This way, his friend would stop being mad at him

sooner.

While looking around the city, Sheryl felt unfamiliar to almost every sight. Despite knowing that she lived in this city for a long time, she felt like it never happened at all. One of her intentions in coming to Y City was to see if she could remember anything while being around the area.

As the car drove pass a kindergarten, she asked the driver to pull over. As a mother, she became interested in such places.

With Shirley growing up, she was now considering looking for a good school to send her to.

Although schools in the United States provided a better study environment for children, she thought it would be better to let Shirley study in Y City as she didn't want her daughter to be a stranger to her country and hometown.

As she came to the kindergarten, she wanted to go inside and have a look. But she wasn't allowed to enter the school.

"Hello," a boy's low voice sounded, but Sheryl didn't hear it. Sheryl tiptoed in front of the school, and peeped through the gate's holes. She saw well-decorated buildings and newly-built drill ground. She saw a plate above the gate that drew her attention. She thought to herself, 'This is a bilingual preschool. Hmm, this place looks neat and conducive for Shirley's learning.' She then nodded approvingly. She finally found a good school for her daughter.