The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 771 The Kids Were Lost

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 replace 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, in which she remembered so clearly that there was a birthmark on the boy's wrist which was exactly the same as the one on Charlie's wrist.

"Though I've lost all my memories during that period, I've always been worrying for the other kid. I also don't know why I had such a weird dream. It was as if..." Sheryl paused and swallowed before she continued, "As if the kid that came to my dream was Charlie, but... but how is that even possible?"

Set age aside first, Charlie was Leila's son. Also how could it be possible that Leila and Ferry become allied!

With a wry smile, Sheryl continued, "I've been bothered by this thought for several days, so I just wanted to ask." Charles became silent as he heard Sheryl's words. He fell into a deep thought.

He started back calculating each and every event that took place since the time Leila appeared with Charlie. There was no doubt about the fact that Charlie was his son. But the vibes Charlie shared with Leila always made him unsure about the mother-son relationship. Leila being Charlie's mother was it worth a second thought?

"Even I have no idea why I have such funny thoughts. Just take it as a pinch of salt," Sheryl added with embarrassment.

"No, your thoughts are not funny at all. You were pregnant with twins. Who knows Charlie could be our son," Charles continued as he held Sheryl's hands. "I've always been looking for the kid. Maybe that's exactly why I can't replace him. I have never thought of the possibility that he is just under our noses. Right?"

Charles sprang up from the bench and pulled up Sheryl. His voice was filled with excitement as he said, "Come on, let's go. Let's take Charlie to the hospital to test whether he is our child or not." "Now?" Startled, Sheryl asked, "What do you mean? Why do you want to do this?"

Charles gave no answer to her questions, just dragged her to look for the kids.

But as they looked for the kids, they could not replace them. Both of them got panicked and combed each and every corner of the nearby park and the area around the park as well, but couldn't see a trace of the kids.

"Char... Charles, where are the kids?" Sheryl trembled in fear. All this while she had her eyes on the kids. Her eyes didn't leave the kids for even one second. How could the kids disappear within just a blink? Sheryl could barely support herself and Charles couldn't gather his thoughts either. Charles patted her on her shoulder and said, "Don't worry. We will replace them." He took out his hand phone to call Charlie. He purposely bought Charlie a phone so that he could get in touch with Charlie in case anything happened. As soon as the call was picked up, Charles heard "Daddy" from the other side. He heaved a sigh of relie and gave a reassuring glance towards Sheryl.

And the next moment as he began to speak, the phone was suddenly taken away from Charlie and he heard a hysterical scream from Leila, "Who are you calling?"

After this the call was ended, Charles tried to call again, only to replace that the phone was switched off.

A frown appeared on his face.

"What happened?" Sheryl asked anxiously, "Where are the kids? Where is Shirley? My little girl has been through a lot. If anything happens to her, how will I survive the guilt!"

Sheryl was getting crazy at this point of time. She started to cry profusely. Even though Charles himself was also extremely anxious, he still hugged Sheryl and consoled her gently, "Don't worry. Everything is going to be alright. I'm certain it's going to be alright."

As he consoled Sheryl, he kept telling himself, "I will definitely replace the kids. I will replace them very soon."

But that didn't help with their panic. Charles called someone to look for Leila. Sheryl was so anxious that she lost her mind. She held Charles' hands and asked, "Charles, what does Leila want? Why did she kidnap my Shirley? Call her and tell her that I will give her whatever she wants. I just want my Shirley safely back."

Sheryl kept weeping uncontrollably to the point that she almost fainted. Trying to give her some solace, Charles promised firmly, "Don't worry, Sher. I won't let anything happen to 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.