Chapter 5 5

On the other hand, innocent Jeanne was feeling the warmth of a message written by the boy who had stolen her heart the day before. The first thing she noticed on her phone when she woke up was a "good morning" message from him, which made her heart skip with joy.

It was very early, only 6 in the morning, but Jeanne still had a month to go before finishing high school and being free from the constraints imposed by some absurd person for her to access the money her parents had left her. She not only needed to come of age but also to complete her studies. It was ridiculous because the normal age to graduate in the country was 18, but Jeanne had stopped studying for a whole year due to the death of her parents, so she would finish high school with a one-year delay.

In their exchange of messages that day, Jeanne deliberately omitted that she had school, not wanting to scare Cristian off. It was clear that he was older and more mature, working and everything. When she mentioned her classes, Cristian assumed she was going to college and didn't ask too many questions about what she was studying. He also refrained from messaging much while driving, as it was dangerous.

That day, the sparkle in Jeanne's eyes did not go unnoticed by anyone. Although they were not her friends, her classmates were very friendly to her. She was never alone, always integrated, quiet, and kind, so there was no reason for anyone to discriminate against her.

Many of her classmates had hinted that they liked her, but Jeanne just smiled without showing any inclination for any of them. They were all from wealthy families, and she knew that being an orphan didn't make her the most suitable daughter-in-law for these families.

It was Monday, so she would have to wait all week to tell her psychologist, who was her best and only friend, about her encounter with Cristian and how he made her extremely happy.

It had been two days since they returned from China, and Cheng received the first report about the girl. It was more difficult than he thought, as someone was trying to bury information about her. So far, he only knew her name and age, not even her last name. He would have to dig deeper if he wanted to find out who she was and give his boss happiness.

When he received the folder with the information, he was surprised. With the little they found from the security guards he had left in charge of the girl's safety and surveillance, there was something shady around her. Of course, nothing was shadier than his boss's life, so he wasn't too worried about that. What surprised him were the photos sent along with the information.

Cheng couldn't help but wonder if his boss would stop in his tracks upon seeing the pictures of the girl in her school uniform, but what happened next took him by surprise.

"Mr. Evan, the first part of the information you requested has arrived," the man said, entering his boss's office.

"Move it, man, I can't wait to know everything about my little lamb," Evan replied eagerly.

Cheng approached his boss and slid the folder of information over to him, feeling disturbed by what he had uncovered.

"So my little lamb is even sweeter than I thought, she looks beautiful in that little school uniform. Remind me to bring her with us," Evan said, licking his lips as he looked at the photographs.

Cheng shuddered at his boss's words, realizing that the life of an innocent girl was about to be destroyed. He silently hoped that Evan would forget about her in the coming days, but the way he was relishing the images told a different story.

"I want the rest of the information before we return to Colombia, and bring me a frame so I can keep my little lamb's picture close," Evan instructed before turning back to his documents.

Cheng left to carry out his orders, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Two weeks had passed since Evan had returned to China, two weeks where he missed seeing Jeanne every day. The photo of the girl that Cheng had given him was on his desk, and he often found himself lost in thought while looking at it. But a problem he thought would be resolved in a couple of days had been dragging on for two weeks now.

The loss had been significant, not just because the warehouse had burned down, but also because he had lost several girls and a lot of money that had to be spent on bribes to keep the authorities from investigating what was stored in that place.

To everyone else, it was just a warehouse full of clothes that would be shipped to countries in the Americas in large containers. Now, what worried him was that the number of bodies and survivors did not match the number of people in the warehouse. Two girls had disappeared, and he thought they might be behind this.

Everything was a mess, and it was even worse because Cheng had confessed that the information about the girl was classified. Something was protecting her, and finding any information about her or her family was practically impossible as if she didn't exist.

She was a ghost. Even at the school where she studied, she used a false name. By that point, Evan believed that Jeanne's name was Melissa, which was the name that appeared on her file indicating that she was 16 years old. All they knew about her had been provided by the school director for a large sum of money, but her parents' names or any relatives' names were not in the file.

The only thing there was an emergency number in case something serious happened to the girl, but when they called the number, it would just ring and then go to voicemail.