The CEO's Painted Skin

John froze. The color drained out of his face. "J-Jerome? Y-you are alive?" his voice trembled in shock.

"Now, we're talking." A deep sigh can be heard from the other end of the line. "Yes. I'm still alive, given another chance by God to correct my mistakes. My identity dies along with that headless corpse you all see in the lake. I have a new identity now and a new purpose in life. Don't worry I didn't blame you and Catherine for what happened to me back then. Everything was the result of my own doing. If I didn't have bad intention towards Catherine I won't end in that lake. The bad intention always ends with a bad result. It's my bad karma in life. I want to help you find your wife, 'coz I am now in a deep undercover operation to bring down the notorious human traffickers in our country. Send me Catherine's latest picture, the exact date and the place where she went missing. I will try to ask around if my comrades happened to kidnap your wife. I can't promise you anything, there is no guarantee I can locate her, but I will try my best to find her, this is my way to make amends to her. As long she was being held captive by my colleague then I will be able to find her," Jerome explained.

John was stupefied for a moment, but he was able to find his voice. "I will pay you a big amount if you can help me find my wife Jerome!" that's all he can say.

"I'm doing it for Catherine. Thank me after I find her, if not then leave everything to God. This conversation is confidential, no one should know about my identity, you understand John?" said Jerome.

"Yes, I understand," answered John.

The line suddenly went dead.

"Hello, hello...hello...Jerome, are you still there?" John said.

But nobody answered on the other end, that means Jerome already cut their conversation. Then John's phone beep, he received a text message, when he checked the empty message, there was only an email address written on it.

John understood what the email address stands for.

He immediately opened his laptop, he typed the exact date, time, Catherine's clothing on the day she vanished and many details of her disappearance, then he attached five recent photos of Catherine and sent the message to the email address.

Jerome is alive! He still can't get over the shocked about what happened to him back then.

The help that comes from the dead is something that he can't refuse. He needs all the help he can get to find his missing wife.

He received another text message.

'...I will contact you if I find something useful or I finally located her. If no text from me that means I failed to locate her or the syndicate I belong with has not abducted your wife... meaning she could be abducted by other smaller group of human traffickers operating all over the county which is beyond my reach and capabilities...'Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.readwn.comfor visiting.

John waited for more text messages from Jerome, but no more follows.

He stared at his phone for along time.

...

Instead of wasting his time...

John opened his laptop and decided to have a chat with his family in the US, they knew about his wife's disappearance. His parents were bothered and saddened by the degree of pain that he was subjected to right now.

His entire family decided to come home this year to help carry his burden.

John was glad that his family will finally come back to the country, at least he will have his family's love and support during these turbulent times.

He read the message by his father Hector in the chatbox.

"How are you, son? Did my daughter-in-law already come home?"

John typed his reply. "No. There is nothing to begin with, Dad. Until now I'm still grappling in the dark trying to find hints and clues of my missing wife. It's very hard, there were times I felt so lost. It's very hard to live with the reality that the woman I love so much was gone missing, it's so fucking hard," he confesses.

Hector typed a long message in the chatbox...

'I understand your sorrow, son, please stay strong for baby James. Wherever Catherine is right now, she wants you to continue living, she doesn't want to see you feeling so depressed. There were some occurrence in our lives that is hard to explain and hard to understand. Unforeseen events just unfolded in our lives in an instant and there is nothing we can do about it. Some incidents can be life-changing or can be sad, some can make us happy, and some can give us extreme agony and stress. Everything happened for a reason, son, we can only understand why things happened the way they were after the debris has been cleared. It's hard to fathom the inner workings of our destiny. We are all pawn in this massive world we called life and we are absolutely clueless what will happen next in the paths we have chosen. It's either we made mistakes on our own or others will drag us with their own mistakes. It's something that we can't escape as long we live in this world, whether you like it or not, one way or another we will be affected by each other's course of action no matter what the intention will be..."