Chapter 144

“Unless… you’d care to help me?”
Seeing the girl’s bewildered expression, Shanley leaned closer, his voice laced with a captivating charm.
Help him? Juniper glanced at the handsome face now magnified before her, then at the pouring rain outside. She was afraid he might get into an accident if he wasn’t paying attention.
“Oh.” After a moment’s hesitation, Juniper took the tissue and began to gently wipe the raindrops from his face.
The car fell silent. His jacket sleeves were too long on her, making the task a bit awkward. As she wiped, the pad of her finger accidentally brushed against his skin —a fleeting contact of warmth and coolness. In that instant, a strange sensation shot through her, momentarily stunning her senses. Her body trembled, and she instinctively pulled her hand back, feigning composure. “There. Just focus on driving.”
“Thank you, Juniper,” Shanley said, his deep eyes crinkling as he smiled in satisfaction. “Don’t worry, I’m a very good at this.”
Juniper’s head snapped toward him, then, after a two-second stare, she whipped her face away to look out the window. She had a nagging feeling his words had a double meaning. He was talking about his driving skills, right? He’d better be.
Back at Cloudscape Community, Shanley immediately urged Juniper to go take a hot shower.
“Sir, you should go take a shower too,” Dana said, coming downstairs after helping Juniper get settled, only to find Shanley carefully cleaning the girl’s things.
“I’m fine.” Shanley wiped the backpack clean, set it aside, and then shook out her school jacket. “Dana, please prepare some ginger soup for Juniper.”
Just as he said that, a crumpled piece of white paper fell to the floor at his feet. It was balled up tightly. Shanley picked it up and gently smoothed it out. Several beautiful jewelry designs came into view, immediately capturing his attention.
The designs on the draft paper were clearly sketched casually, but they were exceptionally unique and intricate-not something an ordinary designer could create in a short amount of time. Schwartz Group had its own jewelry design company, and he hadn’t seen a design this brilliant in at least the last two years. The style even resembled…
Shanley’s gaze drifted down to the other designs. In the bottom right corner, he spotted a very faint signature: J-Five.
The name was all too familiar to Shanley. He had been swindled out of tens of millions by her for his grandmother’s jewelry.
This was J-Five’s design draft? How did her draft end up in Juniper’s pocket?
Shanley stood frozen, his mind racing with two possibilities. One: Juniper knew J- Five. Two: Juniper was J-Five.
J-Five had made a name for herself in the jewelry world five years ago, producing numerous sensational designs. How old was Juniper back then… Thirteen. A thirteen-year-old girl, an emerging dark horse in the jewelry world, defeating several world-renowned designers? Anyone would find that story utterly preposterous.
But… his Juniper had become a famous dance master in her early teens. A jewelry designer didn’t seem entirely impossible.
“Heh.” At this thought, a low chuckle escaped Shanley’s throat. The expression on his stern face was a complex mix of helplessness and affection. If Juniper really was the designer J-Five, didn’t that mean the girl knew all along that he was the one who had commissioned her for the jewelry?