Page 66 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“Well, I’d say yes,” she says.

I nod at her. “Tell us, please.”

“Yesterday evening, I coincidentally—”

Emilien coughs.

“Alright, I dragged Emi into a bar, where I knew I would find Mr. Simon.”

“Mr. Simon?” Zoé asks.

“The director of the orphanage Meg lived at. He is still leading it.”

She certainly has our entire attention now because everyone looks at her in shock. “And?” Aurelia urges.

“I flirted a bit with him,” she says. “Poor Emi had to pretend to be my brother. I basically kissed up to the man for half an hour before I said that a friend at college, Auri, and we are doing a paper about missing children… and about the failure of the authorities. Oh,if only I knew someone who could help us,” she says dramatically. “How desperate and lonely it had to be for schools and children’s organizations to be faced with such dramatic incidents.”

“Did he buy it?” I ask her.

“He didn’t just buy it. He had a literal breakdown,” she says. “I didn’t know what to expect when I met him. There was no time for a background check, but he seems to really care for the children, and works together with several children’s organizations, and does charity for children of abusive situations.”

“I didn’t know that either,” I say, surprised. “I didn’t even think about doing a background check on him.”

“So, I was more open with him, too. I stuck to the story that Aurelia and I would be doing a paper but told him our research was more in depth and that the plan is to turn it into something bigger.”

“Didn’t he want to see any verification?” I ask.

“He did.” She grins. “That’s where Emi came in handy.”

Emilien sighs slightly. “Yes, I’m just so great, but Leila actually has a student visa here and is attending university. I just had the documents.”

“Do you always carry the necessary documents along?” Gustave asks, confused. “For Lady Leila, I mean?”

“I just know I need to be prepared,” Emilien says. “She has a lot of ideas… and is very spontaneous.”

“He wants to see us this afternoon,” Leila says to Aurelia.

My mate raises her brows. “That’s fast. He must have been enchanted by you.”

“I did my best.” Leila chuckles.

“This means we might just hear more about Meg,” I muse.

“What should we watch out for?” Aurelia asks. She and Leila both grab their notebooks to take notes.

“Any written documents you can get is a plus, but I want something more personal. What kind of person was she? What did she like to do? Who was she? Was she scared of the dark, of thunderstorms? Was she an anxious child, a silent one, a loudone? How was she with the other kids and with the adults?” I pause. “And did someone visit her? In orphanages, they often have programs where students volunteer as older siblings or the elderly as surrogate grandparents. Did she have someone who showed interest in her?” I pause once more. “Did she visit places outside the orphanage? Such as a school… a hospital? Did she have friends? Anything that could lead us to an outsider.”

“Anything else?” Leila asks. “How about photos?”

“Yes, anything you can get,” I say. “Not just of Meg, but of the whole orphanage, starting from the moment she began to live there until she disappeared.” I pause. “Oh, and of course, try to find out where she was last seen.”

“Should we check for werewolves?” Aurelia asks.

“Yes.” I nod.

“Do we know how she ended up there?” she asks.

“That’s a good point,” I say. “We don’t know that yet.”