My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 17 - Interrogating Peggy

***** Knox's Point of View - The Next Day *****

I walked into my office, grabbing the laptop out of my carry on bag and setting it on the desk. As it was powering up I peeked my head out and said, "Cynthia, is there any coffee ready?"

"I'll do you one better. I stopped and got you some Starbucks on my way in this morning," she smiled, waving me over and then pulling the tall paper cup with a coffee sleeve wrapped around it out of the carrier and handing it to me. "It's a dark roast coffee with a shot of espresso added to it and a squirt of caramel. Your favorite."

Cynthia was in her early 50's and she had been kind of a mother figure to me in the office. She was actually the same age my Mom had been.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her suspiciously. "You bought me my favorite drink? What's the occasion?"

She chuckled with a big smile on her face. "I'm just happy for you is all, and this is my way of celebrating."

"Celebrating what?" I asked, taking my first sip from the steaming cup.

"Your new relationship. You and Elodie looked really good together at the Gala last night. I saw the way she was looking at you when you two were dancing. It just melted my old heart," she smiled.

I looked down at the ground. "Yeah well ........... about that," I said, letting out an exhale and rubbing the back of my neck.

The smile slowly left her face and she furrowed her eyebrows, looking concerned. "What do you mean, about that? What happened?"

I cleared my throat and leaned my butt against her desk, crossing my feet at the ankles and shoving my hands in my pockets. "When I went to drop her off at home last night she confessed that she really likes me, but I was honest with her. I'm in no condition to be getting into a relationship right now. I've got Juni and her baby to look after, I'm working all the time, plus I'm still trying to process everything that happened with my family, you know? Honestly my life is a shit-show right now."

Cynthia sat down on the top of her desk beside me and gave me a sympathetic look.

"I know your life is crazy at the moment Knox and you're dealing with more than any one person should ever have to, especially at your age, but did you ever think that maybe it would be nice to not have to deal with all that alone?" she asked, looking over at me. She looked down and a smile crept over her face. "I know different times in my life when I've had to go through something really hard, my husband was like my rock. There were times I don't think I would've made it through if it wasn't for him. Just knowing I had his hugs and kisses to come home to at the end of the day made a big difference. No matter what I was going through, a nice snuggle with him on the couch to watch a movie and talk about our days could make it all better. All the things I had been stressing about just melted away. Maybe Elodie could be that for you," she said, bumping her shoulder against mine and giving me a reassuring smile.

"Maybe," I said, letting out an exhale and shaking my head. "If I actually had time to spend with her."

"Hey, if you don't have much time, then just make the time that you do have count. Through the years there were phases when my husband and I both worked a lot and we didn't get to see each other that much, but that just made the time we did get to spend together that much more special. We didn't take our time together for granted."

I thought about it and nodded. "Yeah maybe you're right. With the chief hiring a team to help me, I could probably make some time for her. It's just that I come with a lot of baggage and I don't want to dump it all on her, you know? It's a lot to take on when she's already going through so much herself with her identity being stolen. Plus she just graduated and moved and she's trying to find a new job and she's struggling with money. She's going through a lot right now too."