My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 19 - Challenge Accepted

I texted Knox back. 'When do you think this will all be starting?' 

'The trial starts in three weeks. You'll need to be there every day for about a week.'

'But I'm on a trial period right now at my new job. I've got four weeks to close five clients or else I might get fired. Do I really have to be there?'

'Yeah. You'll need to be there to testify and tell your side of everything that happened. Maybe you can just talk to your boss and explain the situation.'

I closed my eyes and let out an exhale of frustration. I was hoping he was going to say I didn't have to be there. I wondered how Blakely was going to react to me having to take an entire week off when I just started. I was kind of scared to find out. I walked back to her office and knocked, seeing Blakely's slightly irritated expression through the window as she waved me in.

I opened her door and went inside saying, "I'm really sorry to bother you again so soon. It's just that there's something going on and I thought I should let you know right up front. Are you busy?"

She looked at her Apple Watch. "I've got about twenty minutes before a meeting. You'll have to make it quick. Sit," she said pointing at the chair in front of her desk..  

"Ok. I'll be fast. I promise," I said taking a seat. "So there was this woman that stole my identity and created an online profile using my photos to catfish men. She conned ten different guys out of over two million dollars pretending to be me. I just found out her trial starts in three weeks and the detective said I have to be there all week. What should I do?" 

Blakely thought about it and said, "I guess we're going to have to cut your four week trial down to three." 

"Ok. Thank you so much! I really appreciate this. So how many accounts should I work on closing then? Three or four?" 

"You can just keep all five." 

I looked at her with confusion and asked, "All five? Are you saying I'm going to have to do what only five percent of people can do in four weeks, in three?" 

Blakely sat back in her chair with her arms crossed and nodded. "You said you love a good challenge right? But if you're not up for it," she said, almost as if she was daring me to say yes. 

I thought it over before saying, "No. You know what? If I do this, maybe that would earn me a little bit of respect around here. Then people would stop looking at me like a high schooler that snuck into a bar," I laughed. 

Blakely laughed too. "It would definitely earn you respect. If you can pull this off, people would be giving you a high five everywhere you went. You would become a legend in this office."

"Ok. Then I'll do it," I said with a determined tone, standing up and walking out of her office. I peeked my head back into the room and said, "Thank you" with a smile before heading back to my own office and getting to work. I had a lot to do and very little time to do it. If I was going to pull this off, I had to be very strategic. 

I shut my door and then pulled out my cell phone and called Knox. After three rings he finally answered. 

"Hey Elodie." 

"Hey Knox. I can't believe Peggy's seriously going to fight the charges. There's so much evidence against her. You caught her in the act of meeting someone, so we know without a doubt it was her behind the profile. She literally confessed to it. How is she going to fight that?" 

"She's trying to get her confession thrown out because her lawyer wasn't present but I read her her Miranda rights and even tried to convince her to wait for her lawyer but she wanted to continue. She's also trying to say the sting operation was entrapment. It's ridiculous.  I swear if this woman walks after everything I did to catch her, I'll be so fucking pissed."