CHAPTER 2: The Wrong Fox

I couldn’t sleep.

I was having a literal panic attack in the hours leading up to the interview because if I didn’t get this job, I didn’t know when next I was going to get a similar opportunity. It was a miracle that I even got an interview in the first place, and I just knew that I could not mess this up. I couldn’t afford to. Not with my rent being due in a few weeks, and a baby on the way.

It wasn’t just about me anymore, and the meager salary I was earning at the laundry shop wasn’t going to cut it. This had to work, there was no other way around it.

Still, I decided not to let my anxiety get the better of me. Instead, I put on my big girl pants and dressed up in my most presentable outfit. I took one last glance at my reflection in the mirror, and subconsciously, I found my hand going up to my belly, caressing it and feeling for any signs of life. It hadn’t started to swell yet, but I knew a little human was growing in there and I just couldn’t get used to that.

I booked an uber and once it arrived, I made my way to the NNT head office on main Crescent street which was about twenty minutes away from my apartment. By the time I finally got to the front entrance, my nerves were already acting up again, probably because of the insane size of the

place, but I had to try my best to force them down.

Inside, there were other applicants waiting to be interviewed and I was assigned a spot beside them where I could sit and wait my turn.

It took a while but eventually my turn came around, and I was ushered into a room where I was to be interviewed by a panel.

I didn’t feel as confident as I appeared before them, but I made sure to give it my all. I took all their questions in stride and I answered them all to the best of my abilities while trying to be as precise as possible without sounding too vague.

Finally, the first stage was over and to be honest, I thought I did pretty well.

I was quite relieved that it was all finally over, but my relief was short lived when I was informed that there was yet another stage. I was starting to feel a little discouraged and worried, but Bridget, the nice lady who was helping us out assured us that the last stage was more or less like a formality with the company’s CEO, and that since we had successfully passed the first stage of interviews then we didn’t have much to worry about but I was no fool. I knew that a lot could go wrong in this stage just as much as it could have in the last stage so I wasn’t letting my guard down.

The fact that this last stage was with the big boss wasn’t doing much to put me at ease either. Still, I had come too far to give up now.

When it was finally my turn, I took a deep breath and made my way to the CEO’s office. Bridget led me right to the door but she didn’t follow me inside. She simply knocked on the door and once he answered, she asked me to go in, and I did so with sweaty palms and on shaky legs.

As I stepped inside the office, I could tell that a lot of money had been spent on furnishing the place. Everything was screaming wealth and luxury, all the things I could only dream of having.

I was still admiring the office when the CEO cleared his throat, drawing my attention to where he sat behind a massive mahogany desk.

“Miss Elisa Jones” He asked, speaking from behind a bunch of files.

“Y…yes sir.”I stammered nervously.

“Are you nervous?” He asked, placing the files down on the table and giving me a clear view of his face for the first time since I walked into his office, and the face that came into view sent a cold chill down my spine. It was none other than Charlie fucking Fox, that weasel.

“You.” I seethed through gritted teeth, pointing an accusing finger at him and making my way angrily towards him.

“Excuse me?” He asked, having the nerve to look and sound surprised. The fucking hypocrite.

I picked up the first thing my eyes landed on and it just so happened to be a very big book. Without stopping to think, I lifted it up and hauled it right at him. I had to give it to him though. His reflexes were very good, because he dodged quickly, causing the book to miss his head by a few inches but before he had any time to recover, I was hauling another object, and then another, until the entire office was nothing but utter chaos and mayhem.

“Look young lady, I don’t know who you are or what your deal is but if you don’t end this madness and leave quietly, I might have to call security.”

“Go right ahead.” I replied maniacally. “Would you like me to pass you the phone?” I asked sarcastically, snatching the telephone from his desk before he could get to it, and hauling it at the TV, effectively breaking the both of them.

“Fuck.” He yelled in frustration. “Do you know how much that cost?”

“As much as fucking child care, hospital bills and baby diapers? Do you know how much baby food costs? I did the math, It’s a fucking fortune Charlie.”

“Wait what are you even talking about right now?” He yelled over the Chaos.

“Oh, I don’t know Charlie. Maybe I’m talking about the fact that you knocked me up, proposed to me then started shacking it up with some stupid bitch you picked off of the street, after which you changed your phone number, and fell of the face of the fucking planet.”

“Wha…I…” He opened his mouth, and closed it back but no actual words were coming out. It’s like he had forgotten how to make coherent sentences because he just stood there, brows creased together in thought as if he couldn’t understand a thing I was saying, but I was so done with his act of hypocrisy. If anything, it was starting to piss me off.

“Charlie! For God’s sake would you stop staring at me like a buffoon, and fucking say something, anything at all. Tell me why. Give me a reason an excuse, just give  

me something, anything at all.” I cried, suddenly breaking down in tears. It was all too much for me to handle.

That seemed to break the spell because he finally opened his mouth to speak, but the words that came out of his mouth weren’t the ones I had been expecting.

“Well, uh, my name is not Charlie.” He said, refusing to meet my eyes. “ It’s Russell.”

“What? You mean you lied about your name as well. I can’t even believe this.”

“Wait no, that’s not what I’m saying, I’m…”

“Oh please, enough with the lies.” I yelled, cutting him off. “God how could I have been so stupid? I should have known that something was off with how secretive you always acted. The numerous phone calls and impromptu trips. I could never visit you without calling first, and I knew next to nothing about your life or your family or your job. Hell, you are the CEO of NNT fucking cooperation, and I didn’t even have a clue. Oh my God. I’m the biggest idiot that ever walked the face of the planet.”

By the time I finished speaking, I was literally breathless. I was pacing around the office trying to calm myself down but I wasn’t making any progress in that regard. More importantly, I wondered how nobody had come in to check what was going on because even I knew that I was making a lot of noise. His walls were probably sound proof.

“Are you quite done?” He asked when I had calmed down a little but instead of answering I simply glared at him with laser eyes, a look he chose to ignore. Instead he continued speaking.

“Okay, so what I was trying to say before you so rudely interrupted me is that I am the CEO, well acting CEO of this company, but Charlie is not.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I confessed.

“Well in that case, allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Russell Fox.”

The wheels in my head were spinning non stop, and nothing seemed to be making sense.

“Yeah you kind of already mentioned that. But if you are Russell then who the fuck is Charlie?”

“Well, Charlie he’s uh, my brother, my identical twin brother.”