Chapter 2 – Let the fairytale begin?

Reyna hears her alarm going off in the distance, she is trying to block out the sound when she finally realises it’s her first day at work. “Shit”, she stumbles out of bed when she checks the time on her phone. It’s almost 6:30AM and she is meant to be at work by 8:30AM.

Hoping an hour is enough time for her to get done for work, her commute is going to be at least 45mins, so she needs to rush to get done. Stupid nightmares, if it hadn’t disturbed her sleep last night she would never have slept so late.

“Anyway, no use stressing out about it now, let me just get done!”

Luckily, she decided to take her clothes for work out the night before, she ran into the bathroom, took a quick shower and did her morning routine. She grabbed the navy-blue vintage O-Neck pencil dress, it stopped above the knee. She paired it with a Blue, suede, pointed 6inch high-heel shoe. Being 5’4 she loves high heels. She then puts her hair up into a neat bun, pulling a few locks out to fall to the side of her face. She isn’t big on makeup, so she just puts on some black mascara on her already long lashes and a bit of concealer to cover any small blemishes. She uses a pink lip-gloss to give her lips some colour.

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she grabs her bag and rushes out of the room, Checking the time its 7:20AM, she has time for a cup of coffee, no breakfast this morning just an energy bar to go. She makes her coffee and while drinking it she checks she has everything she was told to have for HR today. She packs everything into her bag, drops the cup in the sink and she is finally ready to go.

Checking the time once more, it’s now 7:35AM, she will be intime for work if she leaves now. She was going to take the subway but thinking it’s better to come in earlier on her first day she takes a taxi. By taxi it should take 30mins to get there. But everyone knows morning traffic in New York on a whole was a disaster.

Cursing herself in the taxi, stressing about the time, she finally pulls up outside the building. As she gets out, she sees all the media and photographers, “wonder what’s going on”. She shrugs her shoulders and walks into the building and straight to the reception desk.

“Good morning, I’m Reyna Vasquez I’m the new PA for the CFO, Mr. Reynolds. It’s my first day.

The pretty brunette looks up at me, “you’ve chosen the worst day to start working here”.

Reyna is a bit confused, “how so?”

“Hi, I’m Maria, just so you know we have a whole new management team starting today, Mr. Reynolds is luckily still with us but almost every other top management position has been changed, the company that has taken over Junction Media is making all the changes.”

“Who are the new owners of the company”, but before Reyna can get an answer the phone rings, and Maria answers, “sure, yes sir, she just arrived. I will send her right up.”

“Reyna Mr. Reynolds just called, you better go straight up to his office, they are having an urgent management meeting now at 9:00AM and he wants you sitting in with him. Just take the elevator to the 15^th floor, he will be waiting for you”.

“Thanks, I will do that, was nice meeting you”. Reyna smiled at her and rushed off to the elevator. Luckily for her the doors open and she steps in, one of the guys in the elevator asks her what floor and she tells him, the 15^th floor.

“Oh, ok, I’m getting off on the same floor. You are new right?’

“Yes, I’m starting today as Mr. Reynolds PA. I’m Reyna”.

“Hi, ok, yes, I heard he hired a new PA. I’m Diego, nice to meet you, I work in the marketing department.”

“Nice to meet you too”. As Reyna is finishing her sentence the doors of the elevator open on the 15^th floor, as she steps out, she is met with Mr. Reynolds. “Good morning, Reyna, sorry you are starting on such a chaotic day, please follow me.”

He doesn’t even give her a chance to greet him back and his hurriedly walking off towards his office.

Reyna waves at Diego and smiles and follows behind Mr. Reynolds, towards his office.

Walking towards his office, which is at the far end of the floor, she watches all the employees rushing around, everyone seems to be in a tizz. They finally arrive at his office, and he ushers in and closes the door behind them.

“Take a seat please, I just need to make a call”.

“Thank you”, Reyna takes a seat while waiting for Mr. Reynolds to make his call, all the time wondering who the new owners were and how come the company was sold. She applied for the position six weeks back, in such a short time there is new owners, strange.

“Reyna are you paying attention to what I’m saying”, she is pulled out from her thoughts by Mr. Reynolds. “Sorry, yes you were saying, Sir”.

He looks at her, with a frown on his face, “I need you to pay attention to what I’m about to tell you, it’s important if you want to keep this job, are we clear”.

Reyna realises the seriousness of his words and gives him her full attention, she just started she can’t look for another job now. “Yes, Sir, I am paying attention”.

“As you might have heard, the company has been sold, Mr. Daniels, the previous owner, took ill a few weeks back and decided it was in his best interest to sell the various companies he owned and take early retirement. The new owners officially took over three weeks back and had a full audit done on the company and all employees. Unfortunately, it was discovered that some of top management had been stealing from the company. Due to this, the owners have decided to get personally involved and weed out all the rotten apples. Some of management has already been let go and I’m one of the few that is still here.  However, they have put immense pressure on me to trace all the funds.”

He goes quiet and rubs the bridge of his nose, you can see his exhausted and most likely been working late trying to meet the new owners demands. He knows how dangerous it is to cross the Reyes. They are ruthless in business and them finding out that the thriving, profitable company they bought is being robbed by its on management, has been a nightmare for Mr. Reynolds and his entire department. The Reyes’ family wants answers, he’s the CFO after all, how were the funds stollen under his watch.

What they don’t know is that Mr. Daniels was a very trusting person, so Mr. Reynolds wasn’t allowed to question the directors Mr. Daniels appointed unless Mr. Daniels authorised it. Thanks to that rule, the company internally got taken for a ride without Mr. Reynolds being aware of it.

“Sir, how can I help, what would you like me to do?”

He looks at Reyna, hearing her words and takes a deep breath before answering her.

“I need your expertise, I’m aware that one of your stronger subjects in college was Forensic Accounting, you were meant to start as my PA however after discussing it with the new CEO, we’ve decided to place you within his department with one job, follow the paper-trail and find the money. It will only be for three months and then we will re-evaluate your position, I hope you will accept the opportunity”.

Reyna was shocked, she doesn’t have any real experience, besides her internship at a small Forensic Auditing firm she only did it on college. Yes, she was top of her class and was offered a job at the auditing firm when she completed her internship, but she wasn’t sure if she could do what Mr. Reynolds was asking of her. If she didn’t achieve the goal set for her, would they fire her. So many things running through her mind. She was biting her lower lip mulling over what to do or say.

“Mr. Reynolds can I ask you something before I make a decision on whether or not to accept the offer?”

“Sure, I understand you would have questions”.

“If I accept the offer but I don’t manage to trace the funds, will I still have a job after the three months, or is my position dependant on whether I manage to complete your tasks”.

She was seriously nervous waiting on him to answer, after a few minutes of quiet, he spoke up.

“You have nothing to worry about, your position as my PA has been put on hold pending the task assigned to you for the next three months, regardless of the results after the three months you will still have your initial position as my PA, only problem might be that I’m no longer here, so you will then be the PA for whom so ever they replace me with”.

Reyna is shocked, holy crap, Mr. Reynolds is the one that is under the microscope, he needs her to get the results in order for him to keep his job. The fact that he was the only person willing to employ her knowing she had a gap in her study time, which she couldn’t explain in her interview, meant a lot to her, she wasn’t going to let him down.

She confidently answered him. “I will take the position, tell me exactly what you need me to do, and I will start immediately”, he smiled at her, glad to hear her answer and she smiled back at him.

She was going to do this, this was her fresh start, her new beginning she wanted, it was time to prove herself!

{And so, her journey begins at Junction Media, hoping for the best, however fate has other things in mind for her, she is in for a surprise that would shock her to her core, good surprise or bad surprise is yet to be seen…}