My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 5 - Planning for the Future

"The other reason I asked you to come down here was because I was granted access to the catfish's social media accounts since it's part of a police investigation and I found a few other victims. I've talked to all of them. Apparently she's been using your photos for a couple years to con quite a few men out of a lot of money. One of them is even a famous NBA basketball player."

"Seriously?" I asked skeptically, scrunching my eyebrows in confusion. "An NBA player?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"That's so crazy," I laughed. "I can't believe an NBA basketball player would be interested in me. This woman must be really convincing."

"What do you mean? Why do you seem so surprised?" Knox asked.

I scoffed. "Because. NBA basketball players usually date these gorgeous supermodel types and I'm literally just an average person, nothing special. I haven't even been on a date in like three years and haven't had a boyfriend in four, but somehow this woman can use my pictures and get all these men to give her anything she wants. She's got game. I'll give her that," I laughed, shaking my head.

"Well," he said, looking down at his laptop and typing. "Maybe you're more beautiful than you give yourself credit for."

I couldn't help but smile and my face blushed a little at his compliment, looking down at my hands.

"You seriously haven't had a boyfriend in four years?" he asked, finally looking up from his screen for a second and studying my face.

"No, why?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "That's just really surprising."

"Well, I mean. I've been so busy with school and work there hasn't been a whole lot of time for anything else. My Mom works two jobs to pay half of my tuition and when I'm not in class I work as a waitress every spare minute I can so I can make enough to pay the other half."

"What about your Dad? Is he not around to help?" he asked.

"Nah," I said, shaking my head and letting out an exhale. "He took off one day when I was little and we haven't seen or heard from him since. It's been just me and my Mom most of my life and it's been hard, but somehow we've made it work. It'll all pay off soon though. I'm finally in my last semester and I'll be the first person in my family to graduate from college and then hopefully I'll get a good paying job."

"Wow, good for you," he said with a warm smile. "So what's your plan after you graduate?"

"I'm gonna stay here in Seattle. I'm getting my degree in Business Administration so I'm going to work for someone else until I can save up enough money to open up my own place. That's always been my dream, to own my own business and be my own boss."

"That's a great dream to have," he nodded.

"I thought so," I said, taking a deep breath in and letting it out, smiling back at him. "So what about you Knox? What's your dream? Everybody has to have a dream to keep 'em going right?"

He shrugged and said, "Well I've already gotten mine. I was that kid that always loved solving a mystery and figuring out riddles. I was always really good at it, so I decided at a pretty young age that I wanted to be a detective one day like Sherlock Holmes. Those were my favorite books and movies as a kid."

"So I guess you're right. Your dream already came true then. Good for you."

"Yeah, I actually just got a promotion so I'll have three detectives working under me now. I'm not trying to sound braggy or anything, but you are looking at the youngest head of a department in Seattle PD history," he told me proudly.