Page 55 of Return Billionaire to Sender

There’s a long silence on the other end. “It’s Stella,” she says. “The real Stella,” she adds.

“Oh.” My pulse pounds. “Um…oh.”

“Who are you?” she asks. “What are you doing? What’s going on?”

“Um, okay, it’s kind of a long story,” I begin. Am I really saying that?

“I think I’d like to hear it.”

“I don’t mean any harm—I swear. Do you remember in the elevator at the Blackberg Inc. headquarters? The letter carrier you were stuck with?”

“Wait, what? Is this…”

“Noelle,” I say. “Please, Stella, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for it to go this long. I mean you no harm—I swear.”

“Wait, what? You’re the letter carrier I was trapped with? You took my place? Oh my god, did you talk me into quitting so that you could take my place?”

“No, I swear! I wanted to get in to see Malcolm Blackberg—I was trying to see him, and I had your card in my hand from when you gave it to me. They thought I was you.”

“Why let them think that? You’re the letter carrier. I don’t even get it…”

“I am a letter carrier, yes…” I tell her the story in one long ramble, how I was there to beg him to save 341 West 45th. How I had video to show him. How I let them think I was her and magically, he thought he had to watch the footage.

She’s laughing by the end of it. “Hold on, let me get this straight. You’re making Malcolm Blackberg watch interview footage of people in an apartment building? And he thinks it’s the coaching? I’m stunned he’s going along with it.”

“Well, I told him if he doesn’t watch it, he’ll get an X for the day.”

“No.”

“Yes,” I say.

She practically screams with laughter. “Oh my god, you’re threating a client with an X? Oh my god, you are off the chain!”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I swear I’m not trying to steal your identity or anything like that.”

“Wait, wait, hold on,” she says. “I only called because I just got a new paycheck deposited into my account. I thought it was a mistake, being that I haven’t shown up at work since that day we met—like I flew out here and I haven’t looked back. I was wondering why they never called me to see why I didn’t show up. And I logged into the intranet and I see you’ve been updating the checklist and things? And this phone number. You have quite the operation.”

“We’re trying to save our building. I know it all sounds outrageous.”

“You clearly found the packet,” she says.

“Yeah,” I say sheepishly. Is she going to turn me in?

“Did you know that you got a glowing performance review from the client?”

“What? I did?” I ask, stunned.

“They don’t think we can see them, but we can. If you know where to look,” she says. “I can’t believe he gave you such a good review for making him watch those videos.”

“Trust me, he wants to get out of watching the videos.” I tell her how he offered me money. She’s shocked I didn’t take it. “I know it’s wrong what I’m doing,” I say. “I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

“Wait,” she says. “I’m in Estonia, right?”

“Are you enjoying it?” I ask. “I hope you’re enjoying it.”

“It’s the best decision I ever made,” she says. “I’d be miserable right now. And I really always hated traveling with the client. Like, god. I’d be stuck in that hotel.”

“It’s not so terrible.”

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