The Ex by Freida McFadden(61)

“Can I help you?” Cassie asks the young man at the door.

He rubs at his red nose. “I hope so. Do you have a copy of Lippincott’s Microbiology?”

She should have known. When she saw this kid, she should have assumed he was just another med student looking for textbooks.

“Does this look like a medical bookstore?” she snaps at him.

“Uh…” He looks around. “It looks like a bookstore.”

She shoots him a look. “Do you want any actual books?”

He takes a step back. “I guess… not?”

The kid leaves the bookstore without buying anything. Her one customer of the day and she managed to yell at him. Great.

And then Cassie’s phone starts to ring. She pulls it out of her purse and looks at the number.

Her heart races. She shouldn’t take this call. She definitely shouldn’t. This is not a joke—she could end up behind bars. But what else can she do? If she doesn’t go through with this, the store is done.

She presses the green button to take the call.





Chapter 39: The Ex


It’s about that girl. Your ex’s new girlfriend.

What is Nick talking about? I’d always thought there was something sinister about Olive, but I didn’t expect his investigation to actually turn up any information. I was half-kidding when I told him to investigate her. And especially now that things were starting to happen with Dean, I had been considering telling him to forget the whole thing. It’s time to move on.

This is the last thing I expected.

“What’s going on?” I say.

“You sitting down?”

What is he talking about? Is Olive a man? Because that’s where my mind is going right now. Unless he tells me otherwise. “Nick! Just tell me!

“Okay, okay…” He chuckles darkly. “So you know she’s got that business of hers, right?”

“Yes…”

“You may have noticed that the place isn’t exactly successful.”

I’m not going to lie. I walked by about a million times since Joel started dating Olive. And yes, it never looked like business was jumping.

“Well, it’s worse than it looks,” he says. “That girl owes a ton of money to every bank in town.”

That’s not good, for sure. And it confirms my suspicions that Olive sees Joel as a meal ticket. But it’s not “sit down because you’re not going to believe this” kind of bad. I’m disappointed. Olive being a man would have been much better.

“Is that it?” I ask.

“Shit, no, that’s not it,” he says. “You think I’d have all this buildup to tell you she’s going to declare bankruptcy? Who cares?”

I sigh. “So what is it then?”

“So she was going to lose everything,” he says. “But instead of declaring bankruptcy and taking the hit, she got herself in deeper. She borrowed money from… some not so good people.”

“Like…?” I whisper.

“Like people who will break your kneecaps or shoot you in the face if you don’t pay them back.”

Oh my God. That is bad.

“A hot girl like that… they probably won’t ice her—at least, not right away,” he says. “But they’re definitely putting the squeeze on her. God knows what they’re making her do to buy some time.”

I try not to picture what he means by that.

“The bigger worry,” he continues, “is that the people she cares about could be in danger.”

I sink down onto the bed before my legs give out. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Nick says, “if you care about your ex, you might want to warn him. He needs to watch his back.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I mumble.

I feel numb as I end the call. A few minutes ago, Joel was the last thing on my mind. I was finally ready to move on, for God’s sake. I had the best date ever last night. I should never have opened up this can of worms—Nonna was absolutely right.

But now that I know Olive’s secret, I can’t un-know it. Joel’s life could be in danger. I have to warn him. I’m just not sure he’ll believe me.





Chapter 40: The New Girl


Cassie puts down the phone, her heart pounding. I am making a horrible mistake. Things have gone from bad to worse. How did she let herself get in this situation? It was so stupid. And now it just keeps getting worse and worse.

All she wants to day is lay her head down on the desk and sob. Or throw herself off the Brooklyn Bridge. The former wouldn’t solve her problem, but the latter would.

Maybe she should level with Zoe. Confide in her how bad things have gotten. But what can Zoe do? She’s in worse financial shape than Cassie is.

Well, no. That’s not true. Zoe is poor, but she’s not in debt.

The door jingles again, and this time, an elderly woman with a puff of white hair and glasses makes her way to the counter. Cassie squares her shoulders—this feels like a sale. At the very least, this woman isn’t buying medical textbooks. If she is, Cassie will definitely burst into tears.

“Hello, young lady,” the woman says. “I was just wondering… do you buy used books?”