The Ex by Freida McFadden(78)

“Cassie!” Joel rushes to his girlfriend’s side. He’s in doctor mode now, checking her pulse, seeing if she’s breathing. He saved her the other night when she accidentally ate peanuts—this time it could be too late. “Cassie, wake up!”

I take a tentative step toward Lydia, whose mouth is hanging open. “Lydia, what have you done? What’s going on here?”

Lydia’s eyes dart around the room. “I didn’t do anything! We were just… I mean, I was chatting with her and she passed out.”

“Call 911!” Joel barks at us. He looks up at Lydia, who still has the deer-in-headlights look. “Unless you already did?”

“No,” Lydia says softly. “I did not.”

The look of anger on Joel’s face is almost terrifying. “Why not?”

“Because… I…” She rings her hands together. “I didn’t know what to do. She just… dropped. I’m not a doctor like you.”

I reach for my phone within my purse and call 911. I tell them we’ve got an unconscious woman on the floor.

“They’re on their way,” I report.

“She’s still breathing,” Joel reports, a look of relief on his face. He looks up at Lydia. “What did you give her?”

Lydia sinks onto the sofa and buries her face in her hands. “I’m sorry,” she whimpers. “I just miss Francesca so much… I wasn’t… I didn’t mean to…”

But Joel isn’t listening. He’s crouched next to Cassie, whispering to her, “Hang in there. Please hang in there. You’re going to be okay…”





Chapter 57: The New Girl


Cassie has no idea where she is when she wakes up.

The last thing she remembers is having drinks with Lydia. And Lydia was saying terrible things and looking at her like she wished she were dead. And then…

Nothing.

Cassie blinks her eyes and rubs them as her vision clears. She’s lying in a bed—that much is clear. She sees a white ceiling. An IV pole with a line leading to her left arm. A hospital gown.

And Joel, fast asleep in a chair next to her bed.

She isn’t sure what happened, but one thing is very clear: Joel saved her life. Again.

“Joel.” Her voice cracks on the word and she clears his throat. “Joel, wake up.”

His eyes flutter open. But when he sees she’s awake, he sits up straight. He smiles as wide as she’s ever seen. “Cassie, thank God.”

“What happened?” she mumbles. Her mouth feels like there’s cotton in it.

He hesitates. “It’s… complicated.”

She rubs at her eyes again. Her head throbs dully. “Please tell me.”

He leans forward, burying his face in his hands. He’s silence for nearly a full minute before speaking. “Lydia tried to kill you.”

Cassie sucks in a breath. “What?”

“I know. I can’t believe it either.” He lets out a sigh. “She and Francesca were so close. Like sisters. And she blamed me for Francesca’s death.”

“That’s crazy!”

He shakes his head. “Not really. I blamed me. I still blame myself.”

He’s quiet for a moment, staring at the wall. “She wanted to punish me. She thought if something happened to you, it would push me over the edge.” He reaches for her hand. “And it would have.”

Cassie swallows a lump in her throat. “How did you figure out she was the one responsible?”

“Anna told me, actually,” he says.

“Anna?” She frowns, remembering how she spoke to Anna on the phone before Lydia arrived. How worried she had seemed. “I didn’t realize you and Anna were even friendly.”

He coughs into his hand. “I don’t know if you knew this, but Anna and I used to… date. No, not just date. She was my girlfriend. For a long time. A really long time.”

That surprises her. Anna and Con seem like they’re so made for each other, it’s hard to imagine her with anyone else. But then again, it makes sense in a crazy kind of way. Like Cassie and Francesca, Anna has dark hair and eyes. Cassie heard Anna’s maiden name is Mascolo. She’s certainly Joel’s type. She wonders who ended it.

“If not for Anna,” Joel says, “we wouldn’t have gotten there in time to save you. And I might have lost you.”

Cassie imagines that possibility but it’s hard to wrap her head around it. She nearly died twice in one week. She wonders if Lydia was responsible for the peanuts in her Chinese food. She has a bad feeling about that one.

Joel gives her hand a squeeze. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Cassie. When I thought I might lose you, God… it was like the end for me.”

She squeezes him back. “I feel the same way about you.”

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he admonishes her. “I… I love you.”

“I love you too,” she says.

Of course she does. After all, he saved her life.





Epilogue: Two Months Later


Cassie



“Andrew is such a good baby!”

Cassie’s got Anna’s baby on her lap and is bouncing him up and down. He laughs with each bounce, a dimple poking out on his cheek just like his dad. Cassie doesn’t have a lot of experience with babies, but she can’t imagine a cuter baby than this one.