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. Joel and Cassie have dinner reservations in an hour, but she doesn't want to leave.

"He's really well-behaved," Anna says with a smile. "He's always smiling and happy."

"Of course," Con says, "that's only because Anna is the best mother in the world."

Anna laughs, but Cassie's not sure it's an exaggeration. Anna dotes on little Andrew so much. She tends to his every need. She really is a supermom. Cassie's not sure Con's a super-dad, but the way he dotes on Anna, she would definitely call him a super-husband. The two of them are so happy together—it radiates off them.

Con nudges Joel, who is sitting on the couch. "This giving you guys any ideas?"

Joel laughs and doesn't say anything, but the two of them exchange meaningful looks. They've decided to go ahead with moving in together, and Cassie feels like she's ready. And when she looks at little Andrew, she thinks maybe having babies in the near future might not be such a bad thing.

Of course, she's got a lot on her mind lately. Business at Bookland has picked up considerably lately, in no small part thanks to Joel. When she complained to him about how half their "business" seems to be turning away medical students looking for textbooks, he said, "And you don't carry medical books because…?"

It was a valid point. He helped her set up a contact with the medical students and residents to buy their used textbooks for cheap. Now she's got six full shelves of medical books, and they're flying off the shelves—each one selling for far more money than a book of poetry. She doesn't want to betray her grandparents' vision of the bookstore, but this is what's going to keep the doors open. It's the perfect solution.

And it means she got rid of the dresser at the back of her closet. Thank God.

Cassie never meant to break the law. It started innocently enough, when Grandpa Marv had somehow gotten his hands on a real first edition of Gone With the Wind . It was in good condition, and he sold it for ten thousand dollars. After several collectors heard about this sale, he received multiple calls asking if he had any other collectible editions. He didn't. But it gave him an idea.

It turns out forging old books is not at all difficult. Marv bought walnut oil to age the books and would read up for hours on techniques to make the books appear old and worn. Then he forged certificates of authenticity.

His saving grace was that he didn't get greedy. He only sold off one book every few months—just enough to keep the floundering bookstore from going under.

Bea and Marv never would have done it if they weren't desperate. Cassie didn't discover the truth until Grandpa Marv was already gone, and she was helping Bea sort through some of his belongings. Cassie had picked up one of the perfect first editions and stared at it, hoping it was real but knowing in her heart it couldn't be.

Bea's excuses were tearful. We couldn't make enough money. We would have lost everything.

You can never do this again, Cassie admonished her.

But Bea did it again, and Cassie turned a blind eye, knowing her grandmother did what she had to. It was only six months after Bea's death when she got a call from a collector herself. Do you have anything I can buy?

She said no. She said no to the next person who called too. But in a month when sales were particularly dismal, Cassie thought to herself, Well, what's the harm?

Each time she made a transaction, she would tell herself it was the last one. But what choice did she have? Without that extra money, her business was gone. She couldn't lose her grandparents' store.

But she hated it. Every day, she was terrified of the police banging on her door. And now thanks to Joel, Bookland can keep its doors open and she'll never have to do anything like that again.

"My turn!" Joel says, holding out his arms for Cassie to pass him the baby. "Come to Uncle Joel."

Andrew gurgles with delight as he gets into Joel's arms. Cassie's gotten more comfortable with holding him lately, but she still feels a bit awkward. She tries not to think of Lydia's comment about her not being "maternal."

Not that Lydia had a right to comment on anything, given what she tried to do to Cassie. She tearfully confessed to everything, saying she couldn't bear the idea of another woman taking her former best friend's place.

Fortunately, Lydia is currently in jail, awaiting trial for attempted murder. It's a load off Cassie's mind to know she's off the streets. Although she feels a twinge of sadness that Violet doesn't have her mother at home, because if nothing else, Lydia loved her little girl.

"You two are so good together," Anna muses, her eyes on Cassie. "You're going to be so great living together."

Cassie's cheeks grow warm. "Thanks."

"You deserve it." Anna's dark eyes are trained on her face, and for a moment, she feels uneasy. " She didn't."

Cassie frowns at the statement. She's about to ask Anna what she means when Joel lets out a yelp.

"Uh, Anna…" Joel is holding up Andrew, who has spit up a ton of milk. "Little help? "

The mood lightens abruptly as Anna laughs and takes the baby from him. She dabs at his chin with a tissue, but it doesn't quite do the trick. "Cassie," she says. "Would you mind terribly grabbing a rag from Andrew's room?"

"Of course!" Cassie leaps to her feet, happy to help. As long as Anna doesn't ask her to change any diapers.

She goes to Andrew's bedroom, which is painted a vivid sky blue. There's a colorful mobile over his bed and a toy box filled with stuffed animals. It's the ideal room for a baby boy—she can feel the love emanating from every corner of the room. But she doesn't see any rags anywhere. So she goes to the blue dresser in the corner of the room and opens the top drawer.

And her heart stops.

It's a gold rose necklace. The same one Francesca was wearing in that photograph in Lydia's apartment. The one Lydia told me she wore all the time.

Why does Anna have this necklace?

Of course, it must be a coincidence. There must be thousands of necklaces like this out there. And the fact that it's stuffed into the bottom of Andrew's dresser drawer instead of in a jewelry box—well, that doesn't mean anything.

Does it?

Cassie fingers the gold rose, turning it to the side. It's only then that she notices an inscription on the rose:

To my best friend Francesca. Love, Lydia.

_____

Cassie wonders if it's a coincidence Joel suggested the sushi restaurant where they had their first date. It was a good meal and a lovely evening, but somehow, they'd never been here again. She remembers how they had joked about different types of conveyor belt restaurants.

As the taxi turns the corner onto Broadway, Cassie tugs at a loose string on her skirt. "Can I ask you a question?"

Joel smiles at her. "Of course. Anything."

"Do you remember the gold rose necklace Francesca used to wear?"

The smile instantly drops off Joel's face. " That's what you want to ask me?"

"I just…" Cassie can't stop thinking about that necklace in Anna's drawer. There has to be an explanation for why it was there. "I saw it in the photo, and it was so distinctive. I was wondering where she got it."

He looks almost sick. "Please don't get a necklace like that. Please ."

"But—"

"She was wearing that necklace on the day I broke it off with her," he blurts out. "The same day she killed herself. Okay? So… I don't want to see a necklace like that again. Ever ."

Francesca had been wearing that necklace on the day she died. And somehow that necklace is in Anna's house.

"Can we change the subject?" Joel says. "Please?"

"Of course," she murmurs. "I'm sorry I mentioned it."

The taxi skids to a halt in front of the restaurant. Joel holds the taxi door open for her and takes her hand in his as they walk the ten feet from the cab to the restaurant. As she walks inside, he throws an arm around her shoulder. She leans her head against him.

The host leads them to a booth next to the conveyor belt. It could be the very same booth they occupied on their first date. Cassie can't remember.

"You remember this place?" he asks.

She smiles. "Of course I do."

"Our first date," he says. "First of many. I knew it would be."

"Did you?"

"Absolutely. I had a feeling about you."

As the waiter fetches them two glasses of wine, Cassie thinks to herself she had a feeling about him too. She'd dated men before him, but none of them would have saved her life—twice. He's the Heathcliff to her Catherine. He's the Marv to her Bea. She's so glad they're moving in together.

"Listen, Cassie." He takes her hand across the table, and the warmth of his fingers only makes her realize how cold her own fingers are. "The time I've been dating you has been the best time of my life."

"Yes." Cassie lifts her glass of wine.

"I know it's a little soon," he continues, "but sometimes you just get a feeling and you have to go with it. You know?"

Cassie drains her glass in two gulps. "Uh-huh…"

"So…"

She stares into his eyes. Her heart pounds.

"Will you marry me, Cassie?"

The words penetrate through the haze in her brain. Her attention shoots back to Joel and she's suddenly aware he's holding a blue velvet box. The hinge of the box creaks as he opens it up, and she's staring at a huge diamond. This is the fairy tale ending she's dreamed of. Like something from one of the books in her store.

"Yes," she says. "Yes, I'll marry you."

He slides over to her side of the booth and he kisses her like it's their first time. They spend the next hour eating sushi and making out. She's not sure she's ever been this happy. Joel is a great guy, and he'll make a wonderful husband and father.

And as she makes plans for the future, she thinks about the gold rose necklace in Anna's dresser drawer. Anna's secret. She's getting her happy ending, and she realizes it never would have happened if not for Anna.

You deserve it. She didn't.

Cassie will never tell.

Anna

There are three people in my life who have wronged me:

Lydia, Francesca, and Joel.

Lydia saw a few cracks in my otherwise solid relationship with Joel and encouraged him to end it so that her best friend and sorority sister Francesca would have a shot with a great guy. A doctor . I believe Joel would've asked me to marry him after all if Lydia hadn't intercepted.

Francesca went along with Lydia's plan to seduce the man who was rightfully mine. Did she get pregnant on purpose so he wouldn't be able to leave her? I'll never know. If she had survived, he surely would've forgiven her and married her.

It was so easy to follow Francesca. Easy to swipe her keys from her purse. Easy to use those keys to drop an entire bottle filled with sleeping pills into the wine bottle she had on her counter and watch the combination of alcohol and sedatives do the trick. If she had not drunk so much while pregnant, it would never have happened. So it was her fault, really.

Once she was good and woozy, I led her to the bathroom. I found her razor.

She didn't have a chance.

I didn't intend it to look like a suicide. I left clues that the whole thing had been staged, and Francesca hadn't taken her life. The clues were meant to lead to Joel—meant to send him to prison for a long time for murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend. But the police were lazy. Joel was questioned, but the death was ruled a suicide.

Still, each of them paid in their own way. Francesca paid with her life. Lydia lost her best friend and went so crazy she started stalking the girl who replaced her. Joel lost the child he and Francesca created together, and he'll spend his life blaming himself for her death.

It was his fault though. In a way.

But now I have forgiven Joel. I have found happiness. I have a husband who loves me and a beautiful son. I can move on. I can allow Joel and Cassie to be happy together.

As long as they don't ever cross me again.

THE END