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“I’ll miss her. I mean, I know she just started, but she’s really nice, and she makes my life easier.”
“Is she sick?” Leo said.
“No, it’s just a hard day for her. She lost her sister in a car accident, and it was five years ago tomorrow.”
My head shot up from where I’d been checking my email.
“Her sister?” Suspicion sent a chill through me. “What was her sister’s name?”
“Let me look,” she said, scrolling back through her texts. “It was something pretty. Just a second… Francesca.”
“Madison, that’s my ex-girlfriend. The stalker we have an order of protection against. You need to tell her not to come back to work for you. I mean it.”
“What? That’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever said, Noah,” she said, “She’s not Olivia Rade. Her name is Lillian Potts, she’s not even from here and she’s an excellent employee so far. Why would she have anything to do with your ex?”
“Because Francesca Rade was three years younger than Olivia and lost control of her car while she was texting and driving and died in a one-car accident on the way home from a weekend in Boston five years ago. I didn’t know her then, but Olivia told me all about it. It was really hard on her, of course. But you have to get rid of this woman. She’s pretending to be someone else to get closer to you. She’s violating the order of protection by being there at all, and she’s going by a fake name. Call her and tell her not to come back. Please,” I said, exasperated. I knew part of the reason I was irritated with Madison was that I didn’t like how close Olivia had come to her.
“Look, I hate that you’ve had such a hard time with your ex, but not everybody has an ulterior motive. This is just a woman named Lillian who likes my muffins and started working for me—”
“And coincidentally shares the same terrible sibling loss story as the ex who is stalking me? Think about it. I realize that if she could make the sausage filling, you’d probably insist on keeping her on staff because who cares if she follows me and takes photos of me and of you and makes threats, right? Jesus, Madison, you can’t be serious. We can’t keep you safe if you’re going to act like there’s not a problem.”
I pulled up my Instagram tagged photos and found the one she posted when we were at a party together during the brief time we dated. “Is this Lillian?” I demanded, shoving the phone at Madison.
“Shit,” she breathed, “Yeah, that’s her. Shit.”
Madison sat down and dropped her head into her hands. “I’m sorry, Noah. You were right. I shouldn't have pushed back when you said it was your ex. Of course, it’s your ex, because why would someone that nice and helpful come work for me for minimum wage and the occasional slightly burnt sausage roll. I should have listened. I just didn’t want to believe it.”
I nodded. “I didn’t want to believe it either.”
“She got a job at your shop and got in under our radar,” Ethan said, “That means we need a better radar. You’ve got to let her go.”
“You don’t have to talk to her,” Leo said, “we don’t want her to know that you know it’s her. Just leave a message or something telling her you’re taking tomorrow off.”
“She’ll never believe that—” Madison said, “unless I tell her I’m sick.” With a nod, she picked up her phone and typed out a message. “There. I told her I’m not opening tomorrow. That I hope I don’t have mono or something.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking her hand, “Do you have the orders made for tomorrow?” She nodded. “We’ll deliver them. You don’t need to open or go in or anything. I’m just glad you’re safe.”
“I feel stupid. She really had me going,” she said miserably.
“Don’t. It’s not like you’re supposed to ask, ‘hey are you by any chance my boyfriend’s stalker?’” Leo said. “None of this is your fault. Or Noah’s fault,” he cut his eyes to me and practically stared me down till I nodded my agreement even though I felt responsible.
“Which one of you can pull the security footage from the shop?” Ethan said.
“I can,” I said, and went to his laptop. I sat grimly and watched black and white video shot from the ceiling camera in the shop—images of Madison happily talking with Olivia while she worked. It was a gut punch, seeing the pair of them together, knowing that I was the one who’d brought this into Madison’s life.
I looked over at Ethan. He shook his head.
“What?” I said.
“Stop thinking what you’re thinking.”
“Oh? And what am I thinking?”
“That maybe Madison was better off lonely than with us and having a stalker now. It’s bullshit. You blame yourself for everything, but not this time,” Ethan said gruffly.
I drew a long breath and emailed the footage to the police officer we were told to contact if she violated the restraining order.
24
