Chapter 5: The Post

By nine o'clock, every customer at Dunmore Drug had read it.

A woman I'd filled prescriptions for since June took her bag from me without looking up.

A man at the register asked loudly if the pharmacy "screened for stalkers these days."

My manager waved me into the stockroom and shut the door.

"I'm not saying it's true," she said.

"It's not."

"Corporate called. A customer reported you."

"For what?"

"For being unstable." She wouldn't meet my eyes. "I told them you're the most stable person on the floor. But I need you to handle this, Joni."

"I'll handle it."

"By when?"

"By lunch."

She nodded, relieved, and left me in the stockroom with the boxes of cough syrup.

I stood there with my brace aching and my phone in my hand and the comments still loading.

Someone had written, "Always the quiet ones."

Someone else had written, "Brent is such a sweetheart, I can't believe this."

Below it, "Knew something was off with her."

I had known the people on that page for years.

I had waved at them in the grocery store.

I opened the recording from Friday and listened to the whole thing, Brent's voice smooth and warm.

"It's a gift, Joni. You gave me money as a gift, and I'm being generous."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Kept My $11,200 as a Gift, So a Biker's Dog Took My Side from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.