Reborn to Ruin the Perfect Fake Heiress novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Eighty Dollars

"Where are you?" I said.

"I don't know." Her voice was thin. "A gas station. The taxi driver said he couldn't take me any farther without a card, and Mom canceled my card."

"What's across the street?"

A pause. Wind rattled the phone.

"A 7-Eleven," Savannah said. "And a highway. There's a big concrete bridge over it."

The light turned green.

Luka, beside me, had gone still on the wheel.

I didn't say anything for a moment.

I knew that overpass.

I had spent a whole life dying under it.

"Stay there," I said. "Don't go anywhere."

"Are you coming?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when I'm there."

Luka turned at the next exit without asking.

At the first ATM I had him stop, and I took out four twenties.

At the depot window, still open for the late bus, I paid for an open ticket to anywhere on the board.

In the car I folded the bills into an envelope and wrote one line on a slip with Luka's pen.

"Do you want me to come in?" he said.

"Stay in the car. Please."

"I'll be right here."

We pulled into the lot at eleven-thirty.

The 7-Eleven sign buzzed red and green above a wet parking lot, and past it the highway roared, and the concrete bridge rose gray and blunt against the clouds.

My stomach turned over once, hard.

It was a hot night in July the last time I'd stood here, and I couldn't afford a bottle of water.

Tonight it was thirty-four degrees.

Savannah sat on the curb in her navy dress with her bare feet pulled up under her.

Someone had given her a man's gray sweatshirt, probably the clerk, and it hung to her knees.

She looked up when I came across the lot.

Her mascara had run to her jaw.

"I thought you wouldn't come," she said.

"I almost didn't."

I stopped in front of her, and I held out a plain white envelope.

← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend