Reborn to Love Mr. Right novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Lunch Rush

The student union atrium on a Sunday night was the loudest room on campus, and I needed every person in it.

Four hundred people, give or take.

Trays, laptops, the smell of fries and burnt coffee under a glass roof going dark blue.

Half of them had watched Jenna's video by now.

I could tell, because the noise dipped when I walked in.

A girl at the salad bar elbowed her friend.

Somebody at the long table by the windows said, "That's her," not quietly.

Maisie was waiting by the pizza counter in her overalls, as promised, with her arms crossed.

"Are you sure?" she said.

"No."

"Good. Sure people are boring."

I pulled a chair out from the nearest table, kicked off my sneakers and climbed up onto it.

Now the noise didn't dip.

It stopped.

"Hi," I said, loud enough for the back tables. "I'm Annabel Townsend. You've probably seen me be drunk on a stage today."

A few people laughed, uncertain.

"I wasn't drunk. That's not why I'm up here."

I held up my phone.

"Two hours ago my ex-boyfriend, Brock Pollard, your class president, texted me a private photo of myself from sophomore year."

The room went very still.

"He wants six hundred thousand dollars by Friday, or he sends it to all of you."

Somewhere near the windows a fork hit a plate.

My heart was going so hard I could feel it in my teeth.

"So I'm saving him the trouble of the reveal," I said. "Here's the text."

I read it out word for word, including "babe."

I didn't show the photo.

I showed the number it came from, and the time stamp, and his name at the top of the thread.

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