Page 100 of Revenge Reads Better

Brooke is still sitting at the table, crying into her hands.

A better person would probably feel ashamed for making another human being cry like that.

But I feel nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Because of Brooke and her so-called friends, I’ve cried more than my fair share of tears. More than any of them ever deserved.

Thankfully, the whole Brooke debacle doesn’t stop me from having yet another productive day. After I email today’s chapters to my editor, I pick up my phone and notice three missed calls from an unknown number. Whoever it is has been trying to reach me all day.

Two text messages are waiting for me too, so I open the first.

Hi, Max. It’s Misty. I’ve been trying to reach you. I was hoping we could have lunch tomorrow. Just the two of us. Give me a call when you get this.

The second came a couple of hours later.

Please call me when you can. I’d really like to talk.

I almost laugh. Or I would if I weren’t so pissed that Misty’s stalker tendencies somehow managed to get their hands on my phone number.

After overhearing her conversation with Peyton yesterday, I know exactly what she wants to talk about. Me leaving Fairhope.

Apparently, Misty thinks she can get me alone over lunch, sweet-talk me for an hour, and somehow convince me that packing my bags and running back to New York is in my best interest.

Not happening. Whatever game Peyton is playing, she’s going to have to find herself another pawn, because Misty isn’t manipulating me into doing shit.

I delete both messages and block her number for good measure.

There’s no way I’m leaving Fairhope now. Not until this book is finished.

With that settled, I take a quick shower, get dressed, and go in search of Sienna.

I still need to apologize to the Cushmans for being a no-show yesterday. I’m almost positive they won’t mind, but that doesn’t make me feel any less guilty about it. I hate letting down people I care about. Especially Betty and Bill, who were among the very few willing to stand in my corner when everything went to shit back in the day.

Sienna is already dressed and ready to go by the time I knock on her door. Unfortunately, so are the two people we bump into in the lobby on our way out.

“Well, look who we have here. Heartless and Miss Extra Credit herself,” Delaney snickers.

“Aren’t you a little old for nicknames?” Sienna asks, looking completely unbothered by the one she’d carried since high school. She gives Delaney’s face a slow, deliberate once-over. “By the crow’s-feet you’ve got going on there, it sure looks like you are.”