Page 111 of Passenger Princess

"What?" Ava asks with shock. I'd never filled her in on those.

"The death threats Ava has been receiving in her social media and sent to the Miss Americana offices?"

"How do you know about the ones sent to the offices?" Regina asks with confusion on her face. "We didn't tell Five Star about them because Anne was taking it too far, and I needed to keep that under wraps."

"I know about one of them because someone in your mail room had the vague common sense to call security about them but accidentally called my old boss, who informed me of it. I sat on that intel, wondering if and when you would inform me of them, but I never got it. Soyouknew about those all along?"

"Of course, I knew about them. My idiot niece sent them in, and I told my staff to ignore them and give them directly to me." She turns to Anne. "Because if she didn't stop this shit, not only was she going to disgrace the Miss Utah crown, but she was going to ruin any chance of winning next year."

"I'm sorry, Aunt Regina," she says, with big, wide eyes. "I'm sorry, I just...I hate her!"

"So you send death threats? Are you insane?"

“And then she tried to have me kidnapped,” Ava says, like she’s trying to be helpful. “Still not sure what the point of that one was.”

"You weren't supposed to win!" she shrieks, stomping her foot on the ground. “I was supposed to be the youngest Miss Americana. Aunt Regina and I had been planning it for years. It would bring new interest to the event, and I would win a second time in a few years. I was going to make history!" She stops her dramatics for just a moment before taking a deep breath with a pinch of her fingers and smiling wide with herpageant smile.

It's alarming to watch in real time, to watch her go from tantrum to calm in a moment.

"But that's fine. I can still be the first two-time winner. Next year will be my year, and then I'll wait a couple of years and be a dark horse." She turns to Ava. “That's what you did; you were the dark horse no one expected to win. Perfect." She smiles like her plan is set in stone, and everyone in the room stares at her like she has fully lost it.

"You know you're fucked, right?" Ava asks, looking at Anne like she's absolutely insane because sheis. "There is absolutelyno wayyou're winning a pageant after you have multiple charges against you."

Anne rolls her eyes and waves a hand. "The people love me. And Preston is going to take the heat, right, baby?" His eyes go wide like this is news to him. “And then everyone will love me. I'll write a memoir about how I was bamboozled by love after I was unbearably distraught because my crown was stolen and?—"

"She's insane," someone whispers.

"Oh, totally."

"Fully delusional," a third pageant queen whispers.

But Ava just shakes her head, a small smile on her lips. "Ooh, so, unfortunately for you, I don't think that's going to happen. But you can have fun writing your silly little memoir from a jail cell, I guess."

"No, I'm not. You have no proof I did anything, and everyone in this room signed NDAs with Aunt Regina, they can't talk bad about me?—"

"So, funny story, even if thatwashow NDAs worked, which, I'm so sorry, babe, but it absolutely is not how they work, we were doing a goofy little get ready with us live. You didn't know because you always sit in the corner and avoid us like the plague because you're too good for us. Fortunately for all of us, when this bozo came in, it didn't stop. So, you know. I kind of recorded that whole thing. And." Ava looks at her phone and then shrugs. "It looks like 283,000 people and counting, saw that. So…”

"What?" Anne shrieks.

Ava looks at the phone screen again. "Seems the people arenotgoing to be won over very easily now that they know just how horrible of a person you are. The comments are tearing you apart." When Ava moves the phone to show me, I see my own face and do a quick scroll through the list of comments.

What a psycho!

We love you, Ava!

I've been screen-recording this, too! DM me if you need it!

That bitch deserves prison for life.

And then the comments change in nature.

Oooh, is that bodyguard hottie?!

I'd let him guard my body.

I step back, eyes wide and a burning blush on my face, Ava looking at the screen again.

"Oops," Ava says, with a smile as she reads them too, then puts on a chiding look. "Be nice to Jaime, guys, or he's never going to come on one of these again." Then she turns to Anne, whose face is red with anger and panic. "Sorry, Anne. But people love a good true crime story, so maybe write the memoir anyway. It might help pay for your attorney fees."

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