Chapter 2

My airway violently constricted, reducing my breaths to rapid, shallow gasps.

"Still acting?" Madison sneered, looking down at my convulsing body with pure disgust.

Julian stood right beside her. His jaw clenched in irritation. "Chloe, knock it off. It's Madison's welcome-back party. Do you really have to ruin the vibe tonight?"

One of Madison's sorority sisters crossed her arms and stepped forward. "Please. Faking a panic attack to steal a guy's attention? Seriously, you look so desperate right now. It's actually pathetic."

Every dragging breath felt like I was inhaling crushed glass. The tearing agony made the edges of my vision go black.

"I'm not... I'm really... allergic to peanuts..." I wheezed.

A furious, fiery rash of hives was already rapidly spreading down my neck like a wildfire.

I prayed someone, anyone, would see the genuine agony in my eyes and just call 911.

But dozens of cold, mocking eyes just stared down at me. Not a single person lifted a finger.

Madison's lips curled into a contemptuous smirk. She grabbed Julian's arm and turned toward the dance floor without a second glance.

"Just ignore her. Let's go dance. Broke girls like her are all the same—leave her alone and she'll get over herself. If you give her attention, she just thrives on it."

Out on the dance floor, the bass was deafening.

Under the flashing strobe lights, Madison dramatically tilted her wine glass.

A splash of dark red liquid spilled over the plunging neckline of her dress, staining the pale skin of her cleavage.

"Oh my god, I'm so clumsy!" Madison shrieked, though a massive grin stretched across her face.

The frat boys instantly went wild.

"Sorority perks!" someone howled over the heavy music.

"Lick it off, Prez!" another frat brother cheered, shoving Julian forward.

"That's not a punishment, that's a top-tier reward! Hahaha!"

"Hey, won't Julian's broke little girlfriend get jealous?"

"She's busy playing dead! Who cares!"

Through the dark, tunneling edges of my vision, I saw Julian turn his head to look back in my direction.

Then, without an ounce of hesitation, he lowered his head and pressed his lips directly onto Madison's wine-stained chest.

The surrounding crowd hollered with approval as the two of them pressed their bodies tightly together under the glowing lights.

A sickening, violent twist tore through my gut.

I desperately tried to push myself up on my elbows, wanting to crawl toward the front hall for help. But my limbs had gone completely dead.

In that extreme, agonizing suffocation, a frantic thought suddenly pierced the fog of my brain.

My brutally overprotective brother, Alexander, had forced me to hide a backup antihistamine pill in the tight coin pocket of my jeans!

When my numb fingertips finally scraped out the tiny white pill, my heart hammered wildly. My violently trembling hand lifted, desperately aiming for my lips.

Just as it was inches from my mouth—when I could almost taste the survival—

A razor-thin, red-soled stiletto slammed down like a steel nail, viciously crushing my wrist against the floor.

White-hot agony instantly hijacked my brain. My fingers reflexively splayed open, and the white pill tumbled straight onto the filthy carpet.

Madison had returned from the dance floor.

She slowly twisted the tip of her shoe, grinding my very last lifeline into useless powder.

Her entourage erupted into another round of piercing, mocking laughter.

"Damn, look at her face turning purple. She's really committing to the bit! Someone wake her up!"

The second the words left their mouth, a full glass of cheap vodka was splashed directly across my face.

The alcohol seeped into my torn hives and burned my eyes like acid. The blinding pain caused me to violently dry-heave.

"Why...?" I stared dead into Madison's eyes.

"Why go this far? Just out of jealousy, you'd actually murder someone?"

Madison crouched down, her smile twisting into something utterly demonic.

"I heard you're an orphan with absolutely no parents. Let me ask you... if you accidentally choke to death on a peanut at a frat party tonight, there's no one to claim your body or demand a police investigation, right?"

She paused, her eyes glowing with raw, unfiltered greed.

"And then, Julian gets to take that 'startup partnership' document you signed and cash out the massive life insurance policy in your name. If you die, that money perfectly funds our wedding, don't you think?"

Pure, unadulterated rage boiled in my chest.

This wasn't some cruel college prank. They had premeditated my murder!

But their foolproof plan had one fatal flaw.

My parents may be gone, but I was definitely not some broke, nameless orphan.

I was the little sister to the absolute first-in-line heir of the Sterling family—a monopolistic dynasty that controlled the global economy.

If I lost so much as a single hair on my head, my cold-blooded, iron-fisted brother Alexander and his elite private militia would wipe this entire frat house off the map.

I glared at them, wanting nothing more than to tear the two of them apart with my bare hands.

But to Madison, my hateful, helpless, dying glare just looked like a pathetic comedy sketch.

Madison's lips curled into a sickening smile as she leaned right beside my ear.

"You must be in so much pain," she whispered. "Let me do you a favor and put you out of your misery."