She Stole My EpiPen. My Family Made Her Pay Chapter 01

She Stole My EpiPen. My Family Made Her Pay Chapter 01

After my boyfriend’s childhood sweetheart, Madison, heard I was allergic to peanuts, she mixed peanut extract into the sauce on every single party appetizer.
The second I accidentally ate one, my airway began to clamp shut. Angry red welts spread across my pale skin.
With shaking hands, I reached into my Chanel clutch, pulled out the EpiPen that was supposed to save my life, and yanked off the safety cap.
Then I froze in horror.
What I had pulled from my bag was not my EpiPen. It was a cheap candy toy pen someone had swapped in.
When Madison saw my face covered in hives and heard me fighting for breath, she burst out laughing.
“Surprise! I had Drake switch it for you.”
“Selena, can you stop being such a drama queen? Since when does one bite of peanut kill you?”
I stared at my boyfriend and forced the words out through my tightening throat.
“Drake… if you don’t give me my medicine, I’m going to die.”
Drake frowned and rolled his eyes.
“Selena, do you really think you’re some delicate little trust-fund princess? I’ve never heard of anyone dropping dead from a little peanut.”
“Madison’s right. You always make everything about you.”
I stopped wasting breath trying to explain. I pressed the hidden side button on my watch, the highest-level SOS alert linked straight to my family’s private security team.
…
Drake glanced at me without changing expression.
“What did you just press? Don’t tell me you’re calling 911 over a prank.”
He ripped the watch off my wrist and squinted at it for a long time.
When he saw nothing unusual on the display, he sneered, hurled the watch worth several hundred thousand dollars onto the floor, and crushed the face under his leather boot.
I reached for it, but my throat had swollen so badly I could no longer pull in air. My vision began to blur.
“I’m going into anaphylactic shock… give me the medicine.”
Madison folded her arms and watched me as if I were the entertainment.
“Miss Selena, are you really suffering? Or are you just trying to steal Drake’s spotlight at his own birthday party?”
“It’s bad enough you use that black card of yours to buy his attention every other day. Could you at least not ruin tonight?”
It felt as if invisible hands were locked around my neck. I collapsed weakly onto the leather couch.
Drake and Madison had grown up on the same block in Brooklyn. Afraid I would get the wrong idea, Drake had once sworn to me,
“She’s like a little sister to me. If there were anything between us, we would’ve gone to City Hall years ago, right?”
Madison had also hooked her arm through mine and played innocent.
“Selena, Drake is a clueless idiot when it comes to romance. Honestly, only a sweet Manhattan girl like you could put up with him.”
I had actually believed their nonsense.
But little by little, I noticed something was off. Every time we went out to dinner, she deliberately cut into my conversations with Drake and brought up old high school stories only the two of them understood, shutting me out completely.
If I went quiet, she would take a sip of her cocktail and add in that fake-sweet voice,
“Selena, you’re not jealous because Drake and I are having fun talking, are you?”
“Honey, we grew up together. Please don’t be so insecure.”
Now the malice she had always hidden was written all over her face.
“You don’t even have a crown, but you still act like a queen. Does your rich-girl skin crawl the second Drake isn’t orbiting you?”
“And now you’re pretending to die so you can emotionally blackmail him?”
In the VIP room, Drake’s fraternity buddies broke into sharp, ugly laughter.
“I’m really… allergic to peanuts… please, the medicine.”
I dragged up the last of my strength and rasped it out.
The room went quiet for one second, then exploded into even louder laughter. Madison’s voice cut through the pounding hip-hop like glass.
“Oh my God, she’s committing to the bit! Drake, your girlfriend deserves an Oscar.”
“Drake, don’t tell me you feel bad for her.”
Before Drake could answer, several guys started egging him on.
“Come on, feeling sorry for a girl like that is how you ruin your life.”
“Drake, you’re the coolest guy we know. Don’t let this drama queen run you.”
Goaded by his friends, the brief hesitation in Drake’s eyes vanished.
He lifted his chin and gave a cold laugh.
“Who says I feel bad? Honestly, this prank was too tame.”
He raised his foot and nudged my spasming calf.
“Quit faking, Selena. Keep this up and I’ll actually get mad.”
When I did not respond, panic flickered in his eyes.
He started to step forward, but Madison grabbed him.
“I told you she’s a liar. You almost fell for it again. Who turns purple from an allergy? She’s obviously holding her breath.”
I struggled to lift my head and forced a few words through my throat.
“Give me… the medicine…”
Before I could finish, Drake pressed the back of my head down and slapped me hard across the face twice.
My cheeks swelled and burned like tomatoes.
“Is this what you want?”
He pulled the small bottle of emergency antihistamine tablets from his jeans pocket, poured them into his palm, and tossed them lightly with a nasty grin.
My eyes locked on those pills.
“Give them… now.”
Just as my trembling fingers were about to touch them, Drake smirked and stepped back.
I fell heavily against the couch and watched him dump every tablet into an ashtray full of cigarette butts, then pour half a glass of whiskey over them.
The white pills dissolved in the murky liquor, bubbling in a way that turned my stomach.
Nausea rolled through me, and I gagged painfully.