When Ian Broker's childhood friend, Zoey Berg, hears that I have severe arrhythmia, she purposefully adds a strong dose of energy drink into my water.

As soon as I drink the water, I feel my heart rate elevating rapidly. Heartwrenching pain instantly floods my chest.

I quickly tear open the only pack of medication I have. Alas, that's when I realize that the water in my thermos flask has gotten swapped out with potent coffee.

As soon as I took a sip out of my flask, my face goes eerily pale. Coldness floods my limbs as well, causing me to crumple to the floor as though I were paralyzed.

Zoey keeps laughing at me to the point she has tears running down her face.

"As expected of a theater student! You really are good at acting! I've been practicing medicine for so long, and I've never seen anyone suffering this much just by drinking some coffee!"

I can only kneel before Ian in distress. My gums are on the verge of bleeding because of how tightly I'm gnashing my teeth together.

"Ian, call the ambulance… I'm dying…"

But Ian remains unperturbed by my condition.

"That's enough, Daisy. Your performance will be far too dramatic if you keep this up. No one dies just by consuming a little coffee.

"Besides, Zoey is a doctor. What can possibly happen to you with her around, anyway?"

I no longer beg Ian for help. Instead, I draft an SOS text message and send it to someone else.

"What are you doing? It's just a joke. Do you have to expose it to the paparazzi?"

Ian Broker snatched my phone away. After failing to unlock it, he smashed it without hesitation.

At that moment, I felt a crushing tightness in my chest, struggling to breathe as my vision dimmed.

Clutching my chest, I collapsed to my knees and begged him in desperation.

"No, Ian. I really suffer from arrhythmia. Call the ambulance for me!"

At long last, Ian noticed something was off with me. His brows puckered up.

The next second, Zoey Berg yanked him aside and slammed her glass against the table, the sharp clang cutting through the air.

"Daisy Graham, this is really low of you. Ian came here today to celebrate my promotion. Do you have to ruin it out of jealousy? And you call yourself a celebrity? Instead of using your acting where it matters, you pull these underhanded tricks."

Breathing became increasingly difficult. My chest felt like it was weighed down, and I couldn't get enough air.

Ian and Zoey were childhood friends. Whenever Ian and I went on dates, Zoey would often show up unannounced.

I raised this issue with Ian many times, but he always acted as if it were completely normal.

"Zoey and I are like family. Don't overthink it."

Worried I might misunderstand, Zoey chimed in, "Ian's my best friend. I'm just trying to look out for him."

Even though they said that, whenever we went shopping, they would always end up walking hand in hand, leaving me trailing behind on my own.

Ian was particular about hygiene. Whenever we ate together, he insisted on using separate utensils and would never take food directly from me.

But with Zoey, he'd gladly split a food truck burger and even share the same drink with her without a second thought.

The moment I showed even a hint of displeasure, Zoey would start making sarcastic remarks, implying I was petty and narrow-minded.

That merely served to make Ian grow increasingly impatient with me.

Zoey crouched down and patted my face, her expression showing delight in my misfortune.

"I know. You're used to being treated like a celebrity. You think you should be the center of attention no matter where you go. We're celebrating my promotion today, so nobody is fawning over you. That's why you got all upset and started stirring things up to get their attention, right?"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Some even pulled out their phones to record my humiliating state.

"Embarrassing!" Ian spat out the word through clenched teeth and stepped away from me.

Pain gripped my chest so badly that even speaking felt impossible.

I forced myself to calm down and crawled toward the door to get help from outside.

Zoey's unrestrained laughter rang out behind me. "What? Trying to escape now that your scheme has been revealed? Haha!"

Hearing that, everyone in the private room burst out laughing yet again.

Ian's face darkened.

Just as I was about to reach the door, Zoey grabbed my ankle and dragged me back. My face scraped and hit the edge of the table along the way, leaving me bruised and swollen.

"Ian, women are lowly by nature. You should rein her in before getting married, or you'll be miserable after. We're all here today, so time to set some rules and make your authority as a husband clear."

She then tossed me on the ground like I was trash.

Ian turned coldly and gave me a kick.

"Get up now. Stop being embarrassing."

Right after saying that, he froze.

He belatedly noticed my face had gone deathly pale, my whole body drenched in cold sweat.

Zoey immediately had the server bring over a highly concentrated drink and forced it down my throat.

"The weather's scorching. You've really outdone yourself, staying sprawled on the ground to put on this act. Here, have an iced drink."

In an instant, a terrifying sensation of impending death swept over me.

My heart hammered so hard that my upper body shook uncontrollably.

I gasped for air, my throat producing a wheezing sound.

Noticing something was wrong, everyone recoiled in horror.

"I-Is she really in pain?"

Ian froze instantly, his entire body shaking.

"Daisy?" he asked in a trembling voice as he stumbled over to me.

Zoey moved in front of him, laughing as she brought up a video on her phone.

"Ha! No wonder this scene looks convincing. Turns out she played a patient with arrhythmia before. Incredible performance, huh? Her acting's flawless."

Ian's expression changed drastically.

He shot me a hard glare and slammed his hand on the table. "Daisy Graham, can you stop already? Everyone's gathered here to celebrate Zoey's promotion to attending physician today. Can't you at least show her some respect?"

I lay on the ground, my face twisted in pain.

There was no strength left in me to answer him as my consciousness was already slipping.

"Hey!" Ian heaved in anger.

Desperate to keep up appearances, he thrust a glass of liquor toward me.

"Get up and apologize to Zoey!"

Zoey downed her drink, then crouched down beside me to lecture me.

"Daisy, I've already finished my drink. If you still refuse to drink, that's on you. You can't be this petty. Oh, I get it. You're too busy with your act to bother, right? That's fine. Let me help you."

As she spoke, she topped my glass with liquor.

A few friends of hers understood immediately and moved in together, forcing my mouth open.

"Mm… Mm!"

I struggled in pain, but it was all in vain.

There was nothing I could do as Zoey poured the entire glass of liquor down my throat.

The strong liquor burned down my throat, and before long, my body went numb.

My heartbeat became impossible to control, pounding so hard it felt like it might burst from my throat. As a searing heat gripped my chest, for the first time, I felt the horrifying sensation of suffocation.

My eyes went wide as I stared at Ian pleadingly.

"H-Help me…"

He shot me a contemptuous look and let out a cold snort. "It's just a glass of liquor. Stop making a scene. Zoey's a doctor. She knows what she's doing."

He looked away and raised his glass to Zoey.

"Zoey, don't mind her. She doesn't know any better. Let's drink!"

One of their friends protested, "Ian, you're allergic. How can you drink? Your girlfriend should drink on your behalf."

Everyone turned to look at me.

In their disappointed eyes, I was still just putting on a performance.

Seeing this, Zoey chuckled and stepped in.

"Forget it. She's already taken this act far enough. One more drink, and she'll be forced to play dead. Ian, let's do this the usual way. I'll drink on behalf of you, but let's do something different this time."

She held his hand intimately and lifted the glass to his lips.

Their friends immediately cheered, "Drink it!"

Unable to resist their enthusiasm, Ian blushed as he took a small sip.

The next second, Zoey forcefully pulled him in by the back of his head and kissed him, transferring every drop of alcohol from his mouth into hers.

He didn't struggle. In fact, he closed his eyes, savoring the moment.

When they finally pulled apart, a thin thread of saliva lingered between their lips.

Despair filled my heart.

Through my fading awareness, I caught a glimpse of a sachet of powdered medicine near Zoey's feet. There was still some powder left inside.

Driven by a desperate will to survive, I crawled toward it with all the strength I had left.

Just as my hand was about to reach the sachet, she suddenly stepped on it and crushed it under her foot.

"Wow, weren't you on the verge of dying earlier? The moment you saw Ian and me interact, you couldn't keep up the act anymore, huh?"

She deliberately raised his voice, making sure everyone could hear.

"Daisy Graham, you're truly disappointing."

Ian shot me an annoyed glare and turned away impatiently.

Zoey took the opportunity to seize a fistful of my hair, a dangerous smile spreading across her face.

"Your arrhythmia must be killing you, huh? Don't worry. Something worse is coming for you."

Her gaze turned vicious all of a sudden as she grabbed a wine glass from the table and smashed it to the ground.

Zoey thrust the sharp end of the broken glass toward my neck.

My heart lurched.

It was obvious she was doing this on purpose.

Without hesitation, I grabbed her hand and twisted away, dodging left and right to evade her.

Our commotion caught Ian's attention.

Just as they were about to turn to look at us, Zoey grabbed the shattered wine glass and an empty wine bottle from the table, then swung them at my head.

The jagged shard sliced across my face, tearing skin and flesh.

"Ow!" I cried out in horror as the pain shot from my face through my entire body.

"Daisy Graham, are you nuts? Pretending to be ill didn't work on Ian, so now you're smashing a bottle over your head?"

As expected, Ian's temper flared.

He pushed through the crowd and hurried over, only for his eyes to widen when he saw my face smeared with blood.

"D-Daisy, I'll take you to the hospital!"

Without hesitation, he grabbed his car keys from the table, his expression turning grave.

Zoey quickly stopped him.

She hid the blood-stained and broken wine glass behind her back and pointed at the empty bottle on the floor with a mocking smile.

"Ian, look. The wine bottle isn't even broken. The blood on her face is just red ink. Every actor uses that kind of realistic-looking fake blood."

Ian studied my face carefully. When his gaze landed on the intact bottle, it turned frightfully cold.

The faint trace of concern he had just begun to feel for me vanished in an instant.

"Calm down. I know how to clean her up."

The malicious Zoey dragged me into the hotel kitchen and shoved me straight into a large wine barrel.

The blood on my face was washed away by the wine, but it felt like blades scraping across my wounds. The pain was so intense that I was suffocating.

The sharp alcohol burned as it filled my lungs. Waves of dizziness crashed in as my heart began thumping wildly.

I thrashed desperately in the wine barrel, every second feeling like it might be my last.

"Ha! Weren't you on the verge of passing out just now? It seems you have plenty of strength left."

Zoey's chilling voice cut through from above.

Before I could respond, she pushed my head into the wine barrel again.

"Wake up a little more. That way, you won't act all stupid and upset Ian again."

In my dazed state, I thought I saw Ian turning away in disgust, as though looking at me for even a second was already too much.

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst. Despair and terror overwhelmed me as I grabbed the edge of the barrel, trying to cry for help.

Yet my throat was burned by the wine, leaving a metallic, bloody sweetness in my mouth.

"Ugh…" I coughed out a mouthful of blood before managing to speak weakly. "Zoey, my father is the director of your hospital. He won't let you get away with this!"

Zoey snorted.

"Had too much to drink and finally dropped the act? Now you're starting to brag. You only managed to become an actress because of your pretty face. Don't flatter yourself. Our hospital director is Mr. Henry Graham, a major figure from one of Lendwest's four great families, the Graham family. Someone like him is completely out of your league. I'm the only one here who can even speak to him. You should count yourself lucky to share his surname."

She paused, then sneered, "Wake up. If you're really one of the Grahams, you can have my head on a silver platter."

Everyone chuckled in amusement at her words.

Ian scowled in displeasure, then folded his arms, his gaze dripping with contempt.

"Daisy, have some self-respect. If you keep being ignorant, I'm breaking up with you!"

My limbs slowly went rigid. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a familiar figure outside the window.

Tears welled up instantly as I fought to call out for help.

"Help… Me…"

Hearing my cry for help, Zoey burst out laughing as she towered over me arrogantly.

"Who's going to save you? Your delusional fans?

The onlookers were laughing so hard that some of them were in tears.

Driven by alcohol, they all moved at once, forcing my head back into the wine barrel.

My world fell silent instantly.

My blood pressure shot up, causing my head to go blank. The strength drained from my limbs as I sank helplessly into the wine.

Just as I thought I wouldn't make it out alive, the door was thrown open.

A furious voice cut through the room, tight with rage. "You're all dead!"