Chapter 1The Sweet-Talking Friend

My best friend Claire constantly uses me to test her boyfriend’s loyalty.

She sends him suggestive messages from my account, orders lingerie in my name, then gets a thrill watching him shut me down and declare devotion to her.

This time, she invited me to dinner and had her boyfriend Julian serve me food while she watched with a sly smile.

I was mortified—until comments flickered in my vision:

[Here we go again. The rich protagonist uses our girl because she’s insecure the male lead actually loves the side character.]

[She even sabotaged her scholarship and ‘sponsored’ her to stay close.]

[Sienna, just eat the food. Use this guy to climb up. Let’s see who laughs last.]

* * *

It took me a long moment to process what I’d just read.

I had never, not for a second, imagined that the anonymous tip that cost me my scholarship all those years ago had come from my best friend.

For years, I had been profoundly grateful to Claire. When I had nowhere else to turn, she paid for my education. I considered her my truest friend. Even after I paid back every cent, I continued to do everything in my power to repay her kindness.

No matter how absurd her schemes to test Julian were, I would grit my teeth through his condescending glares and humiliating remarks, sending those degrading messages for her. I told her again and again that she and Julian were childhood sweethearts, that he was with her because he loved her.

But she refused to believe it. She would move heaven and earth to test him, needing to see that cold rejection in his eyes before she could be satisfied.

Before coming here tonight, I had been so excited. I thought that since it was my birthday, Claire’s dinner invitation was a surprise party.

Turns out, she’d just found another online trick to test her boyfriend, and I was the sacrificial lamb yet again.