Chapter 5

Tristan finally looked terrified.

He dashed to the medicine cabinet, frantically tossing bottles aside until he found my rescue inhaler.

"Chloe! Quick, use this—"

"Tristan... my stomach hurts... I think... something is wrong," Sienna suddenly whimpered, clutching her abdomen and collapsing onto the floor.

Tristan whipped his head around, his eyes darting frantically between me and Sienna.

Finally, he clenched his teeth and threw the inhaler toward me.

"Chloe, hang on! I'll call an ambulance for you!"

He scooped Sienna up in his arms and bolted out of the penthouse. He didn't look back. Not even once.

I crawled desperately across the floor, my fingers trembling as I grabbed the inhaler. I shoved it into my mouth and pressed down.

Nothing.

I pressed it again, harder. Still nothing. It was completely empty.

The plastic canister slipped from my hand, rolling into the dark corner under the cabinet.

Cold sweat soaked my shirt. My lips were turning a dark shade of blue. My lungs screamed for oxygen, but no air would enter.

As my vision began to fade into black, the ring on my finger suddenly flashed a bright, steady light.

I let out a bitter, silent laugh.

I guess... I won't make it to the seventh day.

In the hospital hallway, Tristan paced back and forth, clutching his phone.

On his way to the hospital with Sienna, he had called a private medical team to rush to the penthouse.

"I left her the inhaler, and the doctors are on their way. She'll be fine," Tristan muttered to himself, trying to shake the image of my suffocating face from his mind.

Thirty minutes later, his phone rang.

"Mr. Carter, we searched the entire penthouse. Miss Vance is not here."

The blood drained from Tristan's face.

"What do you mean she's not there?!" he roared into the phone. "She was having an asthma attack! Where could she have gone?!"

"We don't know, sir. But when we arrived, the only thing we found was an empty inhaler on the floor."

Tristan's head spun. He took two steps back, nearly losing his balance.

Empty? How could it be empty? All the inhalers in the cabinet were brand new.

"Expand the search! Check every hospital emergency room in the city!"

Tristan opened his Snapchat chat with me. He realized I had sent him several messages the day before, none of which he had replied to.

He dialed my number.

"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable..."

His hand shook violently. He redialed, again and again, but the automated voice was all he got.

Tristan sank onto a plastic chair in the waiting room. He waited from noon until midnight before the medical team called back.

"Mr. Carter... a local hospital admitted a female patient with severe asthma and a high fever this afternoon."

Tristan's body went rigid.

The day before, he had been so focused on Sienna that he had forced me to carry heavy bags in the pouring rain.

"Is she okay?!" Tristan demanded, his heart hammering against his ribs.

There was a long, suffocating silence on the other end of the line.

"They... they couldn't revive her. She's gone."