Chapter 2

Just like last time, Madison's video went viral overnight. The comments were full of people calling her a gold-digger and saying she was totally mind-blowing. Some even dragged our sorority through the mud on Barstool Sports.

Every time we went out, even if Madison wasn't with us, people gave us side-eyes and sneers.

Someone said, "Look. It's those girls from the gold-digging sorority. They think just because they're pretty, they can score a rich man. They're making our school look bad."

Another person said, "I heard one of them is a straight-A scholarship student. She probably slept her way to those recommendation letters."

In my previous life, I'd made Madison delete the post in time, so things never got this ugly. But now, it wasn't just her. Thanks to the fallout, all of us had become the laughingstock of the whole school.

Leah stormed back to the sorority house, dragging the two of us along, absolutely fuming.

When we got back, Madison was smearing a thick layer of face mask all over her skin. I caught a glimpse of that deep green paste on her face and then glanced at my skincare shelf. That was the La Mer cream I'd brought all the way from Paris. Each jar was five hundred dollars.

This time, I caught her red-handed. I didn't know how many times Madison had already helped herself to it when I wasn't looking.

The thought of her slathering my top-shelf skincare like it was drugstore body lotion made my skin crawl, not because of the price, but because it was just plain disgusting.

I marched right up to Madison, snatched the La Mer cream from her, and confronted her angrily, "What are you doing? Why are you helping yourself to my stuff without even asking?"

Honestly, I was pissed. Here in the US, personal property was off-limits. Even sorority sisters weren't supposed to mess with each other's things.

But Madison didn't even look embarrassed. She just rolled her eyes, acting like she owned the place.

She said, "I'm dating the football team captain now, so honestly, what's yours is mine. You should feel lucky I'm even using your stuff. If you treat me right, maybe I'll have my boyfriend's dad pull some strings for you at Goldman Sachs when you graduate."

It had been two weeks since Madison posted that video. She barely spent a night in the house anymore, always making us cover for her. Looked like she'd finally landed her target.

Madison never told us his name, but she kept flexing about how rich her new guy was, who was dripping in Amiri and Chrome Hearts, and while we were still splitting Uber fares, he was already rolling up in a matte black Maserati.

From the way Madison described him, there was only one guy on campus who fit the bill. And that was Ethan Sterling, the Sterling family's heir, the West Coast's ultimate elite.

But hearing Madison say that, rage surged through me.

I said, "I don't need you to throw me a job. I can stand on my own two feet. And that doesn't give you the right to just take my stuff."

Madison scoffed, "The job market sucks right now. Tons of Ivy League grads are making lattes at Starbucks, but you still act like you're above it all? Just wait. When you graduate and can't land a job, and you come crawling to me, don't expect my boyfriend's family to bail you out!"

With that, Madison snatched the cream right out of my hand, hurled it to the floor, and crushed it under her Prada heels.

Leah had been holding it in for a while. If it weren't for what just happened, she would've lost it long ago.

Leah snapped, "Madison! You made this mess, so deal with it yourself. Don't drag the rest of us down. Get on Instagram right now and make it clear it was all your idea and has nothing to do with us! Thanks to you, everyone's talking about us!"

She stepped in front of me, hands on her hips, and tore into Madison.

Madison rolled her eyes and kept filing her nails, totally unfazed. "Honestly, I'm doing this for you girls. The three of you just can't admit it, but you've been jealous of me from the start. Stop acting like you're better than me."

Leah's face turned bright red with anger. "What the hell are you talking about? We just want to get our degrees quietly. Don't project your twisted ideas onto us!"

Madison stood up, shooting us a look of pure contempt. "Keep treating me like this, and I'll have my boyfriend get you blacklisted with his frat connections. You'll be run out of this school. That's real power. Understand?"

Leah snapped, "Oh, enough with your boyfriend flex. You really think landing some rich kid makes you high society?? TikTok's got you pegged as a cheap gold-digger, and you still act like you're some high-class socialite?"

Leah was a total savage. Madison was so pissed and embarrassed that she couldn't even get a word out. She just glared at us, eyes full of venom, and then stormed off to the bathroom, phone in hand, crying dramatically.

I could hear Madison on the phone, putting on her most high-pitched, sugary-sweet voice, which was so fake and so cringey that I almost wanted to plug my ears.

Leah plopped down, grinding her teeth.

Emma looked uneasy. "Is she actually with Ethan Sterling? That kind of heir is way out of our league. I heard the Sterling family literally built a library for the school."

Leah fired back, "So what if she is? We've got nothing to be afraid of. We're in the right. Just because he's rich doesn't mean he can call all the shots around here. We earned our spot at this school fair and square!"

But as soon as I heard Ethan's name, I instinctively glanced at my phone. There it was, an unread text.

[Hey, V, what time are you done with class? Got us a table at Nobu. Let's go grab your favorite sushi.]

Sent yesterday afternoon.

Yep, Ethan and I grew up together. Our families had been tight for generations, both with deep roots on Wall Street. Our parents had basically been shipping us since forever. If he had a girlfriend, I'd know.

Our chats were pretty casual. When I was drowning in deadlines, I'd just leave him on read. As for whether he and Madison had anything going on, I'd have to ask him directly to find out.

I shot off a quick reply, barely thinking.

Victoria: [I'm down. Let's go today.]

Ethan texted back in a heartbeat.

Ethan: [Of course, princess. I'll pick you up after class.]