Three years after my death for murder by poisoning, I finally dragged my entire family before the Court of the Afterlife.

This court only judged the dead. They had all died at the hands of my enemies, including my younger sister Emily Evans and her husband Daniel Carter.

If the charges were proven, they would be sent to the Inferno of Eternal Torment, suffering the five great punishments, while I would ascend to Heaven.

If not, they would go to Heaven, and I would be cast into Hell.

Judge Williams glanced over me—draped in gold and jewels—and then at my sister, clad in plain linen, before repeating:

“Are you certain you wish to initiate a trial? The charge is… favoritism?”

Before I could respond, my entire family dropped to their knees, pleading.

“Sophia, don’t be foolish and start a trial. Wouldn’t it be better to enter Heaven together and enjoy peace?”

“In this life we did right by you. You wanted luxury items and pretty clothes, we sold everything we had to buy them for you. Even when you became a murderer, we used Emily’s tuition money to buy you a cemetery plot, which cost her her place at Harvard University.”

I ignored them and turned to the Judge, nodding firmly.

“Pretty clothes? They weren’t even full price. Every single one bought with discount coupons!”

“I demand the trial. Let them suffer punishment, condemned for all eternity!”

My mother, Linda Evans, widened her eyes in disbelief.

“All this… just for something so small?”

I sneered.

“Yes. Just for this.”

…

“Oh God, what a heartless, ungrateful creature! A family raises what should have been a precious daughter, only to end up with a debt-collector of a child!”

Onlookers gathered around the court. Trials were common enough, but a charge of “favoritism” was rare, drawing in a curious crowd.

“How foolish. She could have gone straight to Heaven, but instead drags herself into certain damnation. What kind of stubborn pride is this?”

Hearing this, Linda also fell to her knees.

“Yes, Sophia, don’t be so reckless. If this trial begins, the only one who will lose is you. I just don’t want you to suffer in Hell!”

“If you truly feel neglected, then let’s be mother and daughter again in the next life. By then, I’ll sell my own kidney if I must to buy you full-priced Chanel and Louis Vuitton clothes.”

Tears streamed down Linda’s face as she clutched at my robes, banging her forehead against the ground until it bled.

The sight moved many onlookers to tears.

“She’s only trying to protect her daughter. How can Sophia not see it?”

“As the saying goes, only women and petty men are hard to deal with. I say she’s both woman and petty—stupid as a pig, not innocent but willfully blind!”

Finally, Emily couldn’t bear it any longer. Her eyes were red and swollen as she pulled Linda up.

“Mom, stop. She’s an ungrateful wolf. Don’t kneel to her.”

“She wants to die, let her. She’s already nearly killed us once when we tried to stop her!”

I remained unmoved, even letting out a mocking laugh.

“Yes, you never understood anything. You couldn’t use a phone or a computer, and all your life you did was nag with useless words. My affairs no longer concern you.”

The crowd clenched their fists, glaring at me as if they wished to strike me down on the spot for my unfilial cruelty.

Yet a few voices took another view.

“Am I the only one who notices how calm and confident she seems? Maybe there’s more to this than we know.”

But others scoffed.

“What else could there be? The facts are plain enough. Just watch—she’ll be the one thrown into Hell.”

“You almost got us killed—what’s this about?”

Hearing Emily Evans’s words, Judge Williams narrowed his eyes, his gaze locking firmly on me.

Before I could reply, Emily blurted out excitedly,

“Your Honor, could you please retrieve the black bottle I left in my drawer when I was alive?”

In the blink of an eye, a small black bottle appeared in the Judge’s hand.

A label clung to it—rat poison.

“Your Honor, this is proof that Sophia Evans poisoned us!”

The Judge turned to me again.

“Is this true?”

“Yes,” I answered calmly, “but she got one thing wrong. I never intended to kill the whole family. The only one I wanted dead—was her.”

My eyes flashed with venom.

“But fate wasn’t on the others’ side. They drank from the poisoned water by mistake.”

I pulled my gaze back, my tone light, as if speaking of something ordinary.

At that, the crowd erupted in fury. They hurled eggs, cabbage, even foul-smelling liquids at me.

“How can a woman be so vicious, so utterly vile? Someone like her deserves a thousand cuts, her tongue ripped out, thrown into fire and ice, boiled in oil—let her suffer every torment in Hell!”

I stood drenched and sticky, yet my expression was full of self-righteous certainty.

“I’m not wrong. They owed me this.”

Emily stepped forward again, tears streaming down her face.

“Do you even know how Mom and Dad lived after you died?”

“Even though I was the only one in our family who made it into the top university in the country, I still couldn’t attend. Why? Because my tuition was used to pay for your cremation, your funeral, and your cemetery plot.”

At that moment, the Judge conjured a long receipt in his hand.

Tens of thousands of dollars—enough for a grand funeral, though a simple burial would never have cost so much.

“Not only that,” Emily continued, her voice shaking, “but the family went into debt to cover it. To pay it back, Mom—with her rheumatism—went fishing every day for money. Dad, with his bad legs, worked in the freezing cold storage warehouses, hauling crates every single day…”

Linda Evans’s eyes welled up as she gripped Emily’s sleeve, shaking her head desperately, signaling her not to go on.

But Emily’s eyes were scarlet with fury.

“No—I have to say it. I need to tell it all!”

“Even your belongings, Mom refused to part with them! The luxury jewelry, the shoes, the clothes—if she had sold them, it would’ve eased the financial burden. But no, she kept every piece as a keepsake, not selling a single one!”

The crowd’s stares cut into me like knives.

“Vain! Pretending to be rich when she had nothing!”

But I was unfazed.

In fact, seeing their tears only made me laugh hysterically.

“Poverty is the original sin. Who told you to be poor? Who told you to give birth to me? If you’d given me to a wealthy family instead, wouldn’t I have been better off?”

Finally, someone in the crowd snapped, charging at me with fists raised, ready to strike me down.

But just as the blow was about to fall, Robert Evans stopped him.

His hair was pure white, his face aged decades beyond his years.

“Sophia,” he said softly, “no matter what happened, you are still my daughter. You’re not wrong. The fault lies with me—for not raising you well.”

Someone else in the crowd broke into sobs.

“When I was alive, my father said the same to me. Back then I thought he was just nagging… but now I regret not listening…”

But I only laughed.

“Old fool. What an act.”

“If I was the one who poisoned everyone, then why are you all still alive? Why was I the only one who died?”

At my words, Robert Evans froze for a moment, instinctively avoiding my gaze.

“If you all insist you did nothing wrong, then agree to the trial!”

The Court of the Afterlife required both sides to consent; if either refused, it couldn’t proceed.

“Fine, we agree,” Robert said.

“We have nothing to hide. Just don’t regret it later.”

At that moment, my brother-in-law Daniel Carter finally stepped forward, stirring excitement among the crowd.

“We support you.”

“Let the trial begin—make this woman regret everything until her last breath…”

Under the voice of the people, Judge Williams invoked his authority and summoned the first memory.

A shimmering curtain of water opened before everyone’s eyes, displaying memories from both me and Emily Evans.

The first scene: the whole family gathered around the dinner table.

It was the day after Emily had just married Daniel.

Beneath the table, my foot deliberately brushed against Daniel’s.

At first, Daniel thought it was Emily, and he smiled at her meaningfully.

But seeing Emily’s puzzled expression, he realized something was wrong.

He shot up from his chair and quickly pulled me aside.

“Sophia, whether you meant it or not, let me make myself clear—I only love your sister. Please have some self-respect.”

Embarrassed as I was, I didn’t give up.

When Emily wasn’t home, I slipped into her lace nightgown and lay down on their marriage bed.

Daniel was shocked, then threw me out without hesitation.

The very next day, he told Emily everything.

The crowd erupted in applause for Daniel.

“What a man—resisting temptation. A model for all husbands.”

Their praise for him turned into condemnation for me.

“So young, yet already trying to seduce your brother-in-law. Shameless!”

Just as Daniel lifted his head proudly, the water curtain shifted to another scene.

High school.

I was throwing a tantrum, furious because a wealthy classmate had a walk-in closet, and I demanded one too.

Linda Evans, embarrassed, tried to calm me down. But I raged, smashing everything in the house, threatening to run away if they didn’t give in.

In the end, it was Emily who stepped forward and sacrificed her own bedroom, turning it into my closet. For the next ten years, she slept on a hard, narrow sofa.

The timeline pulled us further back.

Elementary and middle school.

Our family wasn’t poor, but we weren’t wealthy either. We could afford a cake, but it wasn’t essential.

Emily and I were born on the same day. Knowing I was prone to tantrums, Linda wrote only my name on the cake and candles, even sang the birthday song using only my name.

Emily’s existence was only acknowledged when they added a casual “Happy birthday, Emily” after I had blown out the candles.

The audience erupted.

“Favoritism? Isn’t it obvious your mother’s favoritism was for you? You greedy, ungrateful brat!”

The water shifted one last time, showing my final days.

Because Daniel had rejected me, I was angry and humiliated.

I went out drinking, mixing with strangers every night.

During that time, I seduced a married man.

After just one night, his wife caught us, chasing me down and beating me until I was bruised all over.

And yet, I blamed Emily for it all.

That very evening, I laced the water kettle with rat poison.

I had intended to kill Emily—but the whole family drank from it by mistake.

At that moment, Linda broke down in grief, throwing herself in front of the water curtain, trying to block the memories from being seen.