My best friend, Aria Sinclair, develops amnesia after killing my parents in a drunk-driving accident. Somehow, everyone forgives her.

My own brother signs a letter of forgiveness on her behalf. The son I nearly died bringing into this world affectionately calls her "Ari". Even my lawyer husband of eight years stands in front of her and defends her.

Because I insist on taking her to court, they join forces and have me committed to a psychiatric facility for an entire year.

On the day I'm released, Grant Berton comes to pick me up.

He says, "Aria has lost her memory. She's changed and turned over a new leaf. Do you really have to demand a life for a life? Can't we forget the past and move on together?"

Voices rise around me from every direction, all urging me to let go and forcing me to forgive.

I look at the people who are supposedly the closest and dearest to me.

Then, I calmly utter one word. "No."

This time, I don't scream and rage about sending her to prison. Even when I catch Grant and her together in the bedroom, I don't pick up a knife and drive them out.

Instead, I silently speak to the system in my mind. "I give up on the mission."

I don't want the wreckage of the past, and I have no interest whatsoever in a future without light.

The moment I pushed open the bedroom door, I thought I'd lose control the way I always did, rush in and tear them apart.

The two of them were tangled together on the bed. Aria Sinclair screamed and buried herself in Grant Berton's arms, while he grabbed the blanket and pulled it over her.

"So you caught us," he said, his voice dripping with contempt. "You're not going to throw another fit, are you?"

Aria huddled beneath the covers, her voice small and pitiful. "Carly, we never meant for this to happen."

But I just stood there, perfectly calm, and called out to the system in my mind. "I'm giving up the mission."

"Carly, if the mission is marked as a failure, your soul will be destroyed!" the system warned.

"Good. At least I won't have to look at them anymore."

I couldn't stomach another second of a future spent tangled up with these two.

"Countdown initiated. Affection score will be settled in 24 hours."

Grant pulled on a shirt like nothing had happened. "Since you're here, I might as well tell you now. Tomorrow's the anniversary of your parents' death. You can take the chance to clear things up for Aria."

"Clear what up?" I asked.

Aria's voice turned sweet and syrupy. "That I had nothing to do with your parents' deaths, of course. It was all just a terrible accident."

I shook my head without hesitation. "Not a chance."

Aria's eyes welled up instantly, the picture of wounded innocence. "Carly, I've already been punished. I have amnesia. I don't remember anything from before. Isn't that enough?"

Her voice cracked. "Do you really need me to pay with my life?"

I stared her down. "Yes. I wish you'd drop dead right now."

The words had barely left my mouth when Aria suddenly produced a knife from somewhere and pressed the tip against her chest. "Since you hate me that much, I'll give my life back to you."

My expression didn't change. "Go ahead. Do it."

The blade hadn't even broken through the fabric of her shirt before Grant snatched it away. In the same motion, he backhanded me across the face. He pulled Aria into his arms, and when he turned to look at me, his eyes were full of nothing but disgust.

The truth was, everything had gone smoothly at the start. From dating to marriage to having a child together, my Affection score peaked at 98%. At the height of it, I'd even thought about staying in this world after the mission was complete.

Then Aria started showing up in our lives more and more often, and my score dropped and kept dropping until it finally cratered below 10%.

"Carly Burke, she's been your best friend for over ten years. Can't you just pretend none of this happened and move on?"

Why should I forgive her just because she had amnesia? Why wasn't I allowed to hate her?

I let out a bitter laugh. "No."

The word had barely left my mouth when something hard slammed into the back of my head. I turned to find my son, Miles Berton, standing in the doorway.

On the floor lay a toy robot—the limited-edition model I'd gone through hell to have shipped from overseas for his birthday. The day he'd unwrapped it, he'd thrown his arms around me and said, "Mom, you're my favorite person in the whole world!"

Now his little face was flushed red, and his eyes held nothing but hatred for me.

"You're a horrible woman!" Miles shouted. "Ari already lost her memory. She nearly had a breakdown because of you. What more do you want?"

A wave of loneliness swept over me. I really was a complete failure.

Aria pulled Miles into her arms right on cue, eyes glistening. "It's okay, sweetie. Don't blame your mom. It's all my fault."

The three of them huddled together like a real family, and I was the villain.

"Grant, I am never clearing her name," I hissed. "Get that through your head."

Suddenly, my brother Connor Burke's voice came from behind me. "If she won't do it, we'll send her back to the psych ward. Let's see how long she holds out."

The moment I heard him, my body started trembling uncontrollably.

When the news of my parents' deaths first broke, none of them had acted this way. But after Aria lost her memory, everything changed.

On the day of the trial, my own brother stood before the court as a member of the victims' family and submitted a clemency letter on her behalf. My husband took the stand as her defense attorney. The two people closest to me in the world had me declared mentally unfit right there in the courtroom.

When it was over, they sent me to a psychiatric facility. They said it was for treatment.

The day they took me there, I was still trying to defend myself. "I'm not sick. There's nothing wrong with me."

The first time I refused treatment, they strapped me to a bed and injected me with sedatives. I heard one of the nurses say, "Her family told us that if she doesn't cooperate, we keep treating her."

The third time, they locked me in an isolation room with no sound and no water. I survived by counting my own heartbeats.

The seventh time, the current tore through my body while my screams echoed down the hallway. It didn't stop until I said I understood.

Connor's voice dragged me back to the present, and I flinched before I could stop myself. He saw my reaction and his eyes flickered with revulsion.

"I don't even know why you're being so stubborn. Mom and Dad liked Aria too. If they were watching, they wouldn't blame her. Would it kill you to just say a few words on her behalf?"

I held his gaze. "Yes. It would."

Connor froze.

"If Mom and Dad were watching," I said, every word deliberate, "the only thing they'd regret is raising such an ungrateful son."

The slap landed before I even finished speaking. At least now both cheeks matched.

"You really have lost your mind!" Connor bellowed. "I'm their son. They would never resent me."

But something flickered behind his eyes—a flash of guilt he couldn't quite hide.

Grant scoffed. "Connor, drop it. Don't waste your breath. Tomorrow she's reading that statement whether she likes it or not."

Then he walked forward. "Let's eat."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the dining room.

At the table, Aria eagerly slid a plate of shrimp scampi in front of me. "Carly, I made this myself. I used to bring you this all the time, remember? Come on, don't be mad!"

I stared at the plate without a word.

Grant immediately lost his temper. "What now? What more could you possibly want? Do you just live to make my life difficult?"

I looked up at him. There was a time when every restaurant we went to, he'd flag down the server before I even sat down and say, "My wife has a seafood allergy."

But now all he had to say was, "Eat it or don't."

"Grant, I'm allergic to seafood. You forgot." I said it quietly.

Grant went still. The smile on Aria's face froze for just a second before she hurried to pull the plate away. "I'm sorry, Carly. I forgot."

Of course she forgot. Forgetting was such a convenient excuse. As long as someone claimed they forgot, nothing ever happened.

Connor slammed his plate on the table. "Then don't eat!"

He added, "Aria's been sleeping in the master bedroom for the past year. We're not about to kick her out just because you're back. You don't want to eat, fine. Go sleep in the storage room."

I walked into the storage room. It was packed with junk, leaving only a small patch of bare floor. I looked around and let out a quiet, bitter laugh.

Cold air seeped through the cracks in the walls, carrying the smell of mildew.

Hurried footsteps approached, and when I looked up, Miles was standing in the doorway with his fists clenched. He'd followed me in.

I looked at my son, the child I'd nearly died bringing into the world, and the hard shell I'd been building around myself crumbled in an instant. He reminded me of when he was little, the way he used to come running to me whenever something upset him.

I reached out without thinking, the way I always used to, just to touch his hand and ask what was wrong. My fingers hovered just above his sleeve, not quite touching.

Miles recoiled like I'd burned him. "Can you not be so disgusting?"

His voice was sharp and breathless. "Ari is the sweetest. She's kind and gentle. Why can't you just leave her alone? She's spent the whole year with people whispering behind her back. Can't you see that? Are you not going to stop until you've driven her to her grave?"

My chest tightened as though a vise had clamped around my heart. The dull, suffocating ache spread through me until my nose stung and my eyes burned.

I opened my mouth, my voice cracking. "But I lost my mom and dad too. Those rumors hurt me just as much."

That was what set him off. The disgust in his eyes turned to outright rage, and he shoved me hard from behind.

I lost my balance and slammed into the wall. My temple split open on impact and blood ran down the side of my face.

Miles clearly hadn't expected that. His eyes went wide. But he steeled himself just as quickly, stiffening up and forcing himself to look calm.

"That's what you get for going against me," he said. "You fell by yourself. I didn't do anything."

Then he turned and ran.

Bracing myself against the wall, I pushed myself to my feet. I touched my forehead and looked down at the blood on my fingers with a hollow laugh.

Before long, Grant showed up. He tossed a food tray at my feet, sending lukewarm leftovers spilling across the floor.

"Don't say I didn't feed you," he said. "Eat here. Once tomorrow's over and you've done what you need to do, we're sending you back."

I looked at the tray. "I'm not hungry."

This was exactly the kind of slop they'd fed me at the psychiatric facility. Just looking at it made my stomach turn.

Grant took it as a personal insult and kicked the tray over. "Eat it or don't. Starve for all I care."

He shot me one last glare and left.

I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. Then, I heard the system's voice.

"Carly, you have 12 hours remaining."

I ran my thumb along the edge of the dinner knife I'd slipped into my sleeve. Laughter drifted in from outside the door, and I smiled too.

"System, do you think they'll regret it?" I asked. "After tomorrow?"

"Carly, do you still care?"

I didn't answer.

…

The next morning, someone ripped the blanket off me. "You're awake, so get up and write the statement."

My head was pounding, a sharp throbbing at my temples.

Grant hauled me to my feet and dragged me to the living room. One of them set a piece of paper in front of me. The other pressed a pen into my hand.

"Write."

I slammed the pen down on the table. "I already told you. I am never clearing her name."

Grant's expression darkened immediately, his brow furrowing. "What is your problem? Your parents have been gone for a year. The rest of us have moved on. Are you going to stay stuck in the same place forever?

"Aria survived a car accident that left her with amnesia. She's spent the entire year dealing with gossip and rumors and nearly fell apart. Hasn't she suffered enough?"

I shouted back. "No, it's not enough! I want her to pay with her life!"

Grant let out a cold laugh. "Your parents' graves are right there. You know what'll happen if you push me."