“Ivana and Lizzy treated her so well. How could she do this to her friend? She’s just too selfish and cold-hearted!”

Ivana knew I was very allergic to mango, but she didn’t tell the crowd about that. She just listened as people kept mocking me.

“She must not have guessed Ivana would become the richest person and come back for revenge.”

“Keep going, Ms. Sinclair. We want to see the rapist’s face!”

As the crowd yelled, the memory on the big screen changed again. Ivana’s heartbroken cries came through the speakers. “Lizzy, please don’t die!”

It was the day they pulled Lizzy’s body from the river. It rained hard that day. Ivana and I fell beside Lizzy and we cried until our chests hurt.

Her body was swollen and cold. Her whole body was already stiff. She looked nothing like the cheerful, pretty girl I remembered.

I went home in a daze and curled up in a corner, crying for a long time.

“Ah!” I pounded my chest over and over again. Losing my best friend felt like it was tearing my soul apart.

On the stage, I kept my eyes closed while tears ran down my face. In the end, I cried out in pieces, “Lizzy, how dare you die?”

My tears kept falling as the despair took over me. My pain made the crowd react all at once.

“What is happening?”

“Why does she look so broken? How could she...”

Lizzy’s father, Adam, shouted in anger, “She was just acting!”

He ground his teeth and said, “Back then, my wife knelt at her door until her knees bled and she did not open the door even once!”

“She even set dogs on people. Who could call that a good person? My daughter played with her as a child and this is how she treated the dead girl’s mother.”

Lizzy’s mother, Maya, also appeared in messy hair, holding a doll and saying over and over, “Be brave, Lizzy. Don’t be afraid.”

The crowd’s anger rose once again.

Ivana’s face went pale for a moment before turning red with anger. She stepped forward and shook me hard, her eyes widened as she shouted, “Selina, look! This is the tragedy you caused by protecting a criminal!”

“You had no parents. Lizzy and I took care of you since you were seven because we felt sorry for you. Is this how you repay us?”

She raised her hand and slapped me in the face furiously. “You want sympathy? You killed Lizzy. Do you think these memories will make me forgive you?”

Her breath came fast. Tears fell without warning. Her eyes were full of pain and anger. “Lizzy took her life, but the one who caused it was you. You killed her, Selina!”

She shook me in fury, the hatred in her eyes broke my heart. For Ivana, Lizzy’s death had been a storm that destroyed everything. After that storm, she lived only in sorrow.

Suddenly, Ivana pulled herself together and wiped her eyes. Her sadness changed into cold, hard determination.

“I’m telling you, Selina, I will not stop until I find the bastard who raped my friend. Once I find them, I will send you and that monster to hell together.”

She told the techs to widen the memory scan. It seemed she had no patience left for me.

The techs moved fast. The red needle on the machine shot up and the tiny needles inside the helmet pressed deeper into my brain.

“Ah!” A heartbreaking scream came out of my mouth.

A fierce electric shock hit my brain. White lights burst behind my eyes and my whole body shook. I tried so hard to move, but heavy chains held my hands and feet tight.

Blood ran through my hair and dripped onto the cold iron chair. On the big screen, scenes jumped around. One moment it showed a classroom, the next a stream, then the mountain.

They were all happy memories of me, Ivana and Lizzy together.

But still, there was no memory of the night Lizzy was attacked.

The crowd started to whisper. Even the live chat was filled with questions.

[What’s going on? Why isn’t there any memory of that night?]

[Didn’t Lizzy say this woman saw the rapist?]

Ivana frowned and turned to her tech team. “What’s going on? Why can’t we find the memory of the rapist?”

One of the techs wiped his forehead and stammered, “Ms. Sinclair, she... she seems to be fighting the system. She’s refusing to let that memory be pulled.”

“What? Fighting the system?” Ivana’s face went hard. Her sharp gaze immediately turned toward me.

She slammed her hand on the table as she shouted, “Selina! Even now, you’re still resisting? Who is that monster you’re protecting so badly?”

Ten years ago, Ivana had shouted the same words at me. After Lizzy’s note was made public, everyone started to turn against me. They all wanted to know who the rapist was.

At first, Ivana didn’t believe I would protect a criminal. Yet, it only took her less than one day to start doubting me.

Only she knew I hid in a cave with Bruno. When the villagers found us and began to skin Bruno alive, I begged her to stop them. Instead, she picked up a stick and struck me hard on the head until my vision blurred with blood.

She yelled at me then, eyes full of anger: “Selina, we grew up together. We treated you as a friend. What do you take us for? You gave up your best friend to protect a rapist!”

That night, the villagers nearly beat me to death. Ivana’s mother pulled her away and two days later, their family left the province and never returned.

Now, she looked at me with a gaze full of hatred.

She raised her hand and spoke with cold resolve, “Expand the extraction. I won’t stop until I find the truth.”

The tech hesitated. “Ms. Sinclair… her body is weak and she’s fighting the process. If we keep widening the range… she may not survive.”

Ivana gave a cold, disdainful laugh. “Can’t handle it?”

“I spent years building this machine to find the truth. Her life or death means nothing to me. People like her… better if they all die.”

Her words made the techs tremble, but they raised the settings anyway. The machine’s hum grew louder. The tiny needles in the helmet pushed deeper into my brain.

“Ah!” My scream tore through the entire square.

Blood poured from my nose, my ears and my eyes. My chest burned as if on fire and my body shook violently against the chair.

The technician’s temple was wet with sweat. He spoke with a shaking voice, “Ms. Sinclair… should we stop now? She can’t hold on much longer.”

Ivana stared at the big screen with an unreadable expression.

“Continue,” she said firmly, her voice was as cold as ice.

The machine roared and the screen shook. My mind was fighting inside my head. My screams echoed in the air.

Ivana’s eyes were red and wild. She shouted almost madly, “Selina, who is this person? Tell me, who in the world are you trying to protect?”

Then she suddenly broke down. She fell against my shoulder and cried, “We are your friends, Selina…”

Her whole body trembled and her tears fell uncontrollably.

Warm tears dripped onto my hand and my chest tightened at the sound of her cries. My heart broke into pieces.

My dear friend, my dear Iva, was crying.

I reached out without thinking to wipe her face. But in that small pause, the memory I had hidden for years flashed on the big screen.

The crowd gasped. Everyone turned. When people saw the scene, their faces went pale in an instant.