Blurb：
In a small village shattered by tragedy, Maya Johnson stands accused of protecting her sister Lily’s killer. When Lily Johnson is found brutally assaulted and drowned while preparing Maya’s wedding venue, all evidence points to Charlie—the village outcast. But Maya refuses to testify against him, igniting fury in her grieving mother and neighbors like Jake Wilson.
As accusations fly and dark secrets surface, fiancé Nathan Campbell emerges with damning video evidence of Charlie’s twisted confession. Torn between family loyalty and hidden motives, Maya’s chilling calmness hints at a deeper connection to Charlie. Why would a sister defend her sibling’s murderer? What really happened in the woods that night?
Unravel a web of betrayal, revenge, and small-town secrets in this psychological thriller where nothing is as it seems. Perfect for fans of suspenseful family dramas and morally complex characters.
Content：
My sister was assaulted by a villager and drowned in the lake.
Yet, I stood there defending her killer.
My mother stared at me, her face a mask of disbelief.
Maya, Lily was murdered while preparing your wedding venue!
You were there with her! Why are you lying for Charlie?
My mother pulled out a knife, pressing the blade to her wrist, threatening to end her life if I didn’t name the murderer.
I grabbed her hand and forced the knife towards her throat.
“Cut here instead!”
“It’s quicker!”
“Then you can join your precious daughter!”
…
My mother screamed and shoved me away violently.
“Maya Johnson, what kind of inhuman thing are you saying?” Her voice trembled, her eyes bloodshot and shattered.
“Lily was your sister! She was killed while preparing your wedding!”
“How can you be so heartless?”
She slapped me hard across the face.
My cheek burned crimson, the imprint of her fingers stark against my skin.
“She died half-naked! Our Lily who loved beauty so much—died in such humiliation!”
“You were right there! Why are you protecting the killer?”
She collapsed to the ground, pounding her chest as wails tore from her throat.
Watching her sob her grieve so violently, I couldn’t help the dark amusement that rose in me.
“My sister died horribly.”
“But I can’t falsely accuse an innocent man, can I?”
Hearing this, my mother’s eyes filled with pure venom.
She screamed and lunged at me.
I stepped aside smoothly, and she stumbled, crashing into the dirt.
The watching villagers had seen enough. The local troublemaker, Jake Wilson, shouted angrily,
“Maya Johnson, how can you be so cold?”
“Your sister is dead, and you haven’t shed a single tear!”
“Instead, you’re protecting that idiot, Charlie!”
“Is that simpleton your secret lover? Is that why you’re defending him?”
I shot him with a cold stare, but he doubled down,
“Am I wrong?”
“Your sister worked herself to the bone for your wedding! You wanted a garden ceremony, so she came back to the village six months ago to plant an entire field of grass! We all saw it!”
“When you visited a few days ago, I saw you chatting with Charlie at the village entrance. Are you sleeping with him? Is that why you’re protecting him now?”
His words sparked a wave of pointing fingers and hushed accusations across the crowd.
One day ago, my sister, Lily Johnson had been setting up my wedding venue late at night in the eastern woods when she was attacked.
Her clothes were torn, her body covered in bruises.
The assailant had violated her, then held her underwater until she drowned.
And the suspect? Charlie, the village attacked.
I had been there when my sister was attacked.
Charlie was caught on the sence. Everyone expected me to identify him.
But I denied everything.
So their reaction? Completely predictable.
But one thing they got right.
Charlie and I did have a connection.
And yes, I was defending him.
I swept a cold stare on Jake Wilson.
“Whether Charlie assaulted Lily hasn’t been proven!”
“I didn’t witness him kill her. I won’t bear false witness!”
“You’re lying!” My mother shrieked, her hand flying toward my face once more.
“The one who found the killer was Nathan! He said when he found you both, Charlie was on top of you!”
Her trembling finger pointed accusingly at my face, her eyes blazing with fury.
“You were unconscious! Your blouse was torn open! Nathan is your fiancé! Why would he make this up?”
As if summoned, my fiancé, Nathan Campbell, appeared.
“That’s right! I saw it with my own eyes!”
“When I reached the clearing, your clothes were ripped… If I hadn’t gotten there in time…”
Nathan paused, his expression darkened.
“I pinned Charlie to the ground, and he was just… laughing… saying Lily’s chest…”
Nathan hesitated, discomfort clear on his face.
“…was soft…”
“Maya, I have it on video proof! Don’t you believe me?”
He produced his phone. The video showed Charlie pinned down, chuckling mindlessly.
“Hehe, so soft!”
The crowd recoiled in disgust. Jake Wilson snarled,
“See? Your own fiancé confirm it!”
“If you hadn’t been lucky, if your fiancé hadn’t shown up, you’d have ended up just like Lily Johnson!”
“And you’re defending that monster? Are you out of your mind?”
My expression remained icy, I shot back,
“So what?”
“Who actually witnessed Charlie assaulting Lily? Who saw him kill her?”
Nathan turned to stare at me, voice trembling.
“Maya, are you suggesting…”
“…that I’m lying?”
He frowned, his eyes filled with disbelief.
I dug my nails into my palm, a mocking smile twisting my lips.
Of course I knew Nathan wasn’t lying.
What he’d saw was real.
By the time he arrived, my sister was already gone.
Cold and still.
Meeting his gaze squarely, I stated coldly,
“Without concrete evidence proving Charlie committed both the assault and the murder, we can’t condemn him!”
Nathan looked as if I’d struck him, face pale.
He began to speak, but my mother swung a fallen branch, striking my shoulder.
I grunted in pain, collapsing to the ground.
Nathan moved to help me, but my mother roughly pulled him back.
“Don’t help her!”
She trembled violently, pointing at me while screaming,
“Maya Johnson, have you no humanity?”
“Lily adored you since you were little! She was overjoy than anyone about your wedding! How can you face her while defending her murderer?”
I glanced at the ruined wedding preparations and let out a scornful laugh.
“What do I owe her?”
“Didn’t I lose my wedding because of her?”
The crowd erupted.
“Holy shit, Maya! How can you say that?”
“Your sister is dead, and you’re still thinking about your wedding?”
“Was her life less important than your damn wedding? God, Lily deserved better! Why did it have to be her!”
My mother’s face turned ghostly white. With a strangled cry,, she lunged, grabbing my hair and yanking violently.
My scalp felt like it was being ripped off, pain blinding me.
“I’ll kill you, you ungrateful bitch!”
“How did I raise such a selfish daughter? I should have thrown you to the pigs at birth!”
Nathan tried to pull her off, but Jake and others held him back.
The crowd surged with anger, calling me heartless and cold.
They urged Nathan to leave me, saying someone like me didn’t deserve him.
Gritting my teeth against the searing pain, I laughed bitterly.
“I don’t deserve him!”
“Did Lily Johnson deserve him?”
My words sucked the air from the clearing.
My mother’s face went parchment-white. “Maya Johnson, what are you implying?”
“What could Lily possibly have done to make you say she didn’t deserve him? What did she do to make you say that?”
“Do you have any idea how long she worked on your wedding? Six months! All she wanted was to give you the perfect day!”
She grabbed a bouquet of flowers nearby, shoving the wilting blooms toward me. “Look! She gathered all this for you!”
Then her hand connected with my face again.
The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, my whole face burning.
“Lily always adored you! She always said you were the smart one, that you had a real career, she wanted to be just like you, to be as successful!”
“She told me she dreamed of finding a husband who would look at her the way Nathan looks at you.”
“But you! How did you see when you looked at her?”
Her bloodshot eyes burned with rage.
Suddenly, her gaze sharpened, a flicker of suspicion crossing her face.
“Maya… do you think this way about Lily… because I’m not your birth mother?”
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.
Nathan went pale. He dropped to his knees, gripping my arms, his voice urgent.
“Maya, is that true?”
“Because Mrs. Johnson is your stepmother… is that why you’re being so cruel?”
I met his searching gaze head-on. The doubt in his eyes cut deep.
Pushing his hands away, I rubbed my throbbing scalp, a bitter smile on my lips.
“So what if it is?”
“Having second thoughts about loving me now?”
Nathan flinched as if struck. He said nothing.
Before he could form a response, my mother threw her head back and unleashed a guttural wail,
“Lily! My daughter!”
“What did we do to deserve this?”
“I brought my daughter to marry a widower, just wanting a stable life! I treated his daughter as my own!”
“Maya Johnson, I never asked you to see me as your real mother, but Lily was your sister! How could you do this to her!”
Watching her performance, I felt nothing but cold contempt..
I didn’t kill Lily Johnson.
What was she trying to accomplish with this public shaming?
I opened my mouth to fire back, but a rock shot from the crowd, striking me hard.
I cried out, stumbling as warm blood streamed down my head.
The villagers, now a single angry entity, shouting for justice for my sister.
“Animal! Monster!”
Just then, my mother’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed in a dramatic fainted.
The villagers’s fury intensified.
“Ungrateful writch! After everything Mrs. Johnson took such good care of you, and this is how you repay her?”
They picked up rocks and sticks, advancing on me.
The blows came hard and fast. I heard a sickening crack, pain cracking my bones.
I fought back, staggering, but was forced to my knees in the churned mud.
Someone fisted a hand in my hair, yanking my head back violently.
Blood trickled from my brow into my eye.
My vision blurred.
The angry chanting swelled around me.
“Beat this monster to death! She has no heart!”
“Poor Mrs. Johnson and Lily, cursed with this thing!”
“Why couldn’t that idiot Charlie have gotten her instead of sweet Lily!”
The air was thick with the smell of dirt and iron.
I tried to push myself up, but a heavy boot caught me in the side, sending me back down.
Through a haze of pain, I saw Jake Wilson’ssnarling faceabove me, a thick wooden club raised high for a final blow.
Suddenly, Nathan burst through the ring of attackers, throwing his body over me,
“Maya!” he screamed, his voice raw. “For God’s sake, just say it was Charlie!”
“Or they’ll kill you right here!”
At that exact moment, a sharp whistle cut through the chaos. Police officerspushed their way into the clearing, leading a dazed and confused Charlie by the arms.
The moment Charlie saw me, his face crumpled and he began to sob, arms outstretched, trying to run to me.
“Maya! Hug! Charlie wants hug!”
The clearing fell into stunned silence for a beat, then exploded with renewed outrage.
“Holy hell! She really is involved with that idiot Charlie!”
“Who would’ve thought Maya Johnson preferred… that?”
“No wonder they were chatting at the village entrance! Rekindling their… whatever this is!”
“Poor Nathan Campbell! How long has he been wearing that green hat without knowing?”
Nathan stood frozen, his complexion pale as ash, voice trembling.
“Maya…”
“Tell me it’s not true. You and… him?”
Seeing the devastation on his ashen face, I pressed my lips together, refusing to answer.
“Say something!” he roared.
“What do you want me to say? You’ve already made up your mind—”
His hand connected with my cheek before I could finish,
“You cheating whore!”
“Three years together! You never let me touch you!”
“All this time, saving yourself for this… this imbecile? How could you do this to me!”
Before I could defend myself, he struck me again and again until stars danced in my vision and copper filled my mouth.
The crowd’s mockery swelled around us.
It happened so fast, but the police weren’t idle.
The nearest officer, a young man, immediately barked, “Hey! Stop that! Step back!” and moved to intervene.
But the crowd, a solid wall of simmering rage, surged and blocked his path.
Angry shouts drowned him out.
“This is family business! Stay out of it!”
“A heartless creature like her deserves it!”
The older officer fought to control the scene, speaking urgently into his radio.
“Situation escalating! We need backup now!”
In that brief chaos, isolated from the police by the mob, Nathan struck me again.
The crowd’s roar was deafening.
When his kick landed in my stomach, the young officer finally shoved through, pulling Nathan back roughly.
“I said stand down! You will not assault someone in front of us!”
It was the sight of me, bloody and curled on the ground from that kick, that made Charlie completely snap.
He let out a raw, guttural cry, broke free from the distracted officers holding him, and lunged toward the large oak tree at the clearing’s edge.
Everyone froze, following his gaze, watching as Charlie frantically dug in the mud beneath the roots.
He emerged clutching something metallic, holding it high with a cracked voice.
“Maya no kill!”
“Murderer! Murderer here!”
The next second, every face turned ghostly white.
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