Blurb：
Ten years after Lucy Paige’s tragic death, Ivana Priscilla returns to exact revenge on Selena, the friend who protected Lucy’s rapist. Using a revolutionary memory extractor, Ivana forces Selena onto a public trial stage, determined to expose the truth. As Selena’s memories unfold, the village watches in horror, but the real shock comes when the rapist’s identity is revealed—changing everything. This gripping tale of friendship, betrayal, and justice will keep you on the edge of your seat. Discover why Selena guarded the secret until her dying breath and what Ivana risks by uncovering the past.
Content：
My best friend, Lucy Paige, was raped and ended up taking her own life. But I decided to protect the rapist’s identity.
Her mother once knelt before me, begging for the truth, but I shut the door in her face.
Even when the villagers came to my house in anger, I let my dog chase them away without hesitation.
Ten years later, when I was dying in bed, my other best friend, Ivana Priscilla, returned to the village.
She had become the richest woman in the country and she came back for revenge.
The first thing she did after coming back was force me onto a public memory trial stage, like the ones used for criminals facing execution.
“Selena, you heartless monster who covered a crime. Lucy and I were blind to ever call you a friend!”
“Lucy has been dead for ten years and you let her killer go free all this time!”
“Today, I’ll use the memory extractor I invented to show everyone who you really protected!”
But when the real rapist’s face appeared on the big screen, her expression turned completely pale.
The stage that Ivana arranged for me was huge.
The whole village filled the town square until there was no room left to stand.
Reporters had their cameras ready and the livestream spread across every major platform.
I was already dying.
My organs were failing and only medicine and nutrient fluids kept me alive.
Yet they still dragged me out into the town square like a criminal.
A man rushed forward and grabbed my throat, screaming, “Selena! Why did you protect that monster?”
“You ruined my family! Why didn’t you just die instead?”
He choked me so hard that I almost lost consciousness and my vision gradually went dark.
The crowd went wild, roaring in anger, “What a heartless woman! Her friend was raped before her death and she knew who did it but stayed silent!”
“Her friend jumped into the river to end her life. Her poor mother begged her until her knees bled and she still refused to open the door!”
“She even set her dogs on people. How disgusting can she be?”
All of their curses were aimed at me.
Ivana stood nearby, her brows tightly furrowed.
In this entire world, other than Lucy’s parents, no one hated me more than she did.
Ten years ago, Lucy Paige, Ivana Priscilla and I were the closest of friends.
However, after Lucy was assaulted and took her own life in the woods near my home, our friendship fell apart.
In her suicide note, she wrote that I saw the man who raped her.
From that moment on, everyone believed I was protecting the rapist.
And the truth was… I did protect him.
Ivana stepped in front of me, her voice cold and sharp.
“Selena, I’ll give you one last chance.”
“Tell me who the rapist is, then turn yourself in to the police. It’s not too late yet.”
“But once I start the machine, the high-frequency pulses will crush every bone in your body again and again. You won’t even have a chance to defend yourself!”
My face went pale in an instant. I struggled and screamed in panic, “Iva, no. You can’t look into my memory!”
She grabbed my wrist tightly, her teeth clenched. “Scared now? It’s too late for that. I’m getting justice for Lucy!”
Tears ran down my face as I begged, “Iva, please… don’t do this. If you show my memories, you’ll regret everything.”
She gave a bitter laugh, her eyes red with fury. “Regret? The only thing I regret is ever calling you my best friend!”
Two guards forced me into a metal chair.
Cold cuffs locked my hands and feet in place.
I struggled, but they pressed a heavy helmet over my head.
A thousand tiny needles stabbed into my scalp, digging deep into my mind.
I screamed as my body shook violently.
In that moment, it felt like my soul was being torn apart.
Even so, the crowd beneath the platform stayed furious.
Rotten vegetables and spoiled eggs flew through the air, hitting the stage as they screamed insults at me.
“Fake friend! Rapist’s protector! Go to hell, you witch!”
On the big screen, my memories began to play in reverse.
The first one appeared for everyone to see.
It was three days after Lucy’s death.
They had dragged me to her wake.
Everyone demanded that I tell them who the rapist was.
Some spat on me, others threw stones.
One person yanked my arm so hard and then another pulled my hair until it was a tangled mess.
Fists hit my body over and over until my whole body turned black and blue.
I ran away in fear, with the villagers chasing after me like I was the criminal.
When I turned back, I saw smoke rising in the distance.
My house was burning. Those people had set my home on fire.
I just stood there, helpless.
With nowhere to go, I ran deep into the forest with Bruno, my loyal dog.
Unfortunately, the villagers found us again.
Right in front of me, they killed my dog and used its body to make a pot of soup.
Heartbroken, I held one of his bones and cried until I couldn’t breathe.
I was only sixteen then. I had no father, no mother.
On the stage, Ivana looked at my crying face on the screen and let out a cold laugh.
“Selena, don’t you deserve this? If you hadn’t protected the rapist, would people treat you like that? Do you really think you’re the victim here?”
“You have no right to feel sorry for yourself. You protected a criminal and this is your punishment!”
Others agreed and shouted, “She has no shame! How dare she complain after everything she has done?”
“Trying to use these sad memories to make us pity her, huh? Ridiculous. She helped a rapist! That makes her no different from him. She belongs in hell!”
“Who is really pitiful here? Lucy’s family lost everything. A family lost their daughter, the mother went insane from broken heart. Who is more deserving of our sympathy?”
Just then, a soft, cheerful laugh echoed from the screen.
“Lucy, wait for me!”
Lucy’s young, smiling face appeared on the screen.
On a snowy mountain, she ran toward me, laughing as she threw a snowball. “Catch this!”
“My daughter…” Lucy’s father collapsed in front of the screen, crying uncontrollably.
Seeing his daughter’s bright smile again after ten long years broke him completely.
After Lucy’s suicide, his hair turned white almost overnight.
Every day, he went to the police station asking, “Did you find the rapist yet?”
But every time, the officers only shook their heads.
Back then, there were no cameras in the village and my house stood apart from the others.
No one knew who followed Lucy that night.
The only person who knew the truth… was me.
On the screen, the younger me knelt before the mountain god’s statue, hands clasped in prayer.
“Please bless my friend with health and happiness. May our friendship last forever…”
Watching that, Ivana’s face twisted with rage.
“Selena, you liar! How dare you pretend to care? You liar!”
She stormed forward, pointing at me.
“How dare you show those memories? You disgust us!”
“Ten years, Selena. Ten years and you never told us the truth. You don’t deserve to call us friends!”
Then the next memory appeared, me secretly throwing away the mango that Lucy had given me.
The crowd exploded.
“She’s so fake. Pretending to accept it in front of her but tossing it behind her back?”
“Ivana and Lucy 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. Priscilla. 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.
“Lucy, please don’t die!”
It was the day they pulled Lucy’s body from the river.
It rained hard that day.
Ivana and I fell beside Lucy 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, “Lucy, 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…”
Lucy’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.”
Lucy’s mother, Maya, also appeared in messy hair, holding a doll and saying over and over, “Be brave, Lucy. 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, “Selena, look! This is the tragedy you caused by protecting a criminal!”
“You had no parents. Lucy 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 Lucy. 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.
“Lucy took her life, but the one who caused it was you. You killed her, Selena!”
She shook me in fury, the hatred in her eyes broke my heart.
For Ivana, Lucy’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, Selena, 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 Lucy together.
But still, there was no memory of the night Lucy 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 Lucy 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. Priscilla, 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, “Selena! Even now, you’re still resisting? Who is that monster you’re protecting so badly?”
Download the NovelGo app, Search 【 675548 】reads the whole book.
