Chapter 1

Three days after my boyfriend’s adopted sister died a tragic death, I clutched a so-called "hush money" check in my hand and became an accomplice in everyone’s eyes.

My boyfriend once knelt in the pouring rain to beg me, and his sister's five-year-old daughter cried and begged me to testify, but I refused them both.

Ten years later, when I was dying of cancer, my boyfriend Keal Simpson had become a billionaire.

He founded a brain-computer interface tech company and developed a memory extraction device intended for the dead. If used on the living, it causes immense pain.

Yet, he chose me to be the subject for his first live demonstration of "Memory Regression."

Kael stood under the spotlight, a massive holographic screen behind him, facing countless flashing shutters and stunned media.

I, meanwhile, had just undergone a ten-hour cancer resection surgery when his secretary, Seraphina, forcibly dragged me from my hospital bed to this place.

I sat slumped in a cold wheelchair like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, pain pump and drainage tubes still attached to my body.

Seraphina clicked over on her high heels to stand behind me, her red-manicured hand resting on my pain pump.

"Quit playing dead, Elara."

Seraphina lowered her voice, dripping with malicious mockery. "Trying to fake an illness to get sympathy just to escape punishment? Who exactly are you putting on this show for?"

"Kael hates liars the most. You were healthy enough when you betrayed Lily and Keal for money back then, weren't you?"

The next second, at an angle the cameras couldn't catch, she violently ripped out the line connecting my pain pump!

"Ugh—!"

Intense pain hit me instantly. My vision went black, and I curled up in agony.

The crowd instantly erupted, but no one sympathized with me. There was only endless abuse:

"That's the woman? She watched that girl get murdered just for a hush money fee?"

"She grew up with the victim!"

"Because she covered it up, the real killer has been free for ten years!"

"Scum like her is a waste of air. Mr.Simpson is doing God's work!"

The overwhelming humiliation drowned me like a tide.

Kael stood on the high stage, watching my suffering coldly, his brow furrowed with nothing but disgust.

The person who hated me most in this world was the man I had loved for my whole life.

Ten years ago, Kael, his adopted sister Lily, and I were best friends who grew up together.

Until Lily died a tragic death and I concealed the cruel truth, shattering our relationship completely.

Suddenly, a small figure rushed out from backstage.

"Bad woman! You're a bad woman!"

It was Lily's daughter, Daisy, who was only five when Lily was murdered.

She cried her heart out, rushing up to pound my legs with her little fists.

"Uncle Keal says you killed Mommy! Why didn't you save her! Why are you so evil!"

"Daisy wants Mommy... Give me back my Mommy!"

The child's crying stabbed into my heart like a sharp knife.

I wanted to raise my hand to pat her head, but because of the intense pain, I didn't even have the strength to lift my arm.

Kael finally moved.

He strode down from the stage and pulled the weeping Daisy into his arms. Those eyes that used to look at me with deep affection now looked at me like I was a pile of trash.

"Elara, I gave you a chance."

His voice was low, carried through the microphone to the entire venue, devoid of any warmth.

"As long as you say who the killer was, I can let you die with some dignity."

"But even now, you're still keeping that person's secret."

Seraphina fanned the flames from the side, deliberately speaking loudly into the microphone:

"Mr.Simpson, what's there to say to a cold-blooded animal like her? She took that money and went abroad to live it up. Now she's back, probably just to blackmail you again!"

"For people like this, we have to use special methods."

Kael nodded and turned to face the global media, his voice stern:

"To give Daisy an answer, and to honor Lily's spirit in heaven."

"Today, I will demonstrate the company's new technology for the first time—'Memory Regression'."

The audience was in an uproar.

Everyone knew this technology forcibly extracted deep memories from the cerebral cortex and was usually only used on corpses that couldn't speak.

If used on a living person...

Seraphina's lips curled into a cruel smile as she explained to the media:

"Due to forced brainwave resonance, a living user will feel pain akin to having their whole body's bones crushed. But for an accomplice shielding a murderer, isn't that the perfect punishment?"

Hearing this, the blood drained from my already pale face.

I tried desperately to struggle, wanting to escape that hellish machine, but Seraphina pinned my shoulders down firmly.

"Kael... no..."

I used every ounce of strength to choke out a broken plea:

"Please... you can't extract my memories..."

Kael grabbed my wrist, his grip strong enough to crush my bones. He glared at me through gritted teeth:

"Scared?"

"Did you think about this day when you took that hush money?"

"It's not up to you anymore!"

I looked despairingly at the man I had spent my life protecting, tears streaming uncontrollably:

"Kael, trust me just this once, please..."

"That memory... you really can't see it."

Kael let out a scoff, his eyes bloodshot, looking as if he wanted to devour me alive:

"Trust you?"

"The biggest regret of my life is ever trusting a hypocrite like you!"

"Now, open your eyes and watch the big screen."

"I'm going to show the whole world exactly who that murderer is that you're protecting with your life!"

I screamed with the last of my strength:

"Please believe me... or else you'll regret it!"