Chapter 5

A piercing red alarm instantly blared across the entire venue.

"Beep—Warning! Weak vital signs detected! Brainwave dissipation imminent!"

"Warning! Critical sectors unreadable! Immediate termination recommended!"

The cold mechanical voice was like a heavy hammer smashing into Kael's heart.

Looking at me lying motionless in the chair like a broken doll, Kael's sanity finally snapped.

"Stop! I said stop!" he roared, reaching out to slam the red emergency stop button.

No matter how important the truth was, he couldn't watch me die right in front of him.

However, just as his hand was about to touch the button...

*Snap*!

A hand with bright red fingernails beat him to it and yanked the power cord of the alarm!

Kael looked up at Seraphina in shock.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Seraphina's face wore a look of twisted, manic obsession. She blocked the console, speaking rapidly to manipulate him:

"Kael, don't let her fool you! She's self-hypnotizing!"

"Her subconscious is building a defense barrier. If we don't break through now, everything we've done will be for nothing!"

"She's feigning death to make you go soft and drop the investigation!"

Kael's hand froze in mid-air, his eyes filled with conflict and pain.

He looked at my blood-covered face, his voice terribly hoarse:

"But... she's dying..."

"What if she's actually..."

"Actually what?" Seraphina cut him off sharply. "Innocent?"

"Kael, have you forgotten how brutally Lily died? Have you forgotten the suffering you've endured for ten years?"

"Her pain isn't even a fraction of the despair you felt back then!"

"She's an expert at playing the victim to get sympathy. Are you going to let her fool you again?"

Kael's pupils constricted violently.

That's right.

Back then, she had looked at him with those same sincere eyes, only to turn around and betray him and Lily for money.

"You're right..."

Kael murmured as if his soul had been sucked out. The look he gave me shifted from heartache to a desperate ruthlessness:

"If you really loved me... why were you so heartless back then?"

Seeing Kael waver, a gleam of triumphant malice flashed in Seraphina's eyes.

"This is our only chance to get the truth."

With that, she cast aside all hesitation and continued my torture!

*Boom*—!

A massive electrical current instantly surged through my cerebral cortex. I thought I would be numbed by the pain, but those currents, like needle pricks, spread over every inch of my skin. It was ten thousand times more agonizing than when my cancer flared up.

Teetering on the brink of death, amidst the extreme agony, my consciousness began to scatter.

But I heard it.

I heard Daisy's heart-wrenching sobs from the real world.

"Mommy... I want Mommy..."

Her cries were so helpless; she sounded just like Lily did back then.

A wave of unprecedented gentleness surged from my subconscious.

Even in death, I wanted to comfort that poor child.

On the big screen, the chaotic static suddenly softened.

A gentle brainwave slowly flowed out through the interface.

In the image, there was no blood, no betrayal.

Only a sun-drenched nursery.

A younger version of me was carefully holding Daisy, who was still in swaddling clothes.

Lily stood nearby, smiling and teasing the baby.

I lowered my head and gently kissed the baby's forehead, humming that familiar lullaby:

"Sleep now, sleep now, my darling baby..."

The singing echoed through the deathly silent venue via the machine.

Daisy, who had been crying inconsolably, miraculously stopped sobbing when she heard the familiar melody, staring blankly at the screen.

Hearing that hum, Kael's tears burst forth instantly.

It was the melody he knew best.

Back when he was under immense pressure starting his business and couldn't sleep, I used to hum that same song to lull him to sleep.

"Elara..."

Kael clutched his chest, the pain nearly bringing him to his knees.

How could someone who loved a child even in her subconscious possibly be a murderer?

Just then.

The image on the screen trembled violently, and that warm memory shattered like a mirror.

The fog of memory finally lifted. Clarity of the memory came hand in hand with immense agony; I felt myself dying, this machine was draining the life out of me.

That suffocating rainy night was finally revealed to the world without reservation!

Rain poured down in sheets.

The image shook violently; it was the younger me, backing away in terror.

"Stay back... please, stay back!"

I fell into the muddy water, staring in horror at the dark figure approaching me.

Although the heavy rain and blurred vision obscured the person's face...

In my desperate gaze.

A blinding bolt of lightning tore through the night sky!

Under the ghastly white light, the killer's hand raised with the butcher knife was illuminated with crystal clarity.

Specifically, that unique, ancient ruby family ring on his ring finger glinted with an eerie, cold light in the rain!

The entire venue fell deathly silent.

The color drained from Kael's face instantly; he stood frozen as if struck by lightning.

That ring...

It was their family crest!

The only one of its kind in the world!

"No... that's impossible..."

Kael's lips trembled, his mind going blank.

Seraphina, standing at the console, panicked completely the moment she saw the ring.

She knew exactly what it meant!

If that face was revealed, it would all be over!

"Malfunction! The machine is malfunctioning!"

Seraphina screamed, lunging for the main power switch like a madwoman:

"I have to cut the power! Or it'll explode!"

She was trying to bury the truth!

"Get the hell away!!"

Just as her hand was about to pull the switch, a large hand clamped down on her wrist like a vice.

Kael's eyes were bloodshot, like a beast backed into a corner.

He violently flung Seraphina away, then used his own body to shield the console.

"Nobody moves!"

"I need to see!"

"I need to see exactly who that is!!"

His roar echoed to the heavens.

On the screen, stimulated by the electrical current, the memory jumped again.

This time, it wasn't the blurry rainy night.