Chapter 3

The rain poured down that night. Lightning lit up the sky in a chilling glow, and thunder roared so loud that it forced my buried memories to the surface.

After I failed my SAT exams and fell into depression, Jade said she wanted to cheer me up and invited me to go hiking.

Maybe because they were afraid I would do something crazy to Jade, my dad and Yara tagged along like bodyguards.

My mom was working a night shift at the hospital, so she did not come.

The screen showing the memories shifted to a scene where I fell halfway up the mountain. My shinbone snapped, and rocks cut a deep gash into my leg.

Jade was the first to notice. She told my dad and Yara to pitch a tent on the spot so I could rest inside.

Then, she pulled out a bottle of antiseptic and poured it over my wound.

“Clara, let me disinfect this first. Otherwise, it might get infected.”

As soon as she was done disinfecting my wound, I kicked her to the ground, pinned her down, and slapped her without hesitation.

“You snake! Don’t pretend to be so kind in front of me! Is it that face of yours that’s bewitched them? Is that why they won’t kick you out of the family? Is that why they’re forcing me to give you a kidney?

“Let’s see how they look at you when I ruin your pretty face!”

With that, I grabbed a small knife from the tent and plunged it down toward Jade’s cheek.

At the last second, my dad and Yara yanked me off her.

My dad slapped me hard across the face and shouted, “Clara! My patience has limits! You keep abusing Jade over and over again. Don’t make me slap you!”

“Dad, let me handle her!” Yara said and slapped me so hard I fell to the ground and could not get up.

“Dad, Yara, don’t be mad at Clara. I must have done something wrong to upset her,” Jade said.

Seeing her pitiful face ignited a furious rage in me. “You disgust me so much I want to puke! Die!”

I shoved Jade hard, and we both tumbled off the cliff beside the tent.

Before my dad and Yara could react, Jade and I had disappeared from their sight.

The screen went dark. My dad and Yara’s heart-wrenching screams filled the air. “Jade! Jade!”

The voices faded until the memory extraction paused, and there was nothing but silence.

Everything had happened so quickly and perilously that the viewers watching the memory screamed in shock. The livestream comments were filled with rows upon rows of shocked comments.

I looked over at my dad and Yara at the plaintiffs’ table.

Having relived that day, they clung to Jade as if they had survived a great disaster.

Tears streamed down my dad’s face as he sobbed and said, “Jade, thank god you’re okay. If anything had happened to you that day, I would’ve cut Clara open on the spot and buried her with you.”

“Jade, you don’t even know how scared I was back then.”

Meanwhile, the comments section was going wild.

[Oh my God, this is attempted murder! Why isn’t Clara in jail already?]

[Clara is so vicious. Jade is too kind to turn her in.]

[Jade really is too good. It’s like they say. Good people get mistreated.]

[Clara should just die! I’m voting for the Spencer family to win!]

[Same here! I’m voting for the Spencer family! There’s nothing to argue about. Just declare Clara guilty already!]

More and more people began requesting the judge to announce my defeat right away.

The judge, who always adjusted his verdicts based on public opinion, held the microphone up to my lips.

“Clara Spencer, do you wish to make an appeal?”