Chapter 1

Beth had called a Family council.

This meeting was about me, a trial over what had happened to our adopted sister, Mia Turner, eight years ago.

Rifles lined every wall of the council chamber.

The Family elders closed in around me, hurling accusations.

I was already wasted from illness. I'd just coughed up blood and hadn't even caught my breath before they bound me hand and foot and lashed me in place at the center of the room.

An old man's cane cracked down hard across my spine.

"How can you be so heartless, Selena! She was your sister! She lived with you for twenty years!

"You watched her die and did nothing! How could you?!"

The blows nearly broke me apart.

Blood sprayed from my mouth.

Before I could react, my elderly father, Dominic Turner, pointed at me. "This is how you treated your sister. She can't rest in peace because of you.

"This Family has always stood together. How did we raise such an ungrateful snake?"

One of the elders spoke up. "I heard that when her mother begged her to name the kidnapper, she didn't say a single word."

"Truly despicable."

I said nothing. The taste of blood was thick in my throat.

The shouting made my head pound. Beth saw me struggling and drove her foot straight into my chest.

"Just looking at you makes me sick!"

She was probably the one who hated me most now.

The Turner Family had three daughters, and Family rules demanded that we stand united and never harm one another.

We had always lived by that. Close as could be, always facing outward together.

But eight years ago, Mia and I had been kidnapped. Mia, stubborn as ever, cursed the kidnapper and was killed. She died in the fire.

From that day on, everything between Beth and me shattered.

Just because I'd been taken alongside Mia, I became the one person who supposedly knew the killer's identity.

Beth pressed her foot into my chest and warned me, "I'll give you one more chance. Tell me who the kidnapper is, right now.

"Save yourself some pain. Once I bring out the evidence, things won't go this easy for you."

The pain in my chest was blinding. I grabbed her ankle, just trying to get a breath in.

But Beth only pressed harder.

"You can't do this. You can't extract my memories."

The pain was draining the strength from my voice.

"Scared now? When Mom was on her knees begging you back then, why didn't you talk?!

"Today, I'm getting justice for our sister."

Tears spilled down my face. "You'll regret this!"

"If I hadn't needed you to find the truth, I would've killed you years ago!

"Strap her to the iron chair! Turn on the current! Attach the extractor! She doesn't come down until we find the killer!"

Beth glared at me, then stomped on my face.

The moment she finished speaking, two guards hauled me up and chained me to the chair with iron shackles.

The pain was instant. My whole body seized.

When the current hit, it felt like ants gnawing through my heart. The agony nearly split me open.

The extractor needles drove into my scalp.

I couldn't hold back the screams. They echoed through the chamber. The Family members pointed and shouted, all claiming to speak for Family unity and justice.

I listened to their curses through the haze of pain.

My eyes drifted shut.

On the screen, my memories began to surface, playing for everyone to see.