All Chapters of The Memory Trial: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The day Claire Sutton put me on trial, she made sure the entire town could watch.The square was packed shoulder to shoulder. Reporters crowded behind barricades with cameras raised, and livestreams from every major platform carried my face across the country.I was already dying. Multiple organs were failing. Medication and IV nutrition were the only things keeping my body from shutting down. Still, I was dragged onto the platform like a convicted criminal.A man lunged at me before the guards could stop him. His hands closed around my throat."Rachel Vale, why did you protect him?"You animal! You destroyed my family! Why are you still alive?"I could not breathe. Black spots swarmed my vision.The crowd erupted around us."That's her! The heartless one! Her friend was assaulted, and she knew who did it but kept quiet!"Lily killed herself, and when Lily's mother begged at her door until her forehead bled, Rachel would not even open up."She even set her dog on people. She'

Chapter 2

Homeless, I fled into the mountains with Buddy.He was a yellow mutt. After my parents died, he was all I had.The town found us anyway.They held me down and killed Buddy in front of me. Then they skinned him, cooked him, and laughed while the pot boiled.I clutched one of his bones and screamed until my voice disappeared.That year, I was sixteen.On the platform, Claire watched my tear-streaked teenage face on the screen and sneered."Rachel, after what you did, did you expect anything else?"If you had not protected him, would people have treated you that way? You do not get to feel wronged. You brought all of it on yourself."The crowd agreed at once."Shameless. She's trying to make us pity her."Protecting a rapist makes you no better than one. She deserved hell."Lily's family was destroyed. Lily died, and her mother lost her mind. Rachel has no right to play victim."Then a bright laugh rang out from the screen."Lily, slow down!"Lily's young face appeared in t

Chapter 3

I stumbled home that day and curled into the corner of my room.I hit my own chest again and again as grief tore through me."Lily!" my memory screamed. "Why did you die? Why did you leave us?"On the platform, my present self sat with my eyes shut, tears slipping down my face.The crowd grew uneasy."Wait. Why does she look so devastated?"If she really protected the attacker, why would she cry like that?"Mr. Warren roared over them."Crocodile tears!"He pointed at me, shaking with rage."My wife knelt outside her door until her forehead split open, and Rachel would not open it!"She set that dog on us! How could someone like her be good?"Lily grew up with her, and this is how she treated the mother of her dead friend!"At that moment Mrs. Warren appeared near the front of the crowd, hair loose and tangled, clutching a worn doll to her chest."Lily's good," she murmured. "Lily's not scared. Mommy's here."The crowd's anger flared again.Claire's face turned ugly. Sh

Chapter 4

"Ms. Sutton, she seems to be resisting the system."She's refusing to let us extract that memory.""Refusing?" Claire repeated.Her face went dark. She slammed a palm onto the console."Rachel Vale, after all this, you are still fighting me?"Who is worth protecting with your life? He is a rapist!"Ten years ago, Claire had asked me the same question in the same voice.After Lily's final note was found, I became the center of the town's rage. Everyone demanded the attacker's name.At first Claire refused to believe I could protect him. Her doubt took less than a day to turn into accusation.She was the only one who knew I had fled to a cave with Buddy.When the town killed him, I begged them to stop. Claire picked up a wooden stick and brought it down on my head.Blood blurred my vision.She stared at me with bloodshot eyes and screamed, "Rachel, we grew up together. Lily and I treated you like a sister. What were we to you?"For a rapist, you threw away the people who mat

Chapter 5

"Look!" someone shouted. "That's the scene of the crime!"The truth is coming out!"The crowd surged toward the screen.Claire froze, eyes locked on the image.The woods were black and violent under the storm. My younger self held an umbrella with both hands, her voice trembling."Who's there?"No one answered.Only rain hammered the umbrella.Thunder cracked. A shadow flashed between the trees.I fell backward, terrified, and the figure vanished into the dark.Claire's pupils shrank."His face," she demanded. "Where is his face?"Why is it only his back?"The technicians scrambled to sharpen the image. They zoomed in, adjusted the frequency, rebuilt the angle.Nothing changed.The screen showed only a rain-soaked back disappearing into the trees."Ms. Sutton," the technician said, sweating. "It looks like Rachel never saw his face. The system can only extract what she actually saw."Claire went rigid."No."I don't believe that. Lily's note said Rachel knew who he w

Chapter 6

"Rachel Vale, what are you trying to say?"Do you think showing me my father's funeral will wound me enough to make me stop?"It will not. My father was the best man in this county. He was a beloved teacher. His students respected him. What were your parents? A thief and a woman everyone called crazy. And you? You are a selfish, vicious bitch."She hurled every cruel word she could think of.I sat there, silent.Something in my chest ached.Tears slid down my face without sound.Then the screen changed again.Someone in the crowd screamed."Wait. That jacket..."Isn't that what the attacker was wearing?"One glance nearly made Claire collapse.On the screen, Claire's mother, Margaret Sutton, was taking out the clothes Arthur had worn before he died.Claire saw her father's jacket and immediately began to cry."Mom," the younger Claire whispered, "Dad's jacket is torn."Margaret turned away with tears in her eyes.Claire pressed her face to the stained fabric."I always

Chapter 7

She opened her mouth, but no explanation came.Then she shoved them away and rushed to me. Her fingers fisted in my collar."Rachel, say something!"Veins stood out on her forehead. She looked seconds away from breaking apart."Tell them the attacker was not my father."My father was a good man. He was honorable. He could not have done that."But I could not answer.Claire spun toward the technicians and demanded to know whether the memory was wrong.They told her, firmly, that the extraction could not fabricate memories.Claire swayed.Then she ripped the equipment away from me and shook my shoulders."Open your eyes! Rachel, stop pretending to die!"Tell me the truth!"Tell me you are trying to hurt me because of what I did!"Just as she was about to collapse completely, a woman's voice cut through the square."Claire!"Margaret Sutton pushed through the crowd, tears running down her face."Rachel did not lie."Those memories are real."Claire went still."Mom...

Chapter 8

The confident billionaire, the woman who had built a fortune, vanished. What remained was a broken girl."How could this happen?"Dad died the day after Lily. He fell from the cliff. It was an accident."Why would he hurt Lily? He knew she was my friend!"Margaret shut her eyes."His death was not an accident."Her tears fell steadily."He killed himself because of what he did."The square erupted again.Margaret dropped to her knees in front of Lily's parents."Mr. Warren, Ellen, I am sorry. Our family owes you a debt we can never repay."That day, Arthur had been drinking with friends. On the way home, he ran into Lily. She was going to Rachel's house. They walked together. I do not know what possessed him. He did something unforgivable."Margaret could barely continue."Afterward, he was terrified. He wanted to apologize to Lily, to ask her forgiveness. But after he spoke to her at school, Lily jumped into the river."Margaret bent forward and struck her forehead again

Chapter 9

Arthur Sutton, Claire Sutton's father, was kneeling in front of Lily Warren, crying as he begged for her forgiveness."Lily, I'm sorry. Please forgive me."That night, I… I lost my mind for a moment. I was drunk. I didn't mean to…"Please don't tell anyone. Please…"Lily trembled all over. Her face was deathly pale, and tears kept streaming down her cheeks.She clamped her hands over her ears and ran away screaming.And that was the truth I had tried so desperately to hide.That day, I had been hiding under a tree, and my mind went completely blank.The cruel truth cut into my heart like a knife.I stood there, lost and helpless. I wanted to run after Lily, but I was afraid that if she saw me, it would only hurt her more.Now, in the memory, I ran after her, calling her name again and again.But memories cannot be changed.Lily could not hear me.I wanted to tell her, Lily, please don't do anything foolish.Lily, you won't lose us.Lily, please come back.For ten years,

Chapter 10

Sutton Group's stock price fell, and many people began condemning Claire Sutton.But Claire had no attention left for any of it.Her whole heart was being tormented by guilt.She went to Lily Warren's parents to apologize. She knelt before them.Lily's parents beat her until her scalp bled, then drove her out of their home.She spent every day in tears, wanting only to make amends.At a press conference, Claire publicly revealed her father's crime and transferred all of her personal assets to Lily's parents.Then she came to the hospital and begged the doctors to save me.But the doctor said helplessly that I was already in multiple organ failure. On top of that, the memory extraction had caused irreversible damage. I would not last another hour.The next second, Claire completely broke down. She dropped to her knees in front of me."Rachel… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"I didn't know anything! I misunderstood you! I was so stupid!"We were friends for so many years, and I doub

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