In the year 3025, the Research Bureau’s new Memory Extractor had uncovered many long-buried cases. Once connected to a person’s mind, it replayed the events of that day with striking clarity.
As soon as I was tied to the gallows, my mother’s rage exploded, and her hand struck my face.
“Juliette! You monster! You saw everything! You were right there! Why did you tell the police you knew nothing?”
Each slap landed hard as the people watching looked on with grim satisfaction. My mother’s tears mixed with anger, releasing thirty years of grief and hate.
I couldn’t move and could only take the blows in silence as darkness crept into my vision and hot saliva dripped from my mouth.
Owen stopped her in a cold voice. “Mom, don’t kill her.”
“Today, the truth that’s been hidden for thirty years will finally come out.”
Beside the gallows, my crimes were listed. “Hiding the man who assaulted her sister; forcing her sister’s boyfriend to take drugs and marry her.”
In this time, everyone was equal, and no woman’s dignity could be ignored.
When the crowd saw my crimes, they spat and shouted curses. “Your sister went through all that, and you still protected the criminal? You should die!”