Lizzy’s young, smiling face appeared on the screen. On a snowy mountain, she ran toward me, laughing as she threw a snowball. “Catch this!”
“My daughter…” Lizzy’s father collapsed in front of the screen, crying uncontrollably. Seeing his daughter’s bright smile again after ten long years broke him completely.
After Lizzy’s suicide, his hair turned white almost overnight. Every day, he went to the police station asking, “Did you find the rapist yet?”
But every time, the officers only shook their heads.
Back then, there were no cameras in the village and my house stood apart from the others. No one knew who followed Lizzy that night. The only person who knew the truth… was me.
On the screen, the younger me knelt before the mountain god’s statue, hands clasped in prayer. “Please bless my friend with health and happiness. May our friendship last forever…”
Watching that, Ivana’s face twisted with rage. “Selina, you liar! How dare you pretend to care? You liar!”
She stormed forward, pointing at me. “How dare you show those memories? You disgust us!”
“Ten years, Selina. Ten years and you never told us the truth. You don’t deserve to call us friends!”