Chapter 4

"Lucas and Chloe treated her so well, and look how she treated them! She’s just a selfish, cold-blooded bystander!"

Lucas knew I had disliked the style of that bracelet.

But he didn't explain that to the crowd. He just stood there, letting them mock me:

"She probably never expected Lucas to return as a billionaire to settle the score!"

"Keep going, Mr. Cole! We can't wait to see the face of the monster she's protecting!"

Prompted by the crowd's anger, the memory on the screen shifted again.

Lucas’s desperate, heart-wrenching scream echoed through the speakers:

"Chloe! No! Don't leave me!"

It was the day Chloe's body was pulled from the ocean.

It was a cold, rainy day. Lucas and I fell to our knees beside her body. He clenched his fists so hard his nails drew blood, his entire body shaking.

Her body was bloated and freezing cold.

She looked nothing like the beautiful, laughing girl I knew.

On screen, I walked back to my empty apartment like a ghost, curling up in a corner and sobbing hysterically.

"Ahhh!" I beat my chest on screen, the pain of losing my best friend ripping me apart.

On the trial platform, I kept my eyes closed as tears streamed down my face.

On screen, my broken voice cried out:

"Chloe! Why did you do it? Why did you leave me?"

My tears wouldn't stop, my digital self completely drowned in endless grief.

Seeing my genuine heartbreak on screen, the crowd fell into a hushed confusion.

"What's going on?"

"She looks genuinely devastated... How could she..."

Arthur, Chloe's grandfather, suddenly screamed in fury:

"Crocodile tears!"

With tears streaming down his face, his hand shook violently as he pointed at me: "My daughter, Eleanor, collapsed at her door! Her voice went hoarse from begging, she banged on that door with everything she had, and this girl didn't even flinch!"

"She even let her cat attack us! Does a person like that deserve to be Chloe's friend?!"

The crowd's anger flared up once again.

Lucas’s face turned pale, then red with anger.

He rushed over, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me violently, his eyes bloodshot and filled with rage:

"Elena, look! Look at the tragedy your silence caused!"

"Your parents died early, and your grandmother passed away. Chloe and I pitied you, we loved you like family, and this is how you repay us?!"

He raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face.

"Are you still trying to get sympathy?!"

"You destroyed Chloe! Do you think these memories will make me soft?"

His chest heaved violently, his eyes red and brimming with tears. His voice was cracked with grief.

"Chloe is dead!"

"But the one who truly killed her was you! You, Elena!"

He shook me, his eyes filled with a hatred that wanted to tear me to pieces.

To him, Chloe's death was a devastating tsunami that had wiped out his world, leaving nothing but a cold, wet, permanent emptiness.

Suddenly, Lucas stood up straight and wiped his face with the back of his hand.

In an instant, his grief was replaced by absolute, chilling coldness.

"Elena, let me tell you something. I will not stop until I find the killer!"

"And once I find him, I will drag both of you straight to hell!"

He turned to the technician, his face grim. "Increase the extraction depth."

He had no patience left for my "act."

The technician hesitated, then stepped forward to adjust the controls.

The red needle on the monitor spiked. The micro-needles in the helmet drove even deeper into my skull.