When I was ten, my parents died, leaving me and my little sister alone. We suffered in the foster system until the Sterlings adopted us. They treated us like their own. They doted on us. When I turned twenty, they even arranged for me to be engaged to their biological daughter, Chloe. Chloe was everything I could have asked for. She loved me fiercely, willing to give me the moon and stars. For ten years, my sister and I lived in luxury, sheltered from the world’s cruelty. On the night before our wedding, Chloe brought out a bottle of rare vintage wine to celebrate. I used that wine to poison the entire Sterling family. Including my own sister. ... 1 At the dining table, everyone bled from their eyes, noses, and mouths. They died staring at me, eyes wide open. I sat calmly as the police, led by a frantic Chloe, swarmed the room. Chloe screamed, her eyes bloodshot, rushing forward to slap me over and over. "Why?! Why did you do this?!" I was knocked to the ground, enduring her kicks and punches without a word. Even under police interrogation, I said nothing. I was held for three months. Detectives, lawyers, and prosecutors took turns trying to break me. Some begged, some threatened. I remained silent. The investigation stalled. Chloe, out of patience, pulled strings to see me. "City General Hospital has a new experimental drug," she hissed, slamming her hand on the table. "It extracts memories directly from brain waves. The process is excruciating. Once the extraction is complete, you will be brain dead." "Lucas, tell me why. Why did you kill my family? Even your own sister!" I looked at Chloe. The love in her eyes was gone, replaced by bone-deep hatred. My heart ached, but my face remained blank. "Leave. I won't talk." Chloe smashed the phone against the glass partition. "Lucas, you brought this on yourself!" The guards looked at me with disgust. "Never seen anyone so evil." Chloe got authorization. A dozen officers escorted me to the hospital. I was treated like a high-risk terrorist. As I walked out of the station with a hood over my head, a mob of reporters and "concerned citizens"—people the Sterlings had helped—surrounded us. Someone ripped off my hood. The sun blinded me for a second before a dozen eggs smashed against my face. "Murderer! Let everyone see your true face!" Flashbulbs popped like gunfire. "Why did you bite the hand that fed you?" "Did you want the inheritance for yourself?" "Was there another woman? Did you plot this with a mistress?" The questions were sharp, piercing my eardrums. I ignored them, staring blankly ahead. Enraged by my silence, the crowd started throwing phones, bags, umbrellas—anything they could grab. Something hard hit my head. Blood trickled down my face. I curled in pain. The chief of police, afraid of a riot, ordered the officers to push the crowd back. "Citizens, rest assured. We will give you answers for this heinous crime." I was hooded again and dragged to the hospital. Strapped to a medical chair, I watched the doctor prepare the injection. Just as the needle touched my skin, Chloe grabbed his wrist. Her eyes were red, dark circles heavy beneath them. She stared at me. "Lucas, one last chance. Confess now, and you don't have to..." I closed my eyes before she could finish. Chloe’s pupils shrank. She nodded to the doctor. The cold liquid entered my veins. Instantly, fire raced through my nerves. I convulsed in agony, straining against the straps. Chloe ignored my suffering. She waited until the screen behind me flickered to life. "Why did you kill my parents? Why did you kill your sister?" My memories were being livestreamed to the public to quell their rage. I closed my eyes, tears finally falling. Chapter 2 The screen showed a memory from when I was ten. My parents died in a car crash. My sister and I were left alone. Without parents, we became burdens. Relatives who used to visit avoided us like the plague. They carved up my parents' estate and left us with nothing. To feed my sister, I scavenged for food in trash cans. We were starving. My sister got sick from malnutrition. Desperate, I carried her to the orphanage steps and knelt, begging them to take us. But life inside was harder. We were bullied. I fought older kids for a single cracker for my sister. One day, a bully was beating me. Just as I thought I was going to die, the Sterlings intervened. Mrs. Sterling placed a warm hand on my head. "Do you want to come home with us?" She was the only light in my dark world. "But I have a sister..." I huddled against the wall, holding my frail sister tight. If they didn't want her, I wouldn't go. But they didn't reject her. They wept for us. We became Sterlings. Mrs. Sterling tended our wounds, cooked our favorite meals, and read us bedtime stories. Little Chloe protected me at school. "Anyone who messes with Lucas messes with me!" We were a family. The days of starvation felt like a bad dream. The internet exploded. "This guy is trash! The Sterlings saved him, and he killed them?" "He deserves the death penalty!" Chloe couldn't take it. She strangled me, hot tears falling on my face. "Lucas! Why?! What did my family ever do to you?!" I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, a pale, slender hand touched Chloe’s arm. "Chloe, why waste your breath on him?" "He's going to die anyway. I'll be here for you, always." It was Dr. Ethan Cole. The doctor in charge. And Chloe’s first love—the one she never got over. He was the one who told her about this procedure. Chloe didn't push him away. She looked at him tenderly. "Why are you doing this personally?" Ethan held up a syringe. "To give him the second dose." The needle pierced my skin again. Pain wracked my body. The second memory began. I was twenty. My engagement to Chloe was announced. That night, Mrs. Sterling handed me a stack of documents. Stocks, trust funds—all in my name. "This is your dowry, Lucas," she said warmly. "Chloe will handle the rest." She made Chloe promise to treat me well. "If you ever hurt him, you're not my daughter." Chloe swore she would love me forever. Later, she commissioned a bespoke suit for me from Italy, pinning a diamond brooch on the lapel herself. I was lost in happiness. But two days later, Mr. Sterling had a stroke. Mrs. Sterling collapsed from shock. My sister was stuck at boarding school. Chloe was detained by the IRS for tax evasion investigations. The Sterling empire was crumbling. Business partners vanished. I took the stocks and funds Mrs. Sterling gave me and ran to a lawyer in the middle of the night. "Can we liquidate these? Fast?" Chapter 3 The memory cut off there. Ethan slapped me hard across the face. "You ungrateful wolf! They treated you like a son, and the moment they were in trouble, you tried to cash out and run?" "What were you going to do with that money? Run away with a mistress like the rumors say?" Ethan’s words were calculated to destroy my reputation. The comments on the livestream turned vile. "This guy belongs in the history books of traitors!" Chloe looked even more broken. "Is it true? Did you kill my family just to run away with some woman?" "When I was stuck at the IRS office, I begged them to call you. I thought you were hiding because you were scared. I didn't blame you." "But you were actually trying to steal our money?" "If Ethan hadn't come back from overseas to operate on my dad, if I hadn't found the evidence to clear my name... would you have just disappeared?" Ethan held her shoulders. "Chloe, I did it all willingly." So, you always thought Ethan was the hero. I smiled bitterly as my brain waves were siphoned away. The memory shifted. I took all the liquidated money to the best neurosurgeon in the city. I begged him to save Mr. Sterling. But I underestimated the evil in this world. The Chief of Neurosurgery, Dr. Kane, was a monster. He locked the office door and took off his jacket, eyeing me like prey. "You want me to save him? Sleep with me." I stared at him in horror. "You're a doctor!" "This is a private hospital. Money is king. And you don't have enough." I shoved the bank card at him. "I have money! Take it!" Kane laughed. "The Sterling family is finished. This is pocket change." He tapped his pen against my chest. "Someone paid me a lot more to buy you." "Who?!" He didn't answer. He jabbed a needle into my neck. I woke up in a basement. A dozen men stood around, staring at me. I screamed, begging. "I'm getting married! Please let me go!" My struggles only excited them. Kane ripped my shirt open. "Getting married? Even better." I was in hell. Hours later, broken and bleeding, I grabbed Kane’s sleeve with my last ounce of strength. "You... got what you wanted... save my dad..." "Lucas..." Chloe stared at the screen, her hatred replaced by confusion and horror. "Why... why didn't you ever tell me?" I closed my eyes, tears streaming. How could I say it? Kane had warned me: "Even the mighty Sterlings can fall with a snap of someone's fingers. Don't try to get revenge." I was terrified of bringing more danger to the family. I hid my injuries, recovered alone, and returned to the Sterlings in silence. The livestream audience wavered. "He suffered that to save her dad... but he still killed them." "One good deed doesn't erase a massacre." Chloe looked torn. "Lucas, just tell me the truth. You don't have to die like this." Ethan’s eyes flashed with malice. "Chloe, he murdered your family! Don't let him fool you!" He jammed the third needle into my arm. The dosage was triple. I screamed. The monitor buzzed, static clearing to reveal a shocking scene. Chapter 4 In the memory, I returned home after healing. I scrubbed my skin raw in the shower every day. Mrs. Sterling noticed. I broke down and told her everything. Instead of disgust, she held me and wept. She insisted on moving the wedding up to restore my dignity. Chloe, though annoyed by my disappearance, still loved me. She agreed. The suit arrived. My sister cried tears of joy. Mr. and Mrs. Sterling beamed. Chloe kissed my hand. "Lucas, let the past go. We'll be happy." I nodded, moved. The night before the wedding, Chloe went to the wine cellar. "This bottle was bought the year I was born. Mom saved it for my wedding." The family sat around the table, smiling at us. "I forgot the decanter," I said, my face flushed. "Chloe, can you go get it?" Once she was gone, I pulled out a hidden vial of pesticide. I poured it into the open bottle. I poured glasses for Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, and my sister. I watched them drink it. Seconds later, they were bleeding from every orifice, convulsing on the floor. I didn't stop there. I slit the maid’s throat. I bludgeoned the driver to death. Then I sat at the head of the table, calmly wiping the blood from my hands. Chloe returned after half an hour. She screamed when she saw the bodies. "Who did this?!" Only I was alive. She grabbed a knife, screaming, trying to kill me. Police burst in and tackled her. I was arrested. I confessed to nothing. I acted like I had slaughtered chickens, not my family. The chat went wild. "He's a monster!" "Psycho! He snapped and killed everyone because of his trauma!" "Who knows who he'd kill next? Execute him!" Suddenly, a forensic pathologist burst into the room holding a report. "Chief! There's a problem with the autopsy report!" "What problem?" Chloe snatched the paper. She couldn't understand the medical jargon. She looked at me. "Lucas! What are you hiding?!" Pain blinded me. I looked at Chloe with longing. A goodbye. The memory shifted again.
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