Then the next memory appeared, me secretly throwing away the mango that Lizzy had given me.
The crowd exploded. “She’s so fake. Pretending to accept it in front of her but tossing it behind her back?”
“Ivana and Lizzy treated her so well. How could she do this to her friend? She’s just too selfish and cold-hearted!”
Ivana knew I was very allergic to mango, but she didn’t tell the crowd about that. She just listened as people kept mocking me.
“She must not have guessed Ivana would become the richest person and come back for revenge.”
“Keep going, Ms. Sinclair. We want to see the rapist’s face!”
As the crowd yelled, the memory on the big screen changed again. Ivana’s heartbroken cries came through the speakers. “Lizzy, please don’t die!”
It was the day they pulled Lizzy’s body from the river. It rained hard that day. Ivana and I fell beside Lizzy and we cried until our chests hurt.
Her body was swollen and cold. Her whole body was already stiff. She looked nothing like the cheerful, pretty girl I remembered.
I went home in a daze and curled up in a corner, crying for a long time.
“Ah!” I pounded my chest over and over again. Losing my best friend felt like it was tearing my soul apart.
On the stage, I kept my eyes closed while tears ran down my face. In the end, I cried out in pieces, “Lizzy, how dare you die?”
My tears kept falling as the despair took over me. My pain made the crowd react all at once.
“What is happening?”
“Why does she look so broken? How could she...”
Lizzy’s father, Adam, shouted in anger, “She was just acting!”
He ground his teeth and said, “Back then, my wife knelt at her door until her knees bled and she did not open the door even once!”
“She even set dogs on people. Who could call that a good person? My daughter played with her as a child and this is how she treated the dead girl’s mother.”
Lizzy’s mother, Maya, also appeared in messy hair, holding a doll and saying over and over, “Be brave, Lizzy. Don’t be afraid.”
The crowd’s anger rose once again.
Ivana’s face went pale for a moment before turning red with anger. She stepped forward and shook me hard, her eyes widened as she shouted, “Selina, look! This is the tragedy you caused by protecting a criminal!”
“You had no parents. Lizzy and I took care of you since you were seven because we felt sorry for you. Is this how you repay us?”