"Once the undercover mission is over, we'll be waiting to attend your wedding!"

The memory froze on the screen. My eyes went dazed, while Jonah looked as if he'd been stabbed where it hurt the most. His fists clenched, and the corners of his eyes were red.

As for the audience, they sneered in disdain.

"Anyone can make empty promises. When disaster struck, she immediately abandoned the male lead and slept with the antagonist!"

"Yeah! She's nothing but a disgrace to her profession. Working with her must have been pure hell for the male lead!"

Sure enough, the next scene proved their point. Jonah was forced to his knees, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at me in despair.

"Rose Vega, I've already gathered all the evidence and have the getaway car ready. We're this close to finishing our mission. We're this close to bringing the antagonist to justice, and then we can retire and get married. So why… Why did you rat me out? Why did you abandon our cause?"

"You ask too many questions. Fine, I'll tell you the truth." Sitting in the arms of the antagonist, Austin Hood, I showed no guilt. I even smirked as I raised my hand to reveal the dazzling diamond ring on my finger.

"Because the diamond he gave me is ten times bigger than yours. Because he took a liking to me. All I had to do was sell you out, and I'd have endless riches and glory.

"What I can get are things you could never earn in your whole life. Why would I throw away such a good life for a poor man like you?"

Jonah's pupils constricted, his voice breaking into a roar. "This can't be true! Rose, I know you. You're not that kind of person. You'd never betray me, or your own conscience, for money!"

Suppressing the anguish within me, I clung to Austin with a sly smile.

"You really don't know me at all. It's human nature to want to move up in life. I'll be honest—I've already slept with Austin. Don't resent me for betraying you, Jonah. I just want a better future for myself."

With a satisfied smile, Austin fed me the last grape. "Enough. Lock him in the dungeon."

After quietly finishing the grape, I gazed at Jonah's utterly desolate expression before earnestly suggesting, "He's tough. He might try to escape. A dungeon might not hold him."

Austin raised an eyebrow. "So what do you propose?"

I stepped out of his embrace with a smile and approached Jonah. I stepped on his fingers with my heel before grinding down hard.

"Why don't we break his legs and throw him into the jungle to feed the mountain lions?"

My face turned ashen as I watched the memories of the past. Yet I was grateful the judge hadn't continued playing my memories.

Please just stop here.

Jonah's expression was as grim as it was on the screen. He raised a hand to clutch his aching chest, prompting Crystal to quickly hold him.

"Jonah, are you alright? Are you mourning the past? If Rose had known that you wouldn't be eaten by the mountain lions and that you would bring the police to their base to bring them to justice, maybe she wouldn't have been so cruel to you."

A cold, mocking laugh escaped Jonah's lips. "No, she's nothing but cruel. There's no way she'd be merciful. But if not for her heartlessness, I never would've met you."

Crystal looked at him shyly, her fingers tightening around his hand.

The crowd seethed with rage.

"That vicious side character probably never expected the mountain lion's den to have a hole. She never imagined the hero would escape through it before running into the female lead, who saved him."

"Ha! Imagine her finding out that after becoming a national hero, he gave the female lead a diamond-encrusted bracelet. She'd probably die of rage."

Someone grew impatient and said, "Your Honor, let's keep watching. Once we see it all, this vile woman can finally receive her deserved sentence!"

A sharp pain seized my heart. With what little strength my battered body had left, I shouted with all my might, "That's enough! I admit my guilt. I am ruthless, cruel, and guilty of countless sins. Just end my life now!

"If killing me isn't enough to ease your anger, then torture me to death. I'll accept it without complaint. Just stop watching!"

No one had expected me to become so agitated, and all eyes turned to me.

Crystal glanced my way. "That won't do, Rose. Your crimes haven't been judged yet. Please continue, Your Honor."

My protest was ignored, and the pain in my body grew stronger.

The screen flickered again, shifting to another memory.

I was leaning in Austin's arms, my red lips curving seductively. "Austin, I've had my eye on a designer handbag. Could you give me some money?"

Austin pinched my waist with a smirk. "Sure. But you'll have to earn it. I have a lot of buddies here. Satisfy one of them, and I'll give you 20 thousand. How about it?"

A door on the side creaked open. A man stood there, staring at me with feverish hunger, like a predator eyeing its prey.

Instead of shame, I smiled sweetly. Slipping off my coat to reveal a thin nightdress, I walked into the room.

The audience below the bench broke into a furious uproar.

"No wonder she was so desperate to plead guilty. Turns out she was terrified this filthy scene would come out and disgrace her!"

"This is crazy. That woman's insane! She actually stooped that low for money!"

"Back then, the female lead sang at bars every night to pay for the male lead's treatment and was never swayed by money. But this vicious woman? She throws herself at men for scraps. Ugh, she's disgusting!"

"Don't compare her to the female lead. It would only tarnish her name."

A smug look crossed Crystal's gaze when she heard the scornful comparisons.

The very next moment, her face appeared on the screen.

Backstage at a bar, I wore a mask and cap, handing Crystal a wad of cash and a sealed letter.

"This should be enough to cover Jonah's treatment. Spend the rest as you see fit. And this letter. Please deliver it to him."

Crystal eyed me warily, her expression uneasy. "Rose, where did you get this money? And your neck—what happened to it?"

She reached for the marks on my skin, but I jerked away.

"I-It's nothing. Just hurry and pay his bills. If it drags on, the damage will be permanent."

I left the money behind and hurried away.

The courtroom erupted in shock.

"What's going on here? Could it be that the money she begged from the antagonist was actually for the male lead's treatment?"

"In the novel, this part was glossed over. It only said that some kind-hearted donor was moved by the female lead's perseverance and covered the male lead's bills. Could that person have been Rose? No way!"

Even Jonah was in disbelief. He grabbed Crystal's hand. "Why didn't you tell me Rose gave you the money? Where's that letter? Why didn't you give it to me?"

Startled, Crystal trembled a little as she tried to explain, voice filled with grievance, "You were badly hurt back then, Jonah. Of course your treatment had to come first! And I was afraid it was some kind of trap, so I didn't tell you.

"She may be my sister, but she's still a traitor. As for the letter… I was so busy paying the hospital bills that I must've misplaced it."

Suppressing his emotions, Jonah turned to me. "What did you write in that letter?"

Crystal quickly cut in, "What else could she have written? It had to be some pathetic love letter. She'd say anything to trick you into trusting her, no?"

The crowd agreed with her.

"She's right. Don't forget—Rose broke Jonah's legs in the first place. Now she comes offering to pay the hospital bills? Isn't that just knocking him down, then throwing him a bone? She definitely had ulterior motives."

"The female lead was right to be worried that he might fall into Rose's trap. After all, she can't always show up in time to save him."

As the voices piled on, Jonah's emotions gradually calmed, but his eyes never left me. "Did you really write that letter just to trick me into trusting you?"

My ugliest side had been laid bare before him, and shame burned through me. Yet unlike the others, he didn't call me filthy or insult me. He only pressed for the truth about the letter.

The weight of that struck me like a blow to the chest, and pain rippled through every corner of my body.

I relapsed, but regrettably, the pain wasn't enough to kill me.

I forced a mocking smile. "Jonah, surely you don't still have expectations of me. I wrote that letter for one reason only—to shame you. Keep watching if you want. The best you'll get is to hope for my quicker death. You might as well kill me now."

Jonah's gaze filled with disappointment, his fists clenching tight.

He said, "You're right about one thing—I should never have had expectations for someone like you. But you're wrong about another.

"If you're afraid of us seeing your memories, then all the more reason to see them through. The torment of the mind is no less than the suffering of the flesh. Your Honor, let's continue watching."

The giant screen lit up again.

In the memory, I was sitting on Austin's lap.

I handed him the documents with a petulant whine, "Look, this batch of brats sent here is useless. They can't do anything and are close to costing this sector money. Why don't we sell them to the black market instead to make a small profit?"

Austin skimmed a few pages, eyebrows raised in amusement. "How much could they fetch on the black market? Besides, going through all that trouble just draws attention. It's more risk than it's worth."

I plucked the documents from his hand with a grin. "When I was a journalist, I investigated the black market. People aren't worth much sold whole. But if we take them apart and sell their organs, that's big money. Plenty of the rich are desperate for such premium resources."

The audience didn't even wait for the scene to finish before erupting in furious curses.

That was when a hesitant voice spoke up.

"Wait… Hasn't the black market been under police surveillance for a while? Outsiders might not know, but Rose definitely knew since she was an undercover journalist."

"Yeah… And instead of tipping off the antagonist, she suggested sending the kids there? Was she trying to save them?"

Someone immediately shot back, "Save them? Her? Then how do you explain her starving them? She just wanted them to be too weak to run!"

"Exactly. Rose is rotten to the core. She'll never be cleansed of her sins!"

As the crowd argued back and forth, the scene played on. At the base, starving children lined up with bowls in hand, their eyes feral as they stared at the meat in the pot.

I strode in, sneering. "What's this? Even useless brats get to eat chicken drumsticks these days?"

The person in charge of distributing the food, Alvin Mann, hurriedly set down his ladle and rushed over with a smile.

"Ms. Vega, Mr. Hood was the one who wanted to give them drumsticks. He said they should have some nourishing food for their health."

I scoffed. "For their health? They don't deserve it. My dogs in the backyard are half-starved. Take all the meat out there and feed it to the dogs. And don't tell Austin about this."

Alvin looked troubled but still agreed.

One of the children, desperate with hunger, dropped to his knees before me, pleading. "Miss, please… Please let us have a little food. If we don't eat, we'll really die."

Kicking him away, I frowned in disgust. "How annoying. Bring the pig slop from the kitchen. Just add some water to it and let them make do with that."

The courtroom roared with outrage.

"She snatched their food and fed them pig slop! I knew she was vile, but I didn't think she treated the children like livestock!"

"Good thing that on the day the kids were about to be sold, the female lead just happened to bring the male lead near the black market for a picnic.

"The male lead recognized the traffickers from the base, which led him to join forces with the police and rescue the children. That was what gave them the breakthrough to bring the whole place down."

"It just shows the diff. The female lead donated food to kids living in rural areas, while Rose abused children. She seriously deserves to die."

The voices of condemnation grew louder and louder, yet to me, they were fading into a distant hum.

What had been ailing me flared up once more. It was so excruciating that I broke out in a cold sweat. Still, I forced my back straight.

"Yeah. I'm that vicious, that shameless! So hurry up and deliver the verdict already!"

They needed to stop watching. I didn't want to relive the memory that truly broke me.

Angered by my brazen defiance, the crowd turned violent. A water bottle struck first.