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.

Water bottles, eggs, even stones were hurled at me, raining down in an endless storm.

I stood there, face pale, making no attempt to dodge as the blows split my skin and left me drenched in blood.

In the past, if I so much as got a scratch, Jonah would have carried me straight to the hospital in a panic. But now, he looked at my battered body without the slightest change of emotion.

"Continue the trial," he said indifferently.

On the giant screen, several henchmen knelt trembling before Austin.

"Mr. Hood, we don't know where all those cops came from, but they snatched away all the brats," one said.

The wine glass in Austin's hand shattered on the floor, his veins bulging at his temple. "You're all useless! Get out of my sight!"

They scrambled away in terror, while Austin yanked me out of the cage and threw me to the ground. My clothes were disheveled, my body etched with wounds from relentless torment.

With bloodshot eyes, Austin slapped me hard across the face.

I didn't struggle, nor did I try to flatter him. Only a cold, detached look was on my face. "Just kill me."

"Kill you?" He let out a furious laugh. "Don't think you can fool me. That undercover ex of yours was just a decoy—you're the real mole. Back then, you dug a hole in the mountain lion's den so your lover could escape!

"You knew there were sedatives in the pot of meat. That's why you deliberately withheld the food from those brats. It's obvious that you wanted them to have the strength to escape during today's riot."

The more he spoke, the angrier he grew. He kicked me viciously.

"You bitch! You must have known that Burnett bastard's cover was blown! To keep me from killing him, you cried your way into my mercy, swearing you'd come to my side.

"Had your beauty not swayed me, I never would've let you act recklessly and set him free. You owe me more than life can pay. Even your death won't be enough!"

At that moment, a group of men dragged Alvin inside.

"So this is the rat who's been helping you all along? You're better at brainwashing than I am. No matter what we tried, we couldn't pry a word out of him.

"I heard you promised him a reduced sentence, a decent job, and a chance to live with dignity. Too bad he'll never have that chance."

My deadened expression finally cracked with panic. I clutched at Austin's leg. "Don't hurt him! He was only following my orders. Take your anger out on me instead!"

A cruel smile curled on Austin's lips. "No. You're not afraid of death. Killing you is pointless. Your punishment is to watch the person you wanted to save be slowly tortured to death."

At once, Alvin's agonized screams filled the room.

"No!" I lunged forward, desperate to save him, only to be pinned down by a handful of brutes.

I could only watch as his bones were broken one by one with clubs, his flesh hacked apart with blades.

"Alvin! Alvin…"

Despair consumed me. My last comrade fell before my eyes in the most tragic way.

The most agonizing memory engulfed me once again.

I stared in horror at the screen, at Alvin's final relieved gaze upon seeing that I was still alive. The despair and guilt I once felt flayed me alive, tearing me apart bit by bit.

In the courtroom, the audience was stunned.

"Oh my god… Rose was the real undercover operative all along! Everything she did… was to save people!"

"All this time, we misunderstood her. We scorned her, insulted her, passed judgment on her, and wished her dead, yet she turned out to be the hero!"

Jonah was also dumbstruck, his head snapping toward me.

Then, from the crowd, a piercing scream broke out. "Rose coughed up blood! There's no pulse, and she's stopped breathing… It's cardiac arrest! Someone help her. Quick!"