The Live Trial, My Memory Proves Everything

My parents are about to put me on trial before the Stone of Devotion.

The Stone of Devotion is a mystical judge. If it finds you unfilial, you are executed on the spot.

When I chose to have my memories live-streamed during the trial, everyone was in shock.

My biological parents had originally hoped for a private trial. They wanted to force me to donate my kidney to their son and seize all my assets.

But I would never surrender. If they wanted to judge me, I would let the whole world judge them instead!

The moment I pressed the button on the Stone, the live stream began.

On one side of the split screen was me. On the other side were my parents.

They looked ragged and miserable. My brother, Grant, lay beside them, his body so swollen from kidney disease that he looked like a bloated balloon.

The comment section exploded instantly. People recognized me.

"Isn't that the CEO whose parents sued her for money? Why is she accepting a live trial? Has she no shame?"

"How can someone so heartless get so rich?"

"Look at her poor brother on his deathbed while she lives a life of luxury. People like her deserve what's coming!"

I was the first person ever to use the live-stream feature for a trial.

In the past, those being judged usually chose to confess and beg for mercy before the cameras turned on.

"Once the trial begins, the accused must accept the consequences. Is that clear?"

The Stone's voice rang out, cold and robotic.

I looked at the calculated greed in my parents' eyes. I suppressed my heartache and nodded.

They were putting on a show of grief for the world, but I could see the loathing and greed they couldn't hide.

To them, my very birth was my greatest sin.

The comments erupted again.

"Why follow the process? Just execute her already!"

"Exactly! She's living the high life while her parents suffer. Typical selfish career woman!"

The Stone's voice boomed:

"Plaintiffs David Sterling, Lydia Sterling, and Grant Sterling. If you lose this case, you will be sentenced to life in prison, and Nora Sterling will receive five million dollars. Are you certain?"

On the screen, Grant's hand twitched as if he wanted to speak.

Lydia turned to him and shook her head. "Don't worry, my sweet boy. This girl is just bringing this on herself."

After saying that, Lydia looked at the judge and nodded firmly.

"The trial begins."

The AI judge's voice echoed. My mind went blank for a moment as my memories were extracted and projected for the world to see.

"Charge One: The defendant was raised with great hardship by her parents, but after becoming a top executive, she refused to provide for them."

The screens began to play a clip.

It showed me standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows of my corporate office. I was holding a cup of coffee, looking down at the street below.

Below the building stood Lydia and David.

They were wearing tattered clothes, their faces bright red from the freezing wind.

"Nora Sterling, the CEO of Sterling Group, ignores her parents' survival! She refuses to pay a dime!"

"Nora, please come home and see your father! We can't even afford food anymore!"

"We worked so hard to raise you and put you through school. You can't treat us like this!"

They wailed and cried. The screen then showed clips of them trying to find me multiple times.

They had tracked me from the rural backwoods to the city, traveling thousands of miles. But I had avoided them and blocked their numbers.

A banner in front of them read: "Nora Sterling is an ungrateful leech who abandons her parents."

Seeing this, the viewers were furious.

"Is she even human? She's drinking a hot latte in a warm office while her parents freeze outside!"

"I heard her parents are just poor country folks. It couldn't have been easy for them to pay for her education. How can she let them suffer like this?"

"Shoot her now!"

I ignored the comments. I turned to look at the gun barrel rising from the ground in front of me.

The muzzle was pitch black and cold.

In this society, abandoning your parents is a capital crime. If this charge is proven, a bullet will blow my head off before the countdown ends.

Everyone held their breath.

I stared straight into the gun, my expression calm.

Seconds ticked by. The gun didn't fire. Instead, it slowly lowered itself back into the floor.

CHARGE DISMISSED

Five giant words appeared on the screen.

The comments went insane.

"Did she bribe the Stone? She's rich, after all!"

"Those poor parents! How can ordinary people fight against corporate money?"

Lydia and David stared at the screen, their lips pressed into thin lines.

The screen lit up again, showing more of my memories.

It was a sequence from my childhood.

Four-year-old me was struggling to hold a heavy broom, sweeping a dusty yard.

The broom was almost bigger than my entire body.

The sound of a baby crying came from inside the house.

Just as I was about to go inside to check on my baby brother, my father stepped out and shoved me back.

"Your mother just gave birth to a boy. Keep your filthy girl-germs away from him. You're bad luck."

David's face wore a smug, triumphant smile. He looked like he had been drinking; his body swayed as he held a wooden switch.

"I finally have a son. A son is a treasure. You? You're just a waste of money. Why didn't you just die at birth?"

I stood there, frozen.

Even at four, I knew what death meant.

Seeing me daze off, my father's switch came down hard on my back.

"What are you looking at? Get back to work and sweep the yard, you useless girl!"

The pain was sharp. Soon, my arms were covered in red welts.

I bit my lip and kept sweeping.

As my brother grew, he was treated like a king. He ate the best food and had the best toys.

Meanwhile, I was forced to go into the woods with my mother to gather herbs or work in the fields. I did all the housework.

Whenever my father got drunk, he would hit me. He would mutter that girls shouldn't read and that they were just livestock for the family.

When I finished middle school, my grades were good enough for a top-tier prep school. But they refused to let me go.

That night, they tied me to a chair in the kitchen.

I sobbed and begged. I even promised to sign a loan to pay them back for the tuition later.

My father wouldn't hear it.

"If I go to school and get a good job, I'll give you all the money! Please, just let me go!"

"Shut up! Why would a girl need high school? If you leave, who's going to do the chores? You want Grant to do them?"

My mother chimed in from the corner. "Look at yourself in the mirror. You don't deserve an education."

"Please, I'm begging you..."

Before I could finish, my father kicked the chair over. My hair got caught in the wooden frame, and a patch was ripped clean from my scalp as I hit the floor.

The pain was so intense I couldn't even scream.

"It's decided. You're not going!"

David looked at me with disgust and tore my acceptance letter into tiny pieces.

Looking at the scraps on the floor, I felt a deep sense of despair.

They could have done the chores themselves. I could have had a future.

But I was a girl. That was my original sin.

The screen flickered, and the scene changed.

The words "Miller Textile Mill" appeared on the screen.

I was standing at the gates, wearing a thin, tattered coat. I looked skeletal and exhausted.

By then, I had been forced to work at the mill in the city. Between grueling three-shift rotations, I spent every spare second studying.

Books weren't cheap. I ate nothing but scraps just to save enough money for textbooks.

Knowledge was the only way out of that hell.

The memory shifted to Lydia showing up at the mill.

She grabbed me by the hair and dragged me toward the exit.

"You ungrateful brat! Are you spending your wages on something else? Your brother needs money for his private tutors!"

She slapped me hard across the face.

I was so frail I couldn't resist. I fell to the ground, and my books spilled out of my bag.

I remember the feeling of the cold asphalt scraping my cheek.

That month, the factory had delayed our pay due to a financial issue.

Lydia saw the money hadn't hit her account and came looking for blood the next day.

When she saw the books on the ground, she lost her mind.

"You have money for this trash? I don't even buy a piece of meat so your brother can have the best, and you buy books?"

She acted like a rabid animal, tearing my books to shreds.

My coworkers wanted to help, but they were intimidated by her sheer feral rage.

All I could think about was her saying she didn't buy meat.

I ate only two small meals a day so I could study. Eggs were a luxury I couldn't afford.

"I saved my own food money for those," I said, trembling as I stood up.

Lydia pushed me down again. "If you can save money, you should send it home! Your brother is going to a top high school in the city. Do you know how much that costs?"

The tuition for that school wasn't that high unless the student didn't have the grades to get in.

My heart went cold.

The school I earned my way into was the one they were buying his way into.

That day, she took every cent I had.

She looked at me with pure hatred as she left. "Since you're so good at starving, keep doing it. All your money belongs to your brother now."

To survive, I started working side jobs.

I delivered food, worked as a barista, washed dishes, and hauled crates.

Once, there was a music festival nearby that needed laborers to move steel pipes.

I was in such a rush to finish that I tripped while carrying a heavy load.

A steel rod grazed my face, slicing my cheek open. Blood covered my clothes.

I had bruises all over my legs, and my body felt like it was breaking.

The festival staff tried to take me to the hospital.

I shook my head and pushed them away.

I couldn't go to the hospital. I had no money, and if I was admitted, I'd lose my shifts.

I begged the manager to give me at least half a day's pay for the work I'd done.

He looked at me with pity and paid me for the full day. He even gave me a boxed lunch and told me to rest.

It was cheap construction site food, oily and salty, but it tasted like a feast.

It was the only time I felt full in months.

But as soon as I finished, my phone rang. It was David.

"I heard you're working a side job. Where's the money? Transfer it now."

"I got hurt today. Can I keep some for medicine?" I asked tentatively.

"You bitch! So what if you're hurt? Suck it up! Send the money now!" he screamed.

I could hear glass breaking in the background. He was out drinking.

I squeezed my eyes shut to stop the tears.

"Hurry up! Raising a girl like you is a curse!" he yelled before hanging up.

I transferred the money.

Later, I found a job as a barista that didn't clash with my mill shifts.

I had a talent for it and worked harder than anyone. The owner, Nina, really looked out for me.

One payday, Nina gave me an extra fifty dollars.

"You're too thin, honey. Go buy yourself a real meal," she said with a warm smile.

I planned to spend ten dollars on a good dinner and the rest on more books.

But then I saw my parents standing at the mill gates.

They were with Grant, who was wearing a pristine, expensive private school uniform.

My mother smiled when she saw me, and I instinctively tried to hide my pocket.

She was faster. She reached into my pocket and snatched the fifty dollars.

She waved the bill like a trophy. "See, David? I told you she was hiding money!"

Then she smacked me upside the head. "Trying to keep this for yourself? How much else have you stolen from us?"

"Please, let me keep it. I just want one meal," I whispered.

Lydia pinched my arm hard enough to bruise. "Eat? Look at you, you've got plenty of meat on your bones. You must be eating like a queen behind our backs!"

My father swiped at my head too. "Selfish brat. You don't even think about your brother."

Just then, Grant pointed at a nearby pizza parlor. "Mom, Dad! I want that!"

Back then, a fancy pizza place was a big deal. A small meal cost nearly fifty dollars.

"Let's go, sweetie. Mom will buy it for you," Lydia said, beaming as she led him inside.

I stood outside the window, watching them.

My reflection in the glass looked like a ghostDgaunt, yellow-skinned, and hollow.

Grant ate a slice of pizza and a few wings before getting bored. Most of the food was left on the table.

Lydia thought about packing it up, but she seemed to think it looked low-class in such a nice place. They just got up and left.

When I saw the waitress coming to clear the table, I rushed inside. I grabbed a leftover wing and shoved it into my mouth.

"Miss, this is a respectable establishment. We don't allow beggars. Please leave," the waitress said.

I shook my head, desperately grabbing the plate and stuffing another wing into my mouth.

People at the surrounding tables whispered and stared.

"Look at that girl. She's young and healthy, why is she stealing scraps?"

"It's disgusting. She has no shame."

"My family paid for this! They just left! They're my family!" I tried to explain through a mouthful of food.

The wings I had dreamed of tasted like ash and humiliation.

The waitress called security, and they dragged me out onto the sidewalk.

I sat there and gnawed on the chicken bones until they shattered, swallowing the shards.

The bone fragments cut my throat, making it burn with every breath.

That was the day I decided I had to run away.

Drenched in rain, I knocked on Nina's door.

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