Chapter 2

The "Harrison Family Massacre" screamed from every headline.

Their affluent community, usually a picture of serene wealth, reeled in horror.

Sarah Miller became a monster overnight.

The public fury was a tidal wave, demanding swift, brutal justice.

She sat in a cold cell, the accusations echoing around her.

Interrogations were relentless, Sheriff Brody's face a mask of grim determination, fueled by the town's outrage.

She remained silent. A wall of ice.

Days turned into weeks, then months. A year crawled by.

No confession. No explanation. Just Sarah's unwavering, stoic silence.

Ethan Harrison was a ghost of himself.

Grief was a constant, gnawing companion. But beneath it, an agonizing question burned: Why?

He needed to understand. He needed to hear it from her.

His medical connections, once used to heal, now offered a desperate, ethically murky path.

An experimental procedure: "Traumatic Memory Unveiling." TMU.

It involved a series of psychoactive drugs, monitored neural feedback.

Dangerous. Unpredictable.

But Ethan, consumed by a grief that bordered on madness, saw it as his only hope.

He would force the truth from her. He had to.

He told himself it was for justice, for his family.

He didn't let himself think it was to kill the last, tiny, traitorous flicker of doubt about the girl he had loved.

The girl who had, he now believed, destroyed everything.