Vivian Shaw Alexander Evans NovelHis Bed, Not Hers

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After my sister was assaulted and jumped to her death, I not only shielded her attacker, I climbed into her boyfriend's bed.
Years later, my mother stood on a rooftop ledge, threatening to jump unless I naExtractor the man who destroyed Zoe.
I just stared back, my voice cold as ice. If you want to die, go ahead and jump. At least you'll keep Zoe company.
Thirty years passed. A car crash left me paralyzed. My husband, Alexander Evans, had his men drag me outside. They strapped me to the execution platform reserved for the worst criminals.
"Vivian Shaw, you vile, heartless bitch!" Alexander roared, his voice raw with thirty years of suppressed fury. "Zoe adored you! She protected you! And you repaid her by shielding the monster who raped her! And then you crawled into my bed the very next day!"
"I only married you to find her killer! Every moment with you was a lie! A performance to uncover the truth!"
"Thank God for science." He gestured towards a technician holding a sleek, chrome device. "This Memory Extraction Device will rip the truth from your brain. Today, you and that bastard finally face justice!"
As the scene of Zoe's assault flickered to life on the giant public screen, a wave of shocked silence swept the crowd.
Alexander and my mother stared, their faces crumbling into utter despair
The year is 3025. The Scientific Bureau's breakthrough Memory Extraction Device (Extractor) cracked countless cold cases.
Hook it to someone's brain, and it replays their memories like a high-definition movie for all to see.
The moment they strapped me to the platform, my mother lunged forward, her hand cracking across my face.
"Vivian! You monster!"
"You saw everything! You were there! Why did you tell the police you knew nothing?!"
Slap after slap rained down. The crowd watched, faces twisted with grim satisfaction.
She wept as she hit me, unleashing thirty years of pent-up rage and grief onto my helpless body.
I couldn't move. Couldn't defend myself. I just took it.
Until my vision blurred and spit dribbled down my chin.
Alexander finally stepped in, his voice like frozen steel. "Enough, Mom. Don't kill her before her sentence."
"Today after thirty years the truth comes out."
Beside the platform, a digital display listed my crimes:
[Shielding the Rapist of Her Sister. Drugging and Coercing Her Sister's Boyfriend into Marriage.]
In our society, equality reigns. Women's rights are sacred.
The crowd read my charges. Spit flew. Curses rained down.
[Your own sister! How could you protect her attacker? Just die already!]
Alexander's jaw was clenched so tight I thought it might shatter. His eyes, bloodshot, burned into mine.
I met his hate-filled gaze and managed a weak, painful smile.
Back then, Alexander and I had secretly loved each other. But Zoe, battling depression, threatened suicide if he chose me.
Heartbroken, I lied. Told him I'd fallen for someone else.
Later, after Zoe was assaulted and jumped I chose silence. To protect Alexander. To finally be with him.
My mother saw my smile and snapped. She lunged again, fingers digging into my throat.
"You vile creature! How dare you smile!"
"Zoe died in agony! What right do you have to breathe?!"
Alexander's voice was glacial. "Mom, once the Extractor finishes once everyone sees the truth if over fifty percent vote for death she'll join Zoe imExtractoriately."
I paled. Not from fear of death.
But fear of the truth being exposed. "No! Alexander, please! You can't do this! You'll regret it!"
Alexander gave me a look of pure contempt. placed the Neural Extractor helmet on my head without hesitation.
Agony exploded inside my head. Like my brain was being crushed, shredded, then haphazardly stitched back together. I convulsed against the restraints.
The crowd below cheered.
[The Neural Extractor has three pain levels! Faster extraction means more pain! Look at her twitch! Alexander must have set it to max!]
[Serves the bitch right! Shielding a rapist deserves the worst!]
[When it's over, she'll be a drooling vegetable! Hah!]
Their curses buzzed in my ears. My mind plunged back thirty-eight years
A massive, crystal-clear holographic screen materialized in the air.
Eight years before the crime. The day Zoe confessed her love to Alexander.
My mother took one look at Zoe's youthful face and collapsed into wracking sobs. "My poor Zoe! You'd just found love just started to be happy and then you gone! It's not fair! It's not fair!"
On screen, young Zoe blushed, handing Alexander a love letter, her face radiant with shy hope.
But my younger self wasn't looking at Zoe. My eyes were locked on Alexander, filled with desperate love and heartbreaking loss.
The crowd erupted.
[Look at Vivian! She wanted Alexander all along!]
[She probably planned Zoe's death! That's why she protected the killer!]
[She loved Alexander, so she killed her innocent sister? Monster!]
The forced memory extraction made speech impossible, the pain was too great.. But my eyes never left Alecander, filled with that same undeniable devotion.
They were right. Alexander was always the one I loved.
People below scooped up rocks and dirt. Someone hurled a shoe. Soon, I was bleeding and covered in filth.
Alexander's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at me, then turned his gaze back to the screen.
On screen, I sighed and accepted Zoe's letter for Alexander.
Zoe squealed, spinning with joy. "Alexander! I made your favorite lemon drizzle cake! Left it at home! Wait here, I'll grab it!"
The moment she vanished around the corner, I threw my arms around Alexander.
Gasps ripped through the crowd.
[Oh my God! How could she?!]
[Her sister just left! She jumps on her boyfriend! Disgusting!]
[Absolute trash! What a bitch! No other men in the world? Had to steal her sister's?!]
On screen, Alexander's arms wrapped around me then shoved me away.
"I poured my heart out to you! You said you'd moved on! You fallen for someone else! Now I'm dating Zoe, and you do this?!"
"Are you seriously trying to steal your sister's boyfriend?"
He spat venom. I just gazed at him, utterly lost.
"I'm sorry" Tears welled in my eyes. Before I could speak, Zoe bounded back with the cake.
"Viv! Alexander! Taste this! My best batch yet!"
I ignored her. My eyes were locked on Alexander.
My lips formed silent words. [If Zoe wasn't here I'd be with you.]
The crowd exploded.
[No wonder she protected the killer! She wanted Zoe dead all along!]
[Bet she set Zoe up! She must the one that planned the whole attack!]
Alexander staggered back, his face white. "Did you did you want Zoe dead even then?"
"Have you forgotten?" Alexander yelled at my younger self on the screen. "When you were bullied at school, it was Zoe who risked everything to save you! She almost got her face slashed because of you!"
On screen, young me nodded, tears falling. "I never forgot. But that didn't mean I had to give you up. And when I said that I just meant without Zoe we could be happy. But I"
I never wished her dead.
The words died unspoken. My mother, hysterical, charged the platform, fingers clawing at my throat.
"You could have competed for Alexander fairly! Why destroy her?!"
"WHO KILLED MY ZOE?! TELL ME!"
A torrent of hate washed over me. Still, I clenched my teeth.
"I won't tell you. Knowing the truth helps no one!"
CRACK!
Alexander backhanded me across the face.
"Still protecting him?! After all this?!"
"Fine. No more mercy."
"Everyone knows the Extractor has three pain levels. But there's a fourth. Maximum. It feels like being run over by a truck then put back together piece by shattered piece."
"TELL ME WHO IT WAS!"
Blood trickled from my nose and mouth. I shook my head, mute.
A flicker of pity crossed some faces.
But as Alexander twisted the Extractor control to its highest setting, all pity vanished.
The screen showed Zoe's final moments.
She stood on the high rooftop ledge, wearing a white sundress, screaming at me:
[Alexander! I loved you so much! But I'm ruined now! Filthy! I don't deserve you!]
[You saw you saw what happened How can I live with that shame?]
Zoe looked at me, her eyes desperate, pleading.
[Viv, please testify. Name the man who did this. Tell them what you saw and I won't jump.]
Younger me stared back, a cold, bitter smile twisting my lips.
[Even if you die right in front of me I won't say a word.]
My younger mother knelt on the pavement below, banging her head on the concrete.
[Zoe! Baby, please! Don't jump! Mommy can't lose you! PLEASE!]
Her wails were primal, raw. Zoe didn't hesitate.
THUD.
A life, so vibrant moments before, was extinguished before our eyes.
My mother vomited blood, scrambling on hands and knees towards her daughter's broken body, a soundless scream tearing from her throat before it became a howl of pure agony.
[ZOE! MY BABY!]
Even thirty years later, the memory was horrifyingly clear.
Alexander's tears fell freely. He turned, saw the tears in my own eyes, and his face hardened with fresh rage.
"Don't you dare pretend to care! You killed her!"
"If you felt even an ounce of guilt, you'd name him!"
I pressed my lips together, shaking my head, pain etched on my face.
Seeing my refusal, Alexander's eyes turned arctic. "Then you can die."
He tapped a control. The scene shifted to the night of the assault.
The sickening rip of fabric filled the air.
Every heart clenched.
"Let me go"
"Please please stop"
Darkness. Zoe's terrified, agonized screams echoed.
Alexander trembled violently, fists clenched.
The crowd strained, but the screen remained pitch black.
[What's happening?]
[Is the Extractor broken?]
[Impossible! The tech's flawless! We see what she saw!]
I convulsed, the Extractor's agony merging with remembered horror.
Alexander, seeing no attacker, lost it. He grabbed my shirt, shaking me. "Vivian! You had to see his face! WHO WAS IT?!"
Looking into the face I'd loved for over thirty years, I tried to smile. "Alexander I didn't see."
"I have night blindness. Total darkness I saw nothing."
Alexander froze. Like he'd been struck by lightning.
"Liar!"
"Zoe said it herself before she jumped! You knew!"
My mother slapped me again, hard. "And even if you didn't see, why didn't you help her?!"
"You were there! You could have screamed! If you had just made a noise, called for help, she wouldn't have been... violated! She wouldn't have jumped!"
"You killed her!"
She pounded my chest. "WHO KILLED MY DAUGHTER?! TELL ME!"
I bit my lip, silent. Alexander finally snapped. He grabbed the executioner's whip from its hook and lashed out.
CRACK!
I screamed, a raw, animal sound of agony
But he didn't stop. "Vivian! Talk!"
The whip's barbs tore flesh. I looked at Alexander, my eyes filled with pity. "Alexander I did it for you."
"Zoe got what she deserved."
The crowd erupted. Curses, spit, objects hurled.
[She says Zoe DESERVED it?! After what happened?!]
[Zoe shared a roof with this viper for years! God knows what she endured!]
[If Vivian had just testified, Zoe might not have jumped!]
[There was no rapist! Vivian killed Zoe herself!]
Finally, Alexander pressed a knife to his own throat. "You love me, right? If you don't name him I'll slit my throat right here."
"NO!"
My scream ripped through the square. The pressure in my skull broke. The buried memory surged onto the screen.
Dusk. Golden light. A man's face, clear as day.
Alexander stared, stunned. My mother collapsed to her knees.
"No impossible"