The Memory Auction That Destroyed Us All Chapter 02

The Memory Auction That Destroyed Us All Chapter 02

It was one month after the crash. The victims’ families had been waiting outside my apartment building.

They caught me off guard. One of them threw a bottle of acid.

It hit my back, my shoulders, my neck. The burning was instant and total. I curled into myself before I could even process what was happening. Before I could scream, they were on me.

A woman sat on my back and slapped me across the face, over and over. When I went limp, someone brought out a hammer and broke both my legs at the knee.

“You took my daughter’s legs. Why do yours still work?”

I drifted in and out while the pain ate through me. A police siren somewhere far away scattered the crowd.

My landlord found me. He already knew I’d made enemies. He threw my bags out the second-floor window and told me not to come back.

I dragged myself to an urgent care clinic on broken legs.

The doctor pushed me back out onto the sidewalk.

“People who protect killers deserve to die.”

I ended up under an overpass. No money, nothing. I ate what I could take from stray dogs. That went on for three years.

Ethan looked down at me. His grip on my jaw didn’t loosen.

“You did this to yourself.”

“Compared to what Sophie went through, this is nothing.”

He grabbed the front of my shirt and tore it open. The burn scars ran across most of my chest, ugly and raised and warped.

The families clapped.

“Good. She earned every scar.”

“If I’d known she was going to end up stealing food from dogs, I would’ve put rat poison in the trash.”

“She’s running a sympathy play. Ethan, I know you two have history, but think about Sophie. Don’t let her manipulate you.”

The mention of history made something snap in Ethan. He crushed my jaw harder.

I screamed again.

On the screen, a younger version of me screamed too, but for a different reason.

“Claire, you scored forty points higher than us. You can’t apply to the same school.”

Three teenagers in school uniforms. The girl had her hands on her hips, glaring at me while I held the laptop away from her.