chapter 1

Vee had been facing down the whole time, her mind was blank and she continued staring into the dark, "there's nothing to live for, I'm doing this for them, it's worth it, they are my friends, I'm sure they would do same if they were in my place" Vee thought, she heard the creaking sound of the door but didn't lift her head and suddenly she heard a splash and felt the ice cold water run from her head down to her body, for a moment she couldn't breathe and gasped for air and when she finally caught her breathe, that same hollow expression was on her face. The man who splashed water on her was about to hit her with a whip, "that's enough Alfred, leave us now" detective Paul said as he stepped in and took a seat. "Vee why are you doing this to yourself, please just tell me what happened and you'll be free the next minute, I need you to help this case to go forward, so now tell me, why did you do it?" The detective asked her, for a moment her eyes softened and then she narrowed them as she tried to open her mouth but no words came out, she was determined to face the penalty for a punishment she hadn't committed, it wasn't her fault but she decided to take the sacrifice, Vee was terrified but she didn't let it show, no, she couldn't just watch them punish her friends even if they were guilty, they all had a reason to live, they had employers who depended on them, she had nothing and she couldn't afford to continue living if her friends were going to be taken away, so she had already made up her mind and there was no turning back, no amount of interrogation was going to make her give in, the crime was a great one and she was going to keep quiet. "It seems you are not willing to cooperate," Paul said "and before we continue anything we need to be truly sure of your innocence, "Jack please bring in the polygraph" A short and plain-looking fellow stepped in immediately as if he had just been waiting for the command, he placed the machine on the large table separating them and immediately left. "Miss, can you please put your hand in? We need to be sure what you told us isn't false, if you are directly responsible for this then your punishment will be worst than death" Paul explained to her in a low tone. Vee immediately obeyed and he explained to make sure she understood before he started questioning her, " so this is how it goes, I will ask all my questions at once and you will answer all of them when I say so, in the right order, first question, what is your name, did you do it, and if you did, please be kind enough to tell me why and if you didn't, go ahead and tell me who did, and why they did something so bad" Layla tried moving her hands a little and then started talking" my name is Vivian, I didn't do anything, I'm innocent but I've decided to take all the blame and punishment, I don't know who did it" immediately she mentioned that she didn't know, a bip sound was heard from the machine and Paul stared at her closely " miss Vivian you do realize that you can't lie with this do you?" He said lazily, Vee sighed as if to surrender and then continued "I do know who is responsible but I'm sorry I can't say anything more" that was it, it had been decided and Paul was relieved that she would just have to die a less painful death rather than get the worst punishment given only to criminals whose crimes were unforgivable "I'll leave you, for now, my dear, I think there are people here to see you" Paul said as he stood up and left. He went to his office and sat down, his frustration knew no bounds as he tried to search his brain to see if he could come up with anything, the crime scene left no traces of evidence, and all the security cameras around that area were broken, lots of people moved in and out of the place at the time of the crime and the only person they met at the place, with the body was Vivian, a criminal wouldn't be stupid enough to stay behind, it seemed like she had been tricked but she wouldn't give out anything. He now understood why Jackson was reluctant to continue with this case, Jackson was a well-known detective who was appreciated everywhere for efficiency and accurate results, this case was first given to him and after he questioned Vee he started having different plans for her, Jackson was a great detective and didn't need a lie detector to tell if someone was lying or not, the professional investigator was able to discern and draw conclusions from subtle gestures and little expressions, He had told the commissioner that this girl was innocent, he wanted them to let her go so they could look for the real culprits but the commissioner wasn't pleased, they didn't want him to handle things in his way, that was almost impossible and the girl had turned herself in so there was no need to let her go, the authorities took the case from him and gave Paul to handle it.

Vivian's so-called friends were seated outside and even though nothing was pursuing them, these four girls carried guilt all over their faces like people that had just been caught stealing. "Are you sure this is gonna work, what if she doesn't eat the food?" A skinny girl called Prisca asked, "let's just be positive, shall we? we're gonna be in really deep shit if that brat sells us out" Jennifer said, she was tall and had an abnormally large forehead that didn't seem to suit the rest of her face and she looked like the master of the whole plan. "Guys I think we're missing something here, the chance of her eating the food is high and the chance of us getting caught is also high, we brought her the food and when she dies doctors are obviously going to examine her and know the cause of her death and it's gonna point back to us because we brought the food!" Another girl called Denisa chipped in, "we don't have to make everyone know that we brought her food, just give her secretly and convince her not to tell anyone, you girls know that cheap girl is easily fooled and she wouldn't think too much about it, and besides it's not like they don't give food to prisoners, they might just pin the blame on someone else, not us" Jennifer explained in a low tune as they were cautious not to look suspicious in a police station. "Jenni is right girls, we're already here, no turning back, I'm quite sure it wouldn't be long until that bitch sells us out, let's get rid of her before we get into trouble" Fiona, the last of the four girls whispered. These were the people Vivian called her friends and she was willing to die for them, but here they were trying to kill her even though she already had a death sentence. Vivian considered them her saviors but what she didn't know was that all they ever told her were lies. These four girls found her unconscious, lying on the road many years ago and there was no one around, they waited for a while, no one came for her and they decided to take her in with them, they were young but lived on their own and did minor jobs to survive. Vivian regained consciousness two days after but couldn't remember anything but her middle name. Jennifer was the one that came up with most stories of how they saved Vivian's life, she told her that Denisa gave up her kidney to save her just four months ago, her parents were poor and couldn't afford to pay for treatment when their only daughter had kidney failure she was treated and they were relocating to another town when all of them had an accident and she was the only one who survived, both of her parents were now gone, the only people she had left were her friends who sold their house and had to borrow money for her to get surgery because her brain had been damaged. Vivian believed all these lies without thinking twice and felt indebted to the four girls who claimed to have sacrificed everything for her.

The five girls lived together in a small apartment and worked for people most of the time to get paid, they acted like they loved Vivian and considered her as their younger sister but in reality, they didn't, Vivian did all the work and did their laundry too after some time the four girls started behaving weirdly and spent most of their nights out, they started bringing back lots of money and spoiling Vivian claiming that their customers were just being generous, this went on for years and they soon changed their apartment and moved into a bigger one, they even wanted to send Vivian to school but she didn't want to go to the university, she wanted to work with her friends. No one let her so she stayed at home all day and did all the housework.