"You really think warming a man's bed for a few nights and popping out a kid gives you the right to run your mouth at me? Get on your knees. Right now. Bow your head to the floor and beg my forgiveness, and maybe I'll have my husband toss you a few scraps. Otherwise, the consequences won't be something you or your daughter can afford."
The crowd erupted.
"Don't waste your breath on a homewrecker, Maria! She needs to be taught a lesson right here, right now, so she knows what happens when she opens that mouth!"
Someone spat at me. Others hurled insults without restraint.
My gaze went cold enough to kill. I spoke slowly, every word deliberate.
"I didn't come here to listen to you twist the truth. You're a mother who put her own son up to hurting my daughter."
"And you," I turned to Ursula, "are a teacher who abused your authority and enabled every bit of it."
I let my eyes sweep over every face in that crowd.
"Every single one of you is complicit. And I will settle the debt with each of you, down to the last cent, with interest."
WHAM.
A dull impact knocked me off balance. My knee hit the ground hard, and white-hot pain shot straight through the bone.