Chapter 2

The whole room went silent in an instant.

Nobody had expected that I, some woman who rode a beat-up bus, would dare to talk back to the board director's wife in front of everyone.

The board director's wife froze too, and then her face twisted. She grabbed a cup of tea from the desk, freshly poured and still hot.

"You little tramp, you dare speak to me like that? Today I'll show you exactly what fairness looks like."

She walked right up to my son, snapped her wrist, and hurled the hot tea straight at him.

I didn't have time to think. I yanked my son against me, turned my body, and took it on my back.

The scalding tea soaked through my coat in a heartbeat, and a burning sting spread across my back.

I let out a muffled grunt, clenched my teeth hard, and forced myself not to make a sound.

Thank God I'd moved fast enough. Not a single drop had touched Ryan.

Pressed against me, Ryan's voice came out muffled. "Mommy, what's wrong?"

Teacher Chavez went pale with fright and quickly grabbed a fistful of tissues off the desk, pressing them to my back.

"Ma'am, how could you throw boiling water at a child? You could kill him."

Her voice was shaking, but she made herself say it anyway.

"There are cameras in the classroom. Every bit of this is on tape. I'll be reporting exactly what happened."

The board director's wife arched an eyebrow and shot her a contemptuous look.

"Report? Report to who? You really don't know whose name is on this school?"

Teacher Chavez had no comeback. She could only tug anxiously at my sleeve.

"Ryan's mother, come on, hurry, go to the nurse's office. Don't butt heads with these people."

I pushed her hand away, straightened up, tucked Ryan behind me, and lifted my eyes to the board director's wife.

"Assaulting a minor in front of witnesses. Do you have any idea what that is?"

The board director's wife tossed the empty cup onto the floor.

"So I threw it. What are you going to do about it?"

She pulled a wad of cash from her Hermès bag and flung it at my feet.

"I'll pay you thirty, fifty grand. That's several months' pay for someone at the bottom like you."

"You must be over the moon right now. Quit the act."

The parents watching around us nodded along, stepping up to blame me too.

"You just don't know when you've got it good. She's being generous, giving you a way out. Take it."

"Just apologize to her and it's over. Don't go ruining the mood in our class on the first day of school."

"If you're poor, keep your head down. Coming here to fake an injury for a payout, honestly it's sickening."

The whole crowd talked over each other, as if the one who'd been scalded was the board director's wife.

Ryan's eyes were red-rimmed, his little hand clutching the hem of my clothes, looking up at me.

"Mommy, I'm not scared of them. They're all bad people."

I stroked my son's head, turned around, and looked calmly at the board director's wife.

"I'll give you one more chance. Stop now, go turn yourself in, and maybe there's still room to fix this."

Everyone stared at me like I was insane.

The board director's wife doubled over laughing and pointed at me as she spoke to the parent beside her.

"Did you hear that? This lunatic actually told me to turn myself in."

"Who do you think you are?"

"Today I'm not just getting your son expelled. I'm going to make sure the two of you can't survive anywhere in this whole city."

With that, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

The moment the call connected, her voice turned sweet and wounded.

"Honey, come to the school right away, bring some people. Someone here is bullying me and your son."

"She even threatened to have me thrown in jail. Come and set this right for me."

She hung up and jerked her chin at me.

"You're finished. My husband's an executive at Grandview Group. In this whole city, anyone he wants crushed gets crushed."

I said nothing. I just took Ryan's hand and sat back down in the seat.

Regret? That word was never going to have anything to do with me.

In under ten minutes, a clatter of hurried, jumbled footsteps came down the hallway.

The classroom door was kicked open from the outside.

The principal trailed behind, drenched in sweat, bent over and fawning at his side.

The man's face was full of menace, and the first thing his eyes locked onto when he came through the door was me.