The lawyer swiftly stepped between them, blocking Ursula's raised hand.
"Mistress Blaire," he warned firmly, "serious domestic abuse is punishable by law. I advise you, control yourself."
"Don't stop me! I'll kill that woman!" Ursula screamed. "That worthless child! After everything I've done, raising her, feeding her, this is how she repays me? No debt?!"
The lawyer's face tightened with worry as he shot Ursula a sharp look.
Cherry met her mother's fury head-on. She wasn't afraid anymore. Not of a woman she'd known her whole life, a woman who clung to her like a leech, milking her dry.
Without breaking eye contact, Cherry reached into her pocket and pulled out a dagger, the same one she'd carried ever since Benjamin tried to kill her.
She placed it down in front of Ursula.
"If you want to kill me, do it," Cherry said, her voice cold, steady. "I'm ready to die."
Ursula froze, stunned. The meek daughter she always controlled was gone.
