My son, Larry Harris, and my husband, Joseph Harris, would always handle all the housework before I came home.

But just because they suggested bringing Joseph's first love, Ruth Palmer, home for Thanksgiving, I splashed boiling water right in my son's face.

Then, I shoved them both out of the house into the nearly 104-degree Fahrenheit weather.

Desperate to save Larry, Joseph knelt in front of the door, begging me for help.

"Aura, please open the door and help Larry! He's your son. I invited Ruth because she saved your life once. I'm not up to anything, I swear!"

Larry sobbed and screamed, calling for me. "Mom, it hurts so much. Please, mom. Kiss Larry, please!"

But I sat there, eating chips and watching TV, utterly unbothered.

Finally, Joseph had no choice but to take me to the Court for being a brutal and abusing Mother.

But when my memories were revealed to the entire court, everyone wept in sorrow!

*****

The neighbors around our new house rushed to the courthouse as soon as they heard that Joseph and Larry were suing me, eager to testify against me.

As soon as I walked into the courtroom, rotten eggs came flying at me from all directions.

The neighbors cursed me with vile words.

"What a wicked woman! It's 104 degrees out there, for heaven's sake! Do you know how quickly heatstroke can happen to a child in that kind of weather? And she's his bio mother!"

"Hell yes! What kind of evil would pour boiling water on a kid?! It'll leave scars on their fragile skin. Why didn't she pour the heated water on herself?!"

"I'll tell you what, I saw it with my own eyes, Ms. Palmer pulled her from that wreck after her car accident. If it weren't for her, she wouldn't even be alive! But when Joseph and Larry wanted to thank her on her behalf, she acted like they'd committed a crime, even threatening to break their legs and lock them up in the house!"

Despite their accusations, I didn't feel an ounce of guilt.

I wiped the sticky egg off my face and flung it straight onto Ruth, sitting there on the plaintiff's bench. Then I bent down, grabbed a handful of rotten lettuce from the floor, and tossed it at her as well.

"I didn't ask her to save me. If she wanted to do that, that's her problem. Don't make it mine."

"Look at her. She's not even flinched when I hit her. If that's not pathetic, I don't know what is."

"And since she's so low, she might as well act like it. Ruth, get over here and lick this mess off my face, don't miss out all the eggs and lettuce."

The crowd erupted in even greater fury at my brazen cruelty, and a few people looked ready to storm the bench and hit me themselves.

The judge had no choice but to bang the gavel, restoring order to the chaotic courtroom.

"In this trial, the principle of 'he who asserts must prove' shall prevail. The plaintiffs, Joseph Harris and Larry Harris have brought charges of malicious cruelty against the defendant, Aurelia Stevens. As per court procedure, we will extract memories from the plaintiffs as evidence for this case.

"If the plaintiffs win the case, the defendant, Aurelia, will be sentenced to death. The court will also dissolve the defendant's family ties with the plaintiffs, transfer all of her assets to them, and give Joseph permission to marry Ms. Palmer.

"However, if the defendant wins, the court will dissolve the family ties between the defendant and the plaintiffs, and all of the plaintiffs' assets within the Harris family will be transferred to the defendant.

"Plaintiffs, do you wish to proceed with the trial?"