My daughter sent the bully boy—twice her size—to the ER in self-defense. When his mother arrived, she slapped my child and screamed, “Uneducated trash! You’ll grow up to be a killer!” My daughter collapsed in tears as I stepped in to explain. The woman leaned close, demanding $500,000. “Truth doesn’t matter,” she hissed. “My husband can make sure your girl never goes to school again.” She thought she’d won—until her “brilliant lawyer” husband walked in, looked at me, and went pale. “Madam Jugde…”

Chapter 1: The Staged Fall

The call came at 2:14 PM on a Tuesday. I remember the time because I was in the middle of writing a dissenting opinion on a Fourth Amendment case that had kept me up for three nights. My chambers were quiet, the only sound the scratching of my fountain pen and the hum of the HVAC system.