Even Quennel was completely blindsided by his mother's sudden slap.
Everyone was stunned into silence, unable to believe what Mrs. Mary Rosenberg had just done.
"Lionel, I don't care how serious or urgent things are right now. What you need to do, right this instant, is learn to respect people!"
Mrs. Mary Rosenberg screamed hysterically, her eyes blazing with fury as she glared at her impossibly arrogant son.
His insolence had caused the elders to blame her, to suggest she had failed as a mother.
Her entire life's reputation was being destroyed by Lionel. If she had known it would come to this, she never would have brought him home in the first place!
"If you can't even learn respect, then I'll disown you! Just get out! I don't need a son who doesn't know how to behave. No matter how urgent things are, you don't throw away basic decency, do you understand me? I'm talking to you! Can you look at me? Can you try to understand instead of always being like this!"
She had put all her strength into that slap. Lionel's head snapped to the side, and a bright red handprint immediately bloomed on his cheek.
Lionel raised a hand to his stinging face, but for a long moment, he remained silent.
He knew exactly why the elders had summoned him. It was to humiliate him, to force him into a groveling apology so they could grant their forgiveness.
And it was precisely because he understood their intentions that he had refused to play along and waste time with pleasantries.
But he hadn't expected them to blow it so far out of proportion, wasting all this time arguing about his lack of respect and manners. Did they really need to trample his dignity into the dust like this?

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