Vivien Carter’s face was a mask of controlled fury as she knelt in the airplane aisle. Her heart was breaking for her three crying 8-year-old daughters. Their purple dresses were torn. Blood ran down Naomi’s knee. Simone’s face was swollen from tears. Jasmine’s voice was hoarse from screaming.
The entire cabin had gone silent. Phones were raised, capturing the horror. Flight attendant Rebecca Thorne leaned down, looked directly into Simone’s terrified eyes, and with a deliberate, calculated cruelty that stopped time, she spat directly onto the child’s face. The glob hit Simone’s cheek and dripped down slowly.
Then the cabin exploded. Because Rebecca Thorne had just made the biggest mistake of her life. She had just assaulted the daughters of the woman who had finalized the acquisition of the entire airline that very morning.