The more Grandma Dixon yelled, the angrier she got. "Rona Langdon, have you lost your mind?" she shouted. "You ignore your own sweet, sensible daughter to dote on that adopted one who’s full of wicked schemes. Sooner or later, you’re going to be the ruin of this family!"

Rona Langdon immediately flew into a rage and stood up, ready to lunge at Grandma Dixon. "I’ll beat you, you vicious old bitch! How dare you curse my family with ruin!"

Seeing that things were about to get physical, the neighbors, worried Grandma Dixon would get hurt, quickly grabbed Rona Langdon and held her back.

Grandma Dixon’s face was flushed with anger as well. She shouted, "Rona Langdon, you black-hearted shrew! Preston was so incensed by you that he collapsed, and not only do you not care about him, you run out here to slander Vera, who was only trying to help him! You say I’m a jinx? If you ask me, you’re not just a jinx, you’re a husband-killer!"

The onlookers, who had been in the dark at first, heard Grandma Dixon’s words and immediately felt she had a point.

If Rona Langdon didn’t have a guilty conscience, why would she abandon her husband to be out here, cursing Vera Xavier?

Someone checked the time and said, "Isn’t Vera Xavier taking her college entrance exams? She has a test this afternoon and can’t come back until it’s over. The drive from No. 2 Middle School to the compound takes a while. It’s only three o’clock now, so her exam is only halfway through. Where would she have found the time to argue with Preston?"

"When your own husband is that sick, you should go to the hospital to see him, no matter who was right or wrong."

"If you ask me, Preston never should have brought his biological daughter back. Ever since she returned, the Preston family hasn’t had a moment of peace."

As the crowd chattered away, Rona Langdon realized her usual foolproof tactics were being questioned. She immediately jumped up, planted her hands on her hips, and shrieked, "What my family does is none of your damn business! Who do you think you are to stand there and point fingers?"

Her hair was disheveled, and blood from the gash Vera had given her was smeared across her face. As she screamed so viciously, she looked like a man-eating she-devil.

The gawking crowd had only come for a bit of drama, but now they realized being an onlooker might be dangerous. Considering Rona Langdon’s infamous reputation for being fierce and shrewish, they decided it was best for their own safety to keep their distance from the Preston Family. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

And so, the crowd slowly dispersed.

An old woman who was good friends with Grandma Dixon, worried Rona Langdon might snap and hurt her, pulled Grandma Dixon toward her own house. Still fuming, Grandma Dixon kept bad-mouthing Rona Langdon as they walked away.

Cara Preston had thought this was the perfect opportunity to slander Vera Xavier, but she hadn’t counted on Grandma Dixon stepping in and foiling her plan. Seething at the failure, she whispered in Rona Langdon’s ear, "Grandma Dixon is unusually good to Vera!"

The more Rona Langdon thought about what had just happened, the angrier she became. She stormed over, picked up her family’s trash can, and dumped all the garbage on Grandma Dixon’s doorstep. Then, as if to make sure everyone knew, she stood there and screamed a torrent of abuse at the door.

When she grew tired of yelling and went back inside for a drink of water, Cara Preston asked softly, "Mom, do you think Dad will be okay?"

"Your dad has always been healthy. What could possibly happen to him?" Rona Langdon said dismissively.

Cara Preston was, after all, a bit more worldly than Rona Langdon. She recalled something and said, "I read a news story once about a man who’d always been in good health, but then he suddenly collapsed and couldn’t get up, and he just..."

She didn’t finish her sentence, but Rona Langdon already understood what she was implying.