There was one thing Cara Preston had to admit, whether she liked it or not: ever since Vera Xavier’s return, she was no longer the true daughter of the Preston family. Zachary Preston treated her coldly, Rona Langdon harbored ill intentions, and she had very few people she could truly rely on.
She took a deep breath, her eyes filled with an unprecedented ruthlessness. ’No matter what it takes, I have to marry Nathaniel Nathan!’
After Rona Langdon left the Preston family’s house, she kept waiting for Zachary Preston to call her back. She even stood by the gate for a while, ready to dash off the mont he appeared so he would have to properly coax her into returning.
However, her whole plan went awry. Zachary Preston never ca out to get her!
The more she thought about it, the angrier she beca, so she actually went back to her parents’ house.
Her family wasn’t very well-off; overall, they were much worse off than the Prestons. But Rona was obsessed with keeping up appearances, so she was always at her parents’ house bragging about how capable Zachary Preston was and how much money he made. As a result, her relatives were constantly asking her for loans.
She was incredibly stingy with Vera Xavier, but uncharacteristically generous with her own family. She’d lend a few dozen to one person, a few hundred to another, and would occasionally wave her hand magnanimously and tell them not to bother paying her back. It got to the point where her family saw her as a complete sucker.
They flattered her to her face but called her a fool behind her back. Yet she remained convinced that she held high status in her family, that she was so kind of big shot.
Her parents’ house was near the open-air market on the west side of the city. Even though there were streetlights, she didn’t dare to walk alone at night, so she hailed a taxi ho.
Her mother, Patricia Thompson, was happy to see her at first, but her face imdiately darkened when she noticed Rona hadn’t brought anything with her. Still, she asked, "Why are you back at this hour? Did sothing happen at the house?"
"I’m going to stay here for a few days. Don’t ask about anything else," Rona Langdon snapped.
Patricia Thompson’s brow furrowed. The mont she heard Rona planned to stay for a few days, she imdiately said, "You know what our situation is like. Groceries, utilities—everything is deathly expensive. And Zhenzhen is still taking art classes. Our expenses are huge!"
Rona Langdon flared up. "When have I ever co back without giving you eighty or a hundred? How much could it possibly cost for to stay a few days?"
Normally, Patricia Thompson was eager to get handouts from her daughter. Since Rona had only just arrived, she didn’t want to push it too far, so she just grumbled a bit more and let it go.
But Rona still felt resentful. She knew perfectly well what kind of person her own mother was. If Zachary Preston hadn’t utterly humiliated her this ti, she never would have wanted to co back and stay.
She was sharing a room with her mother. She glanced in disgust at the filthy, blackened quilt. The duvet cover was one she had bought for her own wedding, but because the Prestons were better off, her mother had found an excuse to take it back after she married Zachary.
She leaned in for a sniff. The quilt reeked of mildew. The sll was so foul that she almost gagged.
Patricia Thompson saw her daughter’s expression but pretended she hadn’t, asking, "Did you have a fight with your husband?"
"Don’t you dare ntion him to !" Rona snapped.
Patricia Thompson dropped the subject. Her eyes instantly lit up. ’My son-in-law got her so angry she ran back ho,’ she thought. ’When he cos to pick her up, I’ll be able to squeeze another sum of money out of him!’ So she said aloud, "If you’re not happy, just stay here a while longer."
User Comments
0 comments from readers