Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Family Ties as Thin as Paper

Vera Xavier grabbed a nearby bamboo pole and jabbed it straight at Cara Preston’s face. “Cara, grab the pole! I’ll pull you up!”

Cara had barely surfaced before Vera poked her back under. After a few rounds of this, Cara was bobbing precariously in the water, nearly half-drowned from Vera’s little game.

Vera Xavier shouted at the top of her lungs, “Help! Somebody help! My sister tried to kill herself! She jumped into the pond!”

Hearing this from the water, Cara Preston was so furious she could have died.

Aaron Cheney was watching the whole thing from nearby. ’The woman Third Brother has his eye on is really something else!’ he thought with admiration.

He waited for Vera Xavier to have her fun before he rushed out from the nearby woods and jumped in to rescue Cara. By the time Zachary Preston and the others arrived, drawn by Vera’s shouts, Aaron Cheney had already carried the nearly unconscious Cara Preston out of the water.

The moment Cara Preston saw Zachary Preston, she started her accusation. “Dad, it was my sister! She pushed me in!”

With tear-filled eyes, she looked at Vera Xavier and said, “Sister, I could have tolerated you bullying me behind Mom and Dad’s backs every day since you came back, but now you’ve actually pushed me into the pond! How could you be so vicious?”

Vera Xavier looked at Cara Preston’s pitiful little face and silently gave her a thumbs-up for her quick thinking. ’This girl and her innocent act are truly something else,’ she thought. ’You can never underestimate her. I didn’t even push her in, and she’s already trying to drag my name through the mud.’

In the countryside, reputation was everything. A person known to be vicious and have low moral character would be scorned and reviled by all.

So Cara Preston’s plan was to first brand Vera Xavier with a vicious reputation in the village. Then, once that rumor took root, she would spread it far and wide when they returned to the city, all with the goal of completely destroying Vera.

Zachary Preston looked over at Vera Xavier, but Rona Langdon immediately lunged forward to slap her. “Vera Xavier! Cara is your sister! How could you do such a thing!”

Zachary Preston grabbed Rona Langdon’s hand. “We haven’t gotten to the bottom of this yet. Don’t be rash!”

Rona Langdon pointed a finger in Vera’s face. “What is there to investigate? They were the only two people here! If she didn’t push Cara in, are you saying Cara just fell in on her own?”

Cara Preston whimpered, “Sister, I never knew you hated me this much, enough to do something like this! If you can’t stand having me around, just say so! I’ll go back to the Xavier Family! I won’t get in your way anymore!”

The commotion was growing, and a crowd of villagers had gathered. They started pointing and murmuring at both Vera Xavier and Cara Preston.

The story of how the Preston and Xavier families had their babies switched at birth had spread through the village long ago.

“What a terrible sin. The real daughter trying to kill the adopted one. That Vera Xavier is truly vicious. Poor Cara.”

“I watched Cara grow up. She was always so well-behaved and sweet. To think someone would harm her like this.”

“If you don’t want to raise another family’s daughter, you can just send her away. Trying to take her life is going way too far.”

Just then, their grandmother arrived. “What nonsense are you all spouting?” she said in a cold voice. “My Vera would never do something like this!”

Rona Langdon’s eyes were red as she retorted, “Mom, I told you before that Vera Xavier has a vicious heart, but you wouldn’t believe me! Now the proof is right in front of you, and you’re still defending her. What is Cara supposed to think?”

This mother-daughter duo would never pass up any opportunity to destroy Vera Xavier. They were determined to ruin her completely.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep