Summary

Chapter 16 finds Nickie stuck in her girlish room feeling lonely and restless with her family’s isolation. She has noticed that all men seem to make the women in her family nervous, and she ventures to ask her grandmother, Madelyn, about it. Madelyn then divulges some information about the curse Victoria believes in, and that men whom the women love die because of it. Madelyn believes drugs killed Willow’s dad, not the curse. Madelyn makes herself at home in Victoria’s house, cooking meals, but this makes Victoria uncomfortable. Madelyn awakens her at night by getting snacks from the fridge, and many of her habits annoy Victoria, but the other women in the family seem to enjoy her presence. Victoria decides to let her mother stay two more weeks.

In Chapter 17 Victoria sleeps in and wakes to find her family members cooking...