Chapter 155: Aaron Palmer’s Family

Chapter 155: Chapter 155: Aaron Palmer’s Family

Inside Villa 101 of the Dragon Lake Villa Area, cardboard pieces covered the entire courtyard.

After lunch, everyone returned to their rooms for a nap, planning to continue their work in the afternoon once they were well-rested.

Luna Dawson, however, seized the two-hour lunch break to take the little ones back into her dimension. After a quick nap, she got up to utilize her spare time doing some farm work—using her Spirit threads to scratch the watermelon rinds!

While others thought she was the laziest, they had no idea she was actually putting in five times the effort. Under her relentless persistence, the watermelon rinds, frequently attacked by her Spirit threads, looked even more mottled...

Seeing that it was about time, she took the little ones out of the dimension and went downstairs to join the others in their work.

Just as she reached the living room, she saw a crowd gathered at the entrance of the villa’s courtyard. Intense arguments broke out from time to time, with Aaron Palmer and Miles Dawson being the loudest.

Luna thought about what a buzzkill it was that every time they woke up from a nap, there was always someone coming over to stir up trouble.

This time, Kevin Keane and Lynn Shelby weren’t around to enjoy the drama. Only Evan Olson and Blake Blue stood by the door. Wayne Dawson and Mrs. Dawson watched from afar at the villa’s entrance, keeping the elderly and children from going out to join the commotion.

Luna walked outside and clearly heard Aaron’s unprecedented roar of fury. "If you don’t want to die, get the hell out of here! Now!"

"That’s right! Brother Leo has nothing to do with you!" Miles roared hysterically beside him.

"Aaron, is this how you speak to your mother? SOB SOB SOB..."

A woman in her forties began to cry weakly, looking incredibly desolate and pitiful.

Aaron glared at her with mocking intensity. "You shameless homewrecker! I don’t have a vicious stepmother like you!"

Zoe Palmer supported Autumn Atkins. "Aaron! No matter what, we still share the same blood! We are brother and sister, and my mother is your mother in name!"

Aaron’s eyes were as cold as ice, locked onto his younger sister, Zoe, who was seven or eight years his junior.

Especially her facial features, which were exactly the same as their father’s, Ryan Palmer. Every time he looked at them, it felt like needles were piercing his eyes.

He quietly observed her. She was much thinner than he remembered, with sunken cheeks. At an age that should have been vibrant and full of life, she exuded a lingering sense of despondency.

Her greasy hair was clumped into strands, clearly unwashed for a long time. The long down jacket she wore was even more pathetic; the hem was visibly leaking feathers, deflated and wrinkled in patches, looking like ruined cotton that had been soaked in water and sun-dried.

As his gaze swept over Autumn beside Zoe, Aaron’s stomach instantly churned, nausea welling up in his throat.

She still put on that same frail, helpless act. Deliberate timidity hung around her eyes and brows, making it seem as if anyone could easily bully her.

But only Aaron knew how vicious the heart hidden beneath this woman’s bones truly was!

The scene from two years ago violently crashed into his mind, as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

It was this very Autumn who had brazenly barged into his mother’s hospital room with Zoe in tow.

Right in front of his severely ill mother, Autumn had feigned grievance while recounting the deep love between her and Ryan. Zoe had stood timidly to the side, yet every single word she spoke served to remind his mother of the reality that the mistress was usurping her rightful place.

His mother, who was already suffering from cancer and barely clinging to life with medication, was so infuriated by this mother-daughter duo’s aggressive confrontation that she vomited mouthfuls of blood on the spot.

Prior to that, neither mother nor son had any idea that Ryan had been hiding another family in Kensington all along!

His mother had already lost much of her vitality to the torment of her illness. After this incident, she completely lost the will to live. Her spirit withered day by day, and she passed away less than two months later.

Aaron’s knuckles turned white from clenching his fists so tightly, his nails digging deeply into his palms.

No wonder every time they needed to settle the hospital bills, Ryan would always make up various excuses to dodge it, claiming money was tight.

It turned out he wasn’t broke; he had been spending all his money on Autumn and Zoe, providing for the two bitches who had destroyed his family!

The harmonious marriage of his parents that he had firmly believed in since childhood was nothing but a carefully woven lie from beginning to end.

That man, Ryan, had not only betrayed his mother but had also indirectly caused her death!

This hatred had long taken root and sprouted in his heart. Even now, in the apocalypse, it hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

"Don’t call me your brother. I don’t have shameless family members like you!" Aaron said, his expression resolute.

Autumn leaned weakly against Zoe. "Aaron, your father told us that if we ever ran into difficulties, we should find you. He said you would definitely take good care of us."

"Aaron! Every time Dad went out to scavenge for supplies, he would talk about how much better our family would be doing if you were with us. Now that we’ve found each other at the base, let’s just live together as a family," Zoe begged tearfully.

"Aaron, I know you have prejudices against me. If nothing else, just take your sister in. She’s only eighteen!"

She stared fixedly at Aaron’s expression. Seeing that he remained unmoved, she stammered, "In the last few minutes before your father passed away, he mentioned that he had instructed you before you went abroad to take care of us both in the future. You couldn’t have forgotten, right?"

Zoe also sobbed softly beside her. "Aaron, from now on, my mom will treat you like her own son. Can we just forget all the unpleasantness from the past?"

"Forget my ass!"

"Okay my ass!"

Aaron and Miles roared in unison.

After shouting, Aaron’s gaze dug into Autumn like a poisoned knife. "A mistress who inserted herself into someone else’s marriage and personally angered the original wife to death, and now you have the absolute gall to show up at my door and ask me to provide for you? Do you think I, Aaron Palmer, am some gullible fool?"

Autumn shuddered violently at his furious roar, her face instantly turning deathly pale.

She never expected Aaron to be so utterly merciless, airing out this dirty family laundry in public for everyone to hear.

She had originally calculated it all perfectly: she thought that no matter how much Aaron hated them, he would at least invite them inside to talk out of consideration for their blood ties.

Even if they only managed to get some points and Crystal Cores in the end, it would be enough to sustain them for a while.

This morning, a few unfamiliar men had specifically come to inform them that Aaron, whom the mother and daughter had been searching for, was now a member of the top-ranked Special Operations Team in the Kensington Base. They had even given them Aaron’s address.

Autumn’s heart had immediately leaped with excitement. She had long guessed that Aaron was highly likely to still be alive; after all, he had been a special forces soldier for several years, and his combat skills far exceeded those of ordinary people.

But she hadn’t expected him to not only be alive but also making such a name for himself. Running with the strongest team, he was bound to have no shortage of supplies.

As long as they could latch onto Aaron, the two of them would never have to worry about food or drink again, and they would no longer need to bitterly struggle to survive in the base.

"I am not an illegitimate daughter!" Zoe felt extremely uncomfortable under the stares of the onlookers. She hurriedly stepped forward, her face flushed red as she defended herself. "My mom and dad got their marriage certificate a long time ago! They are a legally married couple!"

"Legally married?" Aaron scoffed as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world, the disdain in his tone practically overflowing. "They only got the certificate a year ago, and you’re already eighteen this year, aren’t you? That ’legality’ sure came in the nick of time."

As soon as he said this, the onlooking crowd exploded in gossip.