The MILFs Club: Special Delivery for my Aunt

Chapter 226: Chapter 226: Mutilated Pride

Alexander pulled the silver Tahoe into the familiar, sweeping driveway of Ms. Gable’s mansion. From the outside, the sprawling estate appeared unchanged—serene, quiet, and grand. He killed the engine, stepped out onto the gravel, and walked straight to the main entrance, pressing the buzzer.

Before the chime could even fade, his hyper-acute senses picked up strange, hurried movements from inside the foyer—the distinctive, rustle of tactical gear and the metallic clicks of weapons being readied.

The front door swung open violently, and Alexander was met by a wall of six or seven armed private security operators, all of them raising their automatic rifles to lock onto his chest.

"Step inside slowly and keep your hands away from your waist," ordered the lead guard, his voice taut with high-stakes tension. "Close the door behind you. Any sudden movement and you’re a dead man."

Instead of flinching, Alexander simply let out a dark, mocking laugh. His patience had been ground down to an thread by the chaotic events of the day, and that volatile, chemical instability from his TMC conditioning was rapidly overriding his logic, making him incredibly unpredictable and lethal.

"Honestly, I’ve had way too many barrels pointed at me today," said Alexander, his eyes turning dead as he stepped into the light. "Lower those pieces of plastic right now before you find that rifle shoved up your ass."

Before the guards could react to the blatant provocation, Serena’s voice cut through the tense foyer from the upper staircase. "Alexander? Is that you? Thank goodness! What are you doing here?"

"Alexander? Did you say Alexander?!" shouted Ms. Gable, her voice echoing urgently from the adjacent parlor as she rushed into the hallway.

Realizing the intruder was a highly trusted acquaintance rather than a hostile threat, the operators instantly lowered their muzzles and stepped back into a defensive perimeter, clearing his path.

"Hello, Ms. Gable," said Alexander, consciously forcing his lethal aura to recede. "I truly apologize for the abrupt disruption. How are you holding up?"

"I’m managing, Alexander, I’m managing," said Ms. Gable, her face pale but composed as she looked him over. "How are you? Did something happen? Why did you come all this way without calling first?"

"Well, you see... I..." Alexander stuttered, his tongue catching. He suddenly realized he didn’t know how to broach the subject without exposing the fact that Serena had leaked Aria’s true condition to him.

Before he could awkwardly piece an excuse together, Ms. Gable stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight, emotional embrace. "Thank you... thank you so much," she whispered, her voice cracking with profound gratitude. "I am deeply, truly grateful that you saved Aria’s life. I don’t know what I would have done if anything permanent had happened to her."

Alexander blinked, gently stepping back from the embrace. "So... you already knew everything?"

"Aria told us exactly what happened," said Ms. Gable, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "Actually, Isabella just left a few moments ago. You know her, right?"

"Yes, of course," said Alexander, nodding slowly. "I just didn’t realize you two were closely acquainted. She’s the mother of the little girl we rescued that day... I still feel incredibly guilty for exposing your daughter to a violent shootout like that."

"Oh, forget about it, that’s in the past," said Ms. Gable, giving his arm a playful, affectionate swat. "I had no idea back then that it was her daughter. If I had known, I wouldn’t have made such an embarrassing scene at the facility. Just thinking about how I acted makes me incredibly ashamed."

"I had no idea you all ran in the same circles," murmured Alexander.

"When you reach a certain level of influence in this city, you end up knowing almost everyone," said Ms. Gable with a weak, tired smile. "And Aria’s friends are essentially my own sisters. So please, don’t apologize for what happened."

Alexander quieted down for a moment before speaking up with a hint of caution. "Can I see her?"

"She’s currently asleep," replied Ms. Gable softly. "But if you really need to see her, I can go upstairs and wake her up right now."

"No, no, please don’t worry about it," said Alexander, shaking his head. "I just wanted to verify with my own eyes that she was safe and recovering. I still carry a massive amount of guilt... they were under my protection, and I couldn’t do a single thing to prevent them from taking her."

"Aria told us everything, Alexander nobody is judging you," said Ms. Gable firmly, looking him dead in the eye. "You literally saved her life twice in a single afternoon. If it weren’t for your actions, she wouldn’t even be breathing right now."

"When she wakes up, please just let her know that I came by," said Alexander, turning back toward the grand entrance. "I’ll return tomorrow to check on her properly."

"Of course, I will let her know immediately. Take care, Alexander," said Ms. Gable.

Alexander walked out of the mansion and back toward his vehicle. As the silver Tahoe rolled down the long driveway, a silent, hollow gaze followed its path from a darkened window on the second floor.

"Are you sure you didn’t want to see him?" whispered Serena, standing quietly inside the dark bedroom.

"I look like an monster..." whispered Aria, her voice broken, devoid of any of her former pride. "I don’t want him to ever look at me like this."

Serena’s initial description of her godmother’s injuries hadn’t even scratched the surface of the horrific reality. Aria’s condition was profoundly worse than anyone dared to admit. Thick, jagged surgical stitches tracked across almost every inch of her face, and various portions of her limbs had been brutally excised during her captivity. She was severely mutilated.

The emotional trauma was so devastating that she had already attempted to take her own life multiple times since her rescue. Joseph Kingsley knew with certainty that if Victoria ever discovered the horrific, irreversible state of her dearest friend, the political and corporate fallout would tear the region apart and complicate their survival strategy. Because of this, Joseph had already finalized top-secret arrangements to smuggle Victoria out of the country.