The Villain Mom Awakens — Going Viral by Parenting on a Reality Show-Chapter 276: Renee Jennings Lost Her Voice

The children stood in a neat row under a shady tree. On the table in front of them sat the watermelon juices they had carefully prepared.

Naomi Kenway walked a few steps forward and saw her son rushing toward her with a joyful expression. She opened her arms to hug him and laughed, "Alright, not for too long. Mommy’s all sweaty."

Ian Shaw took Naomi Kenway’s hand and led her forward, stopping in front of the table.

Ian carefully picked up the cup of watermelon juice. He bowed like a little gentleman and said, "Your Highness, Mommy, please taste the watermelon juice I made."

Naomi Kenway chuckled, taking the cup for a sip. It was cold and refreshing. "Did you put ice in this?"

Ian Shaw nodded. "But the ice is melting kind of fast."

"It’s delicious. Thank you, my sweet boy." She instinctively offered the cup to Ian for a taste, but a staff member stopped her. "The juice made by the young contestants can only be tasted by the adult guests."

Ian said, "I’m not thirsty, Mommy. I just had some watermelon. This juice is for you. But there was no juicer, so I... I squeezed it out with cheesecloth. I-I used two layers, so it’s not dirty."

Naomi Kenway ruffled his hair and, without the slightest hint of disgust, drank the entire cup.

Just as she set the cup down, a staff member handed her an ingredient pack. It was in a white plastic bag and looked quite heavy.

"Congratulations, Ms. Kenway! You and Ian have successfully completed the task. This is your first-place ingredient pack!"

"Thank you." Naomi Kenway took it and opened it to find it was full of good things. In addition to fresh vegetables, beef, and lamb, there were also several different types of canned goods.

Naomi Kenway crouched down and showed the plastic bag to Ian. "Ian, we can have a feast today. You think hard about what you want to eat later."

Chelsea Raines seemed to have figured something out. "So we have to drink the watermelon juice to get the ingredient pack?"

The director nodded. "That’s right. The children’s efforts are part of the task."

Chelsea Raines took the watermelon juice and had a sip. Her brow suddenly furrowed. "This tastes a little weird."

She glanced down at the juice. It wasn’t nearly as clear and bright as the one Ian Shaw had just made, and a suspicion crept into her mind. She asked Jared Woods, "You didn’t just throw random things in here, did you?"

Jared Woods’s eyes darted everywhere but at Chelsea Raines. "I didn’t add anything. It’s 100% pure, authentic watermelon juice."

Chelsea Raines hesitated, but the staff was urging her on, so she frowned and finished it. After another small taste, she still felt something was off. "What *is* this?"

Only then did Jared Woods dare to tell her the truth. "Mommy, I’ll tell you a secret."

Chelsea Raines took the ingredient pack with one hand, listening distractedly. "What is it?"

"I squeezed the juice with my bare hands. I didn’t use any cheesecloth."

Chelsea Raines froze.

"Also... I didn’t wash my hands before..."

A mournful wail echoed as Jared Woods clutched his rear end and scrambled away.

[LMAO, how did he have the guts to admit that?]

[So that was basically his hand-washing water (shocked emoji)]

[He totally deserved that beating. What a cursed mother-son duo.]

...

After hearing the rules, Ruby Preston and Margaret Jennings each downed their juice and received their ingredient packs.

As expected, the last-place ingredient pack was pitiful—just two cucumbers and a small bag of flour. Margaret Jennings sighed.

All the other guests had drunk their juice, but Renee Jennings hadn’t moved. She stared in disbelief at the concoction Nathan Lynch was handing her. No amount of mental preparation could convince her to reach out and take it.

"Mona, did you poison this?" Renee Jennings asked through gritted teeth. She was already in a foul mood, which peaked upon seeing the nearly-black "watermelon" juice.

Nathan Lynch looked at her innocently. "Mommy, I love you so much, how could I ever poison it? I put my favorite chocolate chips in there. I didn’t even eat a single one; I saved them all for you."

Naomi Kenway, enjoying the drama, chimed in, "Why are you being so mean to Mona? He’s being so good to you. How can you crush a child’s spirit like that? Hurry up, Renee Jennings. Don’t you want your ingredients?"

’It’s just some chocolate chips,’ she thought. ’They’re both sweet, so the combination can’t be that terrible. Maybe it just looks a little gross.’

Feeling slightly better with that thought, Renee Jennings picked up the cup and took a large gulp.

[She actually drank it! A huge gulp like that! Does she have a death wish?!]

[A true warrior! That’s a real showbiz warrior right there!]

[One sip of that and her stomach will be ruined for days. I can’t even imagine the taste!]

...

"BLECH..." Renee Jennings violently spat out the juice, clawing at her throat. She felt slightly better after taking the water Margaret Jennings handed her, but her voice was already hoarse. "Why... why is it so salty? What did you put in this?"

Nathan Lynch still looked perfectly innocent. "Daddy said adding sugar to watermelon makes it sweeter."

"How many spoonfuls did you add?" Renee Jennings rasped.

"Two... or maybe three. I don’t remember."

"Why didn’t you say so earlier?!"

"You were being so mean before... I-I forgot..."

Ruby Preston stepped in front of Nathan Lynch. "Renee Jennings, calm down. You’re scaring him."

Renee Jennings coughed a couple of times, still struggling to speak.

"I can’t drink any more of this. Just give me the ingredient pack."

The director looked at her sympathetically. "I’m afraid not. As we said, drinking the juice is part of the challenge. If you can’t finish the refreshing drink your child so carefully prepared for you, you’ll be considered to have forfeited the ingredient pack."

The moment he finished speaking, Nathan Lynch tugged on Renee Jennings’s sleeve, his eyes welling with tears. "Mommy, I don’t want to go hungry. Mommy loves me so much, she’ll try hard for my sake, right?"

A fire of pure rage burned in Renee Jennings’s heart, but now she couldn’t possibly utter the words of surrender she had been about to say.

Jared Woods, who had just gotten his punishment, chimed in, "Aunt Jennings loves Brother Mona so much! She gets up super early every day to remind Brother Mona to do his homework. She’d never let Brother Mona go hungry!"

Renee Jennings was trapped on a pedestal. Furious, she adopted a ’screw it all’ attitude and grabbed the cup of juice.

"Gag... Blech..." She drank and retched simultaneously. By the time the cup was finally empty, Renee Jennings’s throat was too raw to even make a sound.

’Nathan Lynch definitely put more than two spoonfuls of salt in there!’ 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

She struggled to raise her hand. "I... I finished it."

Before the staff could even hand her the ingredient pack, Renee Jennings clutched her throat and bolted. Her stomach was roiling, and she felt absolutely wretched.

Chelsea Raines was dumbfounded. Suddenly, by comparison, Jared Woods didn’t seem so bad after all.

「Ten minutes later.」 Renee Jennings returned, her face deathly pale and her steps unsteady.