[Ding! Hidden Mission [I] has been completed...]

[Have a woman, target or not eat your dried cum completely and swallow]

[Reward: 20, 000 Credits]

’What the hell?!’ Wren exclaimed in his mind with his feet stopping dead on the floorboards of downstairs.

His eyes widened to the size of saucers as the translucent blue text hovered mockingly in his field of vision.

His brain completely short-circuited.

’What the hell was Dani even doing in my room... I told her to go there but still... How did she find that... Why did she eat it... Is she sane?!’

A fierce crimson blush violently crept up his neck and settled deep into his cheeks as he thought about the sheer absurdity of the situation.

The mental image of the short blonde girl doing something so unbelievably degenerate was enough to make him want to throw himself out the nearest window but he forced himself to take a deep breath.

He shook his head rapidly, physically trying to clear the incredibly disturbing thoughts from his mind since he had more pressing matters right now.

He walked down the short corridor and stopped in front of the downstairs laundry room, then he raised his knuckles and knocked gently on the door.

After a few seconds of silence, Diana’s voice came from the other side.

"W-w-what did you want?" she asked with her voice cracking halfway through the sentence.

"I just want to speak with you." Wren said, keeping his voice soft. "Please open the door."

He heard the distinct click of the latch turning.

’Locking the door as well? Did Zoe inherit that from her mother?’ He thought, a small sigh escaping his lips.

Unlike Zoe though, who would have likely screamed at him through the wood until he left but Diana opened the door much more easily. The hinges creaked slightly as the door swung inward.

She stood there, looking firmly down at the tiled ground, her shoulders hunched inwards as if trying to make herself as small as possible.

As Wren came in, she immediately reached around him, making her close the door behind him as he entered.

The small room smelled of fresh lavender detergent and Wren carefully placed the heavy, matte-black paper bag containing her gift over the washing machine.

Looking at her fragile form, Wren asked her. "Why did you run off like that?"

Instantly, he winced with his teeth clicking together.

’That’s a stupid question, isn’t it?’ He thought, a wave of intense regret washing over him as he wanted to slap himself in the face. The woman, of course, ran off because her own daughter had just shouted at her venomously.

It wasn’t her fault, she was just trying to be a parent—

"Because I... I’m a b-bad mother..." Diana replied, her voice had become a whisper.

Wren raised his eyebrows and looked at her, completely taken aback by the sheer self-loathing in her voice.

She lifted her head slightly making her chestnut hair fall messily over her shoulders.

"All of this rubbish started because I didn’t have the guts to be strict to my own daughter. If I had... if I had maybe married a better man, Zoe would be a normal child..."

Diana took a sudden desperate step forward. Tears were dripping off her chin and falling to the ground, splashing against the tiles.

She reached out with trembling hands and tightly clutched Wren’s shirt with her knuckles turning white from the force of her grip.

"All this is my fault..." she sobbed as the dam finally broke. "Maybe if I was a better woman... My husband wouldn’t have cheated on me and if I was a better woman, maybe your father wouldn’t have abandoned me here to take care of Zoe completely alone and redo the house."

Her breath hitched turning into a ragged painful gasp.

"Maybe if I was a tad bit stricter, I would have told my daughter off against dating women even though I didn’t like it! And when Zoe had holed herself up in her room, crying and screaming, I wouldn’t have just given in regardless!"

Wren remained entirely silent letting the heavy weight of her confession into his ears.

The woman began crying in earnest, not as loudly or violently as her daughter upstairs but the tears dripped continuously against the ground.

Diana hadn’t wanted to tell him all of this.

She had wanted to be the strong, welcoming stepmother but she was done... She simply didn’t want to keep it in her anymore.

The pressure was suffocating.

She pushed her wet face against Wren’s chest, hiding her features in his shirt, and her tears came down in a torrent alongside pathetic sniffles.

"I’m tired," Diana continued with her voice muffled against the fabric of his shirt. "I’m so tired of smiling and pretending to everyone as if everything is okay... It isn’t. Some days I contemplate actually killing myself with how bad it is, but I have a daughter, so I couldn’t."

She gripped his shirt even tighter.

"My mother promised me that marriage would be beautiful... a sacred union between a man and a woman that could barely be broken but the two times I have gotten married, it was disaster after disaster."

She slowly looked up at Wren.

Her beautiful, mature face was a mess, with tears coming out of her reddened eyes and snot running down her nose, completely shattering her usual elegant image.

"Or is it that I am the problem?" Diana asked. She clutched Wren’s shirt harder, twisting the fabric like she wanted to rip it clean off his body, and finished off by crying, "Did I offend anyone in a past life? Or does the world just hate me?!"

Diana didn’t know why she was asking him.

Wren wasn’t God; he wouldn’t tell her the answer to that. He was just a young man, forced into her messy life.

Wren looked down at the broken woman.

Slowly, he placed an arm gently on her back, feeling the trembling of her spine, and then the other, wrapping her up and then hugged her.

The motion pulled her flush against him, pushing her soft breasts heavily against his solid chest, but in that vulnerable moment... Neither of them seemed to notice the intimate contact at all.

"You are a good person, Diana." Wren told her softly, resting his chin lightly near the top of her head. "You can cry as much as you want. I’ve got you."

So, Diana cried, and cried... She let out years of pent-up frustration, loneliness, and feelings of utter inadequacy.

She kept crying until her eyes turned a puffy, raw red and the heavy sniffles finally stopped and even after all that crying... through the entire ordeal, Wren kept holding her tightly, acting as an unmovable pillar and taking all of her pain.

At some point, the reality of their position finally registered. Her face grew incredibly hot against his chest with a deep flush spreading from her neck all the way to her ears.

"W-would you let me go?" she asked, sounding embarrassed.

Wren blinked and his arms loosened, letting her go. Diana stepped back quickly, her chestnut brown hair bobbing as she put a bit of safe distance between them in the cramped room.

She lowered her head, completely unable to look at his handsome face. "I’m so s-sorry for pouring all of my problems onto you... and for crying all over your shirt."

Wren put his hand on the back of his head, rubbing it with a gentle reassuring smile.

"No issues at all... My mother told me that whenever someone I cared about was crying, I should hug them." He paused with a chuckle escaping his mouth. "Though, if I tried doing that to a crying stranger back in Bostara, then I would definitely be called a creep and arrested."

Diana let out a laugh.

The sound was beautiful, clearing the heavy tension in the room. She pointed a delicate finger at his chest.

"You should take it off and put it in the laundry basket before the tear stains set in."

"Fair enough..." Wren said.

And so he did. He grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulling it up and taking it off completely in one smooth motion, tossing the damp fabric into the nearby woven basket.

Diana’s breath hitched in her throat.

She instantly blushed a violent shade of scarlet as she saw his muscular body up close.

His shoulders were incredibly broad with his chest heavily sculpted and her eyes immediately trailed down to his defined abdomen, including his perfectly cut six-pack.

She felt an overwhelming urge to slap her own cheeks to remove her focus from them, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Since there were exactly six of them and looking perfectly symmetrical, she gulped audibly.

’Should I name them...?’ she thought, her mind completely short-circuiting at the sight of male perfection in her laundry room.

Instantly horrified by her own intrusive thought, she slapped her face hard at the sides with both palms.

Smack!

’It is way too lewd to name your stepson’s body parts!’ she scolded herself internally. She quickly gulped, forcing her eyes up to his face. "W-why were you even looking for me down here anyway?"

Wren turned, his muscles flexing smoothly as he reached to the top of the washing machine.

He brought out the heavy paper bag. "I wanted to give you the Valentino Sundress and check if you were good."

Diana’s eyes widened, her blush deepening for an entirely different reason.

"Th-th-thank you..." she said, severely stuttering in her words as she reached out and collected the paper bag, nodding her head in deep appreciation.

However, Wren didn’t move toward the door. He leaned against the dryer and said. "I want to see how the sundress looks on you."

Diana squeaked. "R-right now?"

Wren nodded his head firmly and she gulped with her heart hammering against her ribs. "O-okay... but you should leave first."

Wren gave her a small smile, turning to the door and leaving the laundry room before closing the door behind him with a click.

Alone in the room, Diana’s trembling hands reached into the bag.

She carefully unwrapped the signature tissue paper, pulling out the vibrant, beautifully tailored fabric. She held it up to the fluorescent light, looking at it beautifully while mouthing.

’It’s beautiful...’

She then dropped it gently on top of the washing machine. Reaching around her back, she unzipped her current dress, sliding it off and letting it hit the ground in a pool of fabric.

She stood there in only her undergarments, looking down at her own mature curvy body with a sudden dark thought.

’What is it... what am I lacking?’ she thought as a wave of deep insecurity washed over her. ’What stops me from being a great wife who can keep her husband interested? Why wasn’t I enough?’

She looked at her full breasts and wide hips. ’It was enough to make Wren beat off to me while pressing my panties against his face.’

She slowly stepped out of the puddle of her old dress and kicked it aside into the corner, leaving herself standing strictly in her matching lace bra and panties.

She reached out and held the soft fabric of the sundress.

She pulled the dress over her head, letting the luxurious cool fabric slide down her skin.

She spent a minute meticulously putting the sundress on, adjusting it carefully around her breasts to ensure the neckline sat perfectly and smoothing the skirt down over her wide ass.

As she smoothed her hands over her curves as another thought invaded her mind. ’Wren would probably leave me too, right after he got inside me...’

Smack!

She slapped her face hard again making the sound echo in the small room.

’Bad Diana!’ she mentally screamed at herself for thinking so incredibly lewdly about her stepson while adjusting her breasts in the mirror-like reflection of the washing machine window.

But then, her hands slowed as she was re-adjusting the fabric over her ass. Diana stared at her flushed reflection.

’Was it wrong though?’ she thought, her heart fluttering wildly in her chest. ’He had held me when I cried. He didn’t judge me. He comforted me when I was at my absolute lowest...’

Her face turned a brilliant burning crimson at the undeniable affection blossoming in her chest.

Taking a deep breath to calm her erratic heartbeat, Diana walked to the door and opened it. Wren was standing in the hallway while leaning against the wall.

As the door opened, he stood up straight.

Diana stepped out, showing him the dress perfectly tailored around her curves, and gave a small, graceful spin to show off the flowing floral skirt.

She stopped, looking at him expectantly, noticing Wren didn’t say anything. He was just staring, looking at her in complete awe as his eyes traveling over every inch of her figure.

"You should say something," she whispered with her hands nervously playing with the hem of the dress.

Wren finally blinked, letting out a soft breath.

"You are really beautiful, Diana."

The sheer sincerity in his voice made her blush furiously, a warm, happy feeling blooming in her stomach.

Before she could thank him, heavy, aggressive footsteps echoed from above. An angry Zoe walked down from the staircase with her boots stomping on the wood.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she stopped, seeing the two of them standing intimately in the hallway.

She glared their way with her red puffy eyes and her face twisted in a scowl.

"I am going to stay at my best friend’s place tonight, and don’t tell me what to do!"

Before Diana could even formulate a response, Zoe turned, walking out the front door and slamming it shut behind her so hard the hinges rattled.

Wren and Diana stood watching her leave in total silence.

A heavy sigh escaped Diana’s lips.

As Diana was about to slink back into the laundry room door to take off the expensive garment and put on her former dress, a loud rumbling sound broke the silence.

Wren’s stomach growled loudly.

She stopped and looked up at him, her maternal instincts instantly overriding her melancholy. "You haven’t even eaten breakfast today, have you?"

Before Wren could answer, she smiled brightly.

She rushed past Wren, grabbing his wrist and dragging him along toward the kitchen, completely forgetting about changing out of the sundress.

"Come on," she said with her voice finally sounding cheerful again. "I will give you an absolute feast for lunch."

Her sudden burst of energy and the complete shift in her demeanor was infectious, making Wren laugh.