Born Into Villain's Family: I Have a 200\% Rebate System-Chapter 456: Exposed Truth

Adam was still racking his brain for a way out of the nightmare unfolding in front of him, some excuse, some stalling tactic, anything, when his phone suddenly began to ring.

The shrill sound cut through the tension like a knife.

Everyone in the private room turned toward the phone.

Adam’s eyes dropped to the screen.

Lucas.

His eldest son’s name flashed insistently.

Adam felt his breath hitch. For a moment, he simply stared at the caller ID.

But then he looked up at the three people who had cornered him... Lovely with her greedy, triumphant expression, Hans with his arrogant smirk, and Milo, who was trying too hard to look pitiful.

"I need to answer this," Adam said calmly.

He stood up and stepped away from the table, taking his phone and heading toward the hallway that led to the attached restroom.

The moment he closed the door behind him, he exhaled heavily and pressed the phone to his ear.

Meanwhile, inside the private room, Mary did not follow him.

This was a tactic the two of them had naturally developed over the years; one stayed in the room to distract or intercept trouble, while the other got a few minutes to think in private. They trusted each other to read situations and act accordingly.

So when Lovely made a move to follow Adam with suspicion in her eyes, Mary smoothly stepped in front of her.

"Lovely," Mary said with polite firmness, "there’s something you need to understand first."

Lovely paused, her curiosity piqued. "What do you mean?"

Mary forced a calm smile. "If you’re planning to come to our home often... as you’ve implied, you need to follow certain rules. Our household isn’t as free as you may think. There are expectations, routines..."

She was deliberately stalling.

She didn’t want Lovely anywhere near the door Adam had disappeared behind. Mary didn’t know what the call was about, but she sensed urgency in the way Adam’s hand trembled when he answered.

Meanwhile, outside in the hallway...

Adam pressed the phone tightly to his ear.

"What happened, Lucas?" he asked.

On the other end, Lucas sounded breathless... breathless and excited. "Dad! Aurora found evidence. Solid evidence. Against Lovely, Hans, and Milo. We have everything now. You don’t have to worry about the three of them anymore!"

Adam froze.

For a full second, he forgot how to breathe.

Then Lucas continued, his voice growing more energetic.

"By the way, where are you, Dad? I went to your workplace to tell you in person, but you weren’t there. I need to talk to you..."

Adam’s knees weakened. He leaned against the wall heavily. "Repeat that," he whispered. "Say it again."

Lucas immediately fell silent. For the first time in his life, he heard a trembling fear in his father’s voice.

"Dad?" Lucas asked cautiously. "What happened? Why do you sound like that?"

Adam’s chest tightened even further.

Should he tell the truth?

Should he reveal that he and Mary were currently being blackmailed in a secluded private room, cornered like prey, pressured to hand over two hundred thousand dollars?

Would Lucas panic? Would his children do something reckless?

Adam inhaled shakily.

Then he decided.

Lucas deserved to know.

"They invited us," Adam whispered. "Lovely, Hans, and Milo. They called us for a private meeting. They... they’re demanding another two hundred thousand dollars."

There was silence.

Then shouting filled the speaker.

"WHAT?! Dad, don’t you dare give them anything! Don’t fall for it! Those people are scammers! They can’t take anything from you now!"

Lucas’s voice came from the other end like a ray of hope in darkness,

"Dad, listen to me. They can’t blackmail you anymore. Not legally. Not emotionally. Not in any way."

Then he added, voice hardening,

"And they can forget about getting a single penny from the Waters family because you’re not even related to Lovely, Dad. None of them. They’re nothing to you."

Adam’s breath stopped.

He slid down the wall slightly, unable to process.

His voice was raw when he spoke. "W-what did you say?"

Lucas took a deep breath. "Dad... we conducted a mission. It was like this... and then we installed cameras in Lovely’s house. We overheard things. We got evidence. We..."

His voice softened. "We found out the truth."

Adam closed his eyes.

Slowly, images flickered in his mind... years of confusion, of pain, of rejection. The night his mother once drunkenly told him, "You’re not our blood."

Back then, he thought she simply meant that he didn’t meet her standards.

Now he realized she had meant it literally.

His heart went cold. Ice cold.

He thought he would feel relief.

Instead, he felt devastation... and fury.

How many years had he blamed himself? How many nights had he wondered why he wasn’t enough? Why didn’t he deserve love? Why did nothing he did change them?

He had blamed himself for everything. But none of it had been his fault. Not a single thing.

His real family wasn’t them.

It was Mary. It was his children. It was the Waters family.

And yet these people... this trio of bitter, greedy, heartless individuals, had dared to destroy his childhood, his dreams, his youth... and still wanted to drain his adulthood.

His eyes darkened... dangerously, violently.

’I was too soft,’ he thought. ’Too gentle. Too forgiving. And my children... my children walked into danger for me.’

They had broken into a house. They had risked arrest. They had risked their future.

All because he hadn’t stood up for himself.

He would never let that happen again.

"Lucas," he said, voice sharp, suddenly steady. "For now, don’t tell anyone else. And don’t act. I’ll deal with them myself."

Lucas immediately agreed.

Adam hung up the phone.

Then he clenched it in his fist and murmured through gritted teeth,

"Jail won’t be enough. They ruined my life. And they had the audacity to keep taking. They’ll learn what it means to be powerless."

He straightened his spine, wiped every trace of emotion from his face, and walked back into the private room.

Mary looked at him instantly, reading the storm behind his eyes. But she said nothing.

Lovely, however, immediately demanded, "Why did Lucas call? What did he want?"

Adam stared at her.

He really stared... long enough for Lovely to feel something icy crawl up her spine.

He said slowly, "He was asking about groceries. Nothing more."

Lovely narrowed her eyes. She didn’t believe him... not fully. Adam had never used that cold tone with her before. It unsettled her.

Even Mary felt the heaviness radiating off him and instinctively reached out to clasp his hand under the table.

Adam jerked slightly, snapped out of the murderous haze that had threatened to engulf him.

For a moment earlier, he truly had the urge to kill them all... Lovely, Hans, and Milo. They had taken so much, destroyed so much, and now they mocked him as if they were entitled to everything he owned.

’But I have a family now,’ he reminded himself. ’I can’t throw everything away. I can’t become the monster they are.’

Mary’s grip anchored him. He inhaled slowly.

Milo, sensing the tension, attempted to lighten the atmosphere. "Since Adam isn’t in the mood... maybe we should stop for today?"

Hans nodded, playing along. "Yes, yes. We don’t have to decide everything now."

Lovely opened her mouth, ready to argue, but Hans squeezed her hand under the table and shot her a warning glare.

Even they could feel it... Adam’s aura was no longer soft. It was sharp, lethal, suffocating.

After a few minutes of empty, awkward small talk, Milo finally asked, "Then... what should we do now?"

Adam stood up. He took Mary’s hand.

"We’ll be leaving," he said coldly. "And as for the money, you can forget about it."

He turned toward the door.

Lovely jumped to her feet. "Adam! You’re crossing the line! If you walk out that door, I’ll file charges immediately!"

Adam paused. Slowly, he turned back to her with a chilling smile.

"Go ahead," he said. "If you think you can threaten me with money... forget it. If I’m doomed, it’s better to ruin my reputation once and for all than hand you another cent."

He walked out, taking Mary with him. Lovely’s eyes widened in shock.

Hans and Milo paled.

They realized instantly... they had pushed Adam too far.

Lovely started screaming at Adam’s retreating back,

"BEAST! UNGRATEFUL BRAT! HOW DARE YOU?! YOU SHOULD GIVE ME EVERYTHING..."

Her shrill rants grew so unreasonable that even Hans covered his ears.

Milo snapped.

"MOM!" he shouted, voice cracking like a whip.

Lovely flinched, stunned. Milo had never yelled at her before.

He softened his expression immediately. "Sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just... tired."

He sighed dramatically. "I told you we shouldn’t have asked again so soon. Now Adam is furious. If we chase him right now, he won’t give us anything."

Hans frowned. "So? What’s the plan?"

Milo rubbed his chin thoughtfully.