Born Into Villain's Family: I Have a 200\% Rebate System-Chapter 457: Debt Contract

Once they stepped outside, the evening air wrapped around them... cool, damp, carrying the faintly metallic scent of the streetlights warming up.

Mary’s fingers trembled slightly as she held onto Adam’s wrist. Her eyes, wide and glossy with worry, kept flicking toward him as though she had not truly understood why he had dragged her out so abruptly.

"Why did you pull me away like that? What if they take action against us?" Mary’s voice quivered despite her attempt to sound composed.

Adam glanced at her, his jaw tightening with the weight of everything he had been holding back.

For a moment he didn’t speak; he simply watched her expression tighten, watched her shoulders rise and fall with her shallow breaths.

’She’s truly scared... she thinks something will happen to us.’

Seeing that fear, something warm and protective surged through him. His heart clenched not in pain but in a fierce tenderness.

He squeezed her hand with his free one, as if anchoring both her trembling and his own anger.

"Don’t worry," Adam whispered, though his voice held a deep, steady strength. "Our kids have done their research well. Maybe this time, we’ll actually turn the tables and make sure those blackmailers face consequences."

Mary’s head snapped toward him. The streetlight reflected in her eyes, making them look almost golden from shock. "What did our children do?"

Adam took a slow breath and told her everything... each detail, each risky move Lucas, Alex, and the others had made. His words spilled out sharp and urgent, mixing with the soft hum of distant traffic.

By the time he finished, Mary inhaled sharply, a deep, shaking breath that made her shoulders stiffen.

"These kids... have they gone mad?" Her fingers pressed against her forehead as though the pressure might ease her panic.

"How can they just walk into someone’s house? Aren’t they afraid of being caught? And what about what Hans, Milo, and Lovely discovered with that camera? If the children made even one mistake, they would have been ruined."

Her anxiety spiraled with every passing second. Adam could see it in the way her hands kept curling and uncurling. But then she suddenly froze... eyes widening as if a new horrific possibility had just struck her.

"Wait... what you said earlier... about Lovely’s son. Don’t tell you aren’t really her son?"

Adam nodded, his expression turning grim under the street’s yellow glow.

Mary’s throat tightened. She clenched her fists slowly, deliberately, as though containing something boiling inside her.

She lowered her head and murmured, "If that’s true, then I suppose I should prepare a little... surprise for my dear mother-in-law."

Adam’s eyebrows shot up. "A surprise? What are you planning to do?"

Mary simply lifted her chin and gave him a tiny, controlled smile, the kind a woman shows when she has decided something quietly ruthless.

"Nothing big. Just a small surprise. You, however," she added, poking his chest lightly, "should be the one to man up and take charge. If our kids had to intervene, it means they think we’re not capable of taking revenge ourselves."

Adam’s shoulders stiffened. Shame crept up his neck like heat rising under his skin.

’She’s right... They stepped in because they don’t trust us to protect ourselves.’

His hands slowly curled into fists.

He closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply, feeling the cool air burn slightly in his lungs.

When he opened them, the softness had vanished. Sharp determination gleamed in them instead.

"I’ll make sure they regret crossing us," Adam declared. His voice held a quiet but deadly promise.

Mary’s lips parted slightly, admiration flickering through her expression. She nodded at him, proud and trusting.

After they returned home, Adam headed straight to his company. The corridors still carried the faint smell of polished wood and old books, comforting but heavy. Once inside his office, he sat down and opened the files Lucas had sent him.

The photographs, the recordings, the documents... every piece of evidence stared back at him like sharp shards of truth.

He felt anger flare in his chest. His knuckles whitened around the edge of the table. "Enough," he breathed. His voice vibrated with resolve.

He contacted a well-known lawyer and handed over everything. Before doing so, he made several backups... digital and physical, his movements methodical, cold, and precise.

Once that was handled, he leaned back, staring at the ceiling. It’s time for something more direct.

So he hired thugs.

Not killers. Not monsters. Just... men whose presence alone could crush Lovely, Hans, and Milo’s arrogance.

The next day dawned with a deceptively calm brightness.

Birds chirped outside, and the old neighborhood streets smelled faintly of damp soil and early morning tea being brewed by sleepy vendors.

Lovely sat among several neighbors, laughing shrilly while shuffling a stack of well-worn playing cards. Her perfume, heavy, overly sweet, mixed unpleasantly with the smell of dust and the faint cigarette smoke lingering in the air.

"Play fast," she snapped at another woman. "Don’t waste my time."

But the next moment, a hard shove knocked her off her stool.

She hit the ground with a sharp gasp. Pain flared across her hip, shooting up her spine. The world blurred briefly, but when she lifted her head, the sight made the breath freeze in her chest.

Thugs.

Not random men. Familiar ones.

Her face drained of all color.

’No... it can’t be... Not after twenty years... they found me?’

She recognized them instantly... those heavy footsteps, those sneering expressions etched by years of gambling rooms.

They had once been her accomplices during her wild, reckless days. Her addiction had destroyed her marriage, driven her to debt, and forced her to flee city after city.

She had believed... foolishly... that the past had buried itself.

But here it stood.

Lovely swallowed hard and hurried toward them, lowering her voice to a desperate whisper.

"Don’t cause trouble here. Follow me to an alley, I’ll... I’ll pay you something. Anything. Just not here."

One of the thugs yawned lazily. "Not interested."

"We’re not leaving without something," another added, cracking his knuckles.

Lovely’s hands trembled violently. She dug into her purse and pulled out her phone. "I... I can transfer ten thousand right now."

A thug snatched the phone so fast her fingers scraped against his skin. The roughness burned her fingertips.

"Give us your bank details," he demanded.

"No! You can’t do this!" Lovely’s voice rose with panic, but the thugs merely laughed.

One pulled out a crumpled paper, yellowed, creased, and stamped.

A debt contract.

Lovely’s eyes bulged when she saw the number.

"F-Five million!?" Her voice cracked. "How did it... How did it reach this much?"

"Since you ran off without paying your one million," the thug replied with bored annoyance, "we charged interest. Our own rates. Now it’s five million. Pay it, or we’ll make you useful. Maybe by selling an organ or two. And if that’s not enough, we’ll trouble your kids."

Lovely’s breath seized. A chill ran down her spine, colder than ice.

’My kids... if they get dragged into this... Hans and Milo... they’ll send me away...’

But then, her fear twisted into cunning. Her eyes flickered.

"I... I have a successful child," she whispered quickly. "If you go to his company, you can extort ten million. Even twenty million! He’ll pay. Just give me half."

The thugs stared at her, dumbfounded.

They exchanged a look... half disgust, half disbelief.

One muttered under his breath, "Unbelievable... she’d sell her own kid."

The truth was harsher: Adam had hired them. They weren’t here for money... they were here to teach her a lesson.

The thug stepped closer and shoved Lovely back onto the ground. Her palms scraped the rough cement, small stones cutting into her skin.

"Enough. We don’t need your story. Either sign this agreement and pay in one year... or everyone connected to you pays monthly. Your children. Let’s see who keeps you around then."

Lovely froze.

She had overheard Hans and Milo secretly discussing sending her to an old-age home. She had pretended she hadn’t seen the documents. Her chest tightened now with suffocating fear.

’If they get dragged into trouble... they will abandon me for real.’

"What... what agreement?" she whispered.

The thug sighed and pulled out the papers again. "Here."

Lovely didn’t even read it. She grabbed the pen with shaking fingers and signed it instantly, hoping to buy time, to think later, to escape later.

Her ignorance of the law and blind faith in her own tricks betrayed her completely.

She didn’t notice the thugs exchanging sly smirks as she signed away her remaining dignity.

Once done, they left, heading straight for Adam’s company.

In Adam’s office, the thugs stood respectfully, the air thick with the smell of cologne, old paper, and air-conditioned chill.

"We got her signature," one said, placing the contract on Adam’s desk.

Adam flipped through it, satisfaction curling on his lips. The contract didn’t mention five million.

It mentioned fifty million.