Born Into Villain's Family: I Have a 200% Rebate System

Mary's hands trembled. Her lips pressed together tightly, but she said nothing. Her eyes looked away, as if trying to hide the immense guilt and shame.

The Waters family, standing nearby, looked stunned as well. Lucas muttered, "Why can't she just admit that she cares about Alex… even though she didn't fight for his custody?"

Adriana, standing next to him, thought carefully and said, "It's very strange. From her expression, it's clear that she doesn't want Alex to know that she cares. But at the same time, she doesn't want to see him suffer."

Mary, still silent, clenched her fists tightly.

Alex stared at her, his eyes full of emotion. Hope, confusion, and a gentle understanding mixed within him.

Mary suddenly turned and walked away, her steps quick but shaky. Her face was red from sobbing.

Adam followed closely, not letting her walk alone. His voice was soft, almost a whisper. "Mary… don't run away. If you do, you'll fall."

Hearing Adam's words, Mary only pursed her lips and sobbed harder. "I don't know how to deal with this…" she whispered, almost breaking apart.

Adam patted her back gently. "It's alright. I'll go back inside and handle this if you want me to."

Mary didn't respond. She continued to hold onto Adam, burying her face in his shoulder.

Aurora arrived at the scene just after that. She looked at Mary and spoke softly, "If you don't go back in now, maybe in the future you'll regret not facing this."

Mary and Adam both turned to look at Aurora with frowns. Adam tried to say something kindly, "Aurora, maybe you should leave us alone."

But Aurora shook her head. "No. This is important for Mary to understand."

She stepped closer to Mary and held her hand gently.

"I know you're the gentlest soul in this world," Aurora began in a soft voice. "And I know you're avoiding Alex not because you hate him, but because he wasn't the child you ever wanted."

Mary's fist clenched even tighter, but Aurora continued without pause.

"I also know you hate Alex's father. How could you not? Nothing between you and that man was by choice. It was a betrayal."

Tears welled in Mary's eyes, and her sobs grew heavier.

The reality was that Aurora remembered how she had hacked into all the details and got to know that her mother's first boyfriend was a scumbag.

He had sold Mary to one of the rich clients for money, and Mary, who was drugged and was being taken advantage of, conceived Alex. At that time, she was just 17 and full of dreams.

However, after she got pregnant, her family started to scorn her, and they found a rich match for her and sold her off in a way. Her first husband, on the other hand, had prevented Mary from getting an abortion, thinking that the son was his.

Many times, Mary told him the truth, but he dismissed it, thinking Mary was only lying to make him divorce her.

When Mary's husband came to know that she was pregnant with someone else's child, he was furious and started to treat Mary coldly.

He even went as far as keeping a mistress all the time, while not divorcing Mary at all. When Mary gave birth to Alex with a lot of difficulty, her husband even went as far as to say that she had to choose between her son and him.

At that time, Mary was heartbroken, and she hated Alex, too. After all, she hated the person who had taken advantage of her. She couldn't bring herself to like the little baby who was smiling.

But at the same time, her heart melted at the thought that it was a son that she had carried for 9 months. To say that Mary's feelings were conflicting was right. After all, she didn't hate the baby.

It wasn't the baby's mistake at all. But at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to like him, seeing the uncanny resemblance between Alex and the criminal who had taken advantage of her.

When Mary chose Alex, it resulted in her first husband mistreating her even more. He had an illegitimate child with someone else and made her life hell.

When Alex turned 5, Mary's first husband had had enough, and Mary, too had enough. Mary filed for a divorce and lost custody to Alex who was eventually taken away by Mary's ex-husband.

Mary's ex-husband had done so purely because he wanted to torment this love child of Mary.

He always thought that Alex was Mary's love child and was furious about it.

Hence, he was filled with so much rage that he wasn't ready to let Alex go and constantly tortured Alex in the hopes of lessening his hatred towards Mary.

He accepted that he had liked Mary a lot to the point that he was ready to keep their married status even though she had cheated on him or had a child with someone else.

But he wasn't in love with her to the point that he was ready to raise a child for her. In fact, he had even proposed to Mary that, as long as she gave up Alex for adoption, he was ready to accept Mary and be together with her.

However, Mary refused, and she let him have Alex's custody purely because she thought that maybe he would eventually soften up and treat him better. It was better than her who didn't have a good future.

Not to mention, even after marrying Adam, her condition wasn't good enough to the point that she could freely spend money.

Yet, she saved up a little amount every month and tried to spend it on Alex.

She secretly even gave some money to his school and asked them to pass it to Alex as scholarship money. It could be said that Mary, though hating Alex, couldn't bear to see him suffer at all.

When Aurora got to know everything, she for the first time felt like killing someone.