Born Into Villain's Family: I Have a 200\% Rebate System-Chapter 534: Abandon?

"How bold of you," she said. "You’re asking for help?"

"It’s your fault!" Maya snapped.

"If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have gotten plastic surgery, I wouldn’t have lied so much, and I wouldn’t have been pushed into framing my own lovers! I’m in jail because of you. Shouldn’t you take responsibility?"

Jules laughed outright, as if she had just heard an absurd joke.

Wiping the corner of her eyes, she leaned forward.

"You are the most delusional person I’ve ever met," she said coldly. "You ruined my life. You tried to take everything from me. Sometimes I wonder if you were ever really my sister."

Her gaze hardened.

"You were always just an attention seeker. A brat."

Jules stood up.

"Since you enjoy deceiving people so much, maybe this is where you belong."

Maya shouted after her, voice echoing across the room.

"All of you think you’ve won! Don’t you feel angry that everything was destroyed because of me? You didn’t even fight back!"

She began laughing hysterically.

"If I could take your happiness once, I can take it again!"

Jules stopped at the doorway and glanced back.

"If someone can steal your happiness," she replied calmly, "then it was never yours to begin with."

She opened the door.

"Oh, and one more thing," Jules added. "I am getting married to Lucas next year."

Maya’s laughter faltered.

"And the year after that," Jules continued, "I’ll have a daughter or son with him."

With that, she walked away, leaving Maya alone in the suffocating silence.

Jules continued walking down the corridor, her footsteps echoing faintly against the cold concrete walls.

"I also own a million dollars," she had said moments earlier, her voice steady. "From what I see, I have both financial and emotional stability."

Behind her, Maya remained trapped in the suffocating prison cell.

While Jules’s life was moving forward, Maya’s had already ended, she simply had not realized it yet.

The door slammed shut behind Jules.

Inside, Maya began screaming.

Her screams turned into curses, then into hysterical laughter, and slowly, over the following days, into uncontrollable violence.

She started associating with the most dangerous inmates, her temper worsening with each passing moment.

Fights became frequent. Punishments became routine.

Eventually, during one chaotic prison break attempt, Maya joined a group trying to force their way through a restricted area.

The alarm blared.

An officer spotted her charging forward.

"She’s armed! Stop her!" someone shouted.

A gunshot rang out.

Maya collapsed before she could even process what had happened.

Even in her final moment, resentment still filled her heart.

She had believed she would rise by stepping on Jules.

Instead, she died nameless, forgotten, and utterly unsatisfied.

.................

While Maya’s fate came to such a miserable end, someone else was desperately trying to reconnect with Jules.

Her mother, Annie.

After learning the truth, Annie had been searching for Jules relentlessly. She hired investigators, tracked down old contacts, followed every possible lead.

But Jules had vanished completely.

When Annie finally obtained Jules’s address, she did not hesitate to reach out.

Jules refused to respond.

Calls were blocked. Messages ignored.

Left with no choice, Annie sent one final message.

"Just one meeting. After that, I will never trouble you again."

....................

Jules stared at the message with a headache forming behind her temples.

"First Nick, then Maya... and now her," she muttered.

Yet she knew that if she did not deal with these lingering ties, they would continue haunting her life.

So she agreed.

................

They met at a quiet private café.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee lingered in the air, soft music playing in the background, but the atmosphere between them was unbearably tense.

The moment Annie saw Jules, her eyes filled with tears.

"I’m sorry," Annie blurted out immediately. "I shouldn’t have done those things. I’m so sorry."

Jules watched her silently.

’Strange,’ she thought. ’I don’t feel anything.’

No anger.

No warmth.

Just emptiness.

"I forgive you," Jules said calmly.

Annie’s face lit up. Tears of relief streamed down her cheeks.

"Thank you... thank you! I won’t hurt you again. From now on, I’ll..."

Jules raised her hand, stopping her.

"I’m not finished."

The joy on Annie’s face froze instantly, as if someone had poured ice water over her.

"I forgave you for myself," Jules continued in a steady voice. "But I don’t think there is any need for us to remain in contact."

Annie’s eyes widened.

"What... what do you mean?"

Jules gave a small, almost tired chuckle.

"It means exactly what you think. From today onward, we go our separate ways."

Annie opened her mouth, her voice trembling.

"I understand I made mistakes, but at least give me a chance, a chance to prove I can be a good mother. Let me make things right."

Jules felt as if those words were mocking her.

She looked at Annie and smiled faintly.

"You weren’t just a bad mother," she said quietly. "You weren’t a mother at all."

"That’s not true!" Annie protested.

Jules tilted her head.

"Then tell me. What’s my favorite food?"

Annie answered immediately, almost eagerly.

"Dumplings."

Jules laughed.

"That’s Maya’s favorite. I hate dumplings."

She continued, her voice calm but sharp.

"I love spring rolls. I love spaghetti. I love pasta. But you never noticed. Even when I achieved something, even when I won awards, nothing was ever about me. Everything was chosen according to Maya’s preferences."

Annie fell silent.

"Maya liked dumplings. Maya liked clubbing. Maya liked flashy things," Jules went on.

"You lectured both of us about behaviors I never even had. I’ve never stepped into a club in my life."

She leaned forward slightly.

"What’s my favorite color?"

Annie hesitated. Jules smiled faintly.

"You think it’s green, right?"

Annie nodded slowly.

"That’s Maya’s favorite too," Jules replied. "Not mine."

The silence between them grew heavier.

Jules asked one final question.

"What’s my birthday?"

Annie quickly answered, "September nineteenth."

Jules let out a hollow laugh.

"If you remember it," she said, "then why did you celebrate it every year on October twentieth... together with Laurie’s birthday?"

Annie froze.

She had never noticed.

Never questioned it.

Now, hearing those words, it felt as if thorns had been driven into her heart, one by one.

Jules let out a long, trembling sigh, the sound thin and brittle in the heavy air between them, and

"There are many things you don’t know about me, Annie, and just the same, I might not know much about you either."

Annie’s fingers tightened around the edge of the table, her knuckles paling.

For a fleeting second, she felt as though someone had thrown her a rope while she was drowning.

’This is my chance,’ she thought desperately. Without wasting another breath, she leaned forward and asked, "What’s my favorite color?"

For a moment, Jules almost laughed. The sound rose to her throat but never escaped.

’So this is her strategy,’ she thought, a hollow amusement flickering in her chest.

’Using my own method against me.’ Taking a slow breath that seemed to scrape against her lungs, she steadied herself and said,

"Your favorite color is black. Your favorite dish is traditional Chinese noodles, the kind with hand-pulled strands and thick broth. You love sushi too, especially the simple ones with fresh salmon."

Annie froze. The faint ticking of the wall clock suddenly sounded unbearably loud.

Jules did not stop. Her voice remained calm, but there was something sharp beneath it.

"Your birthday is on November twenty-first. Every year, I was the one who threw the big parties. I booked the venues, picked the cakes, arranged the decorations. Laurie just lazed around and took the credit at the end. And the gifts? Most of them were from me."

Annie’s lips parted, but no words came out.

"So tell me," Jules continued, her eyes steady and unblinking, "what is something I gave you that you still remember? Every year, Laurie conveniently handed you a greeting card or sent a short video that barely moved you. And me? I gave you warmth. I gave you comfort. I gave you everything I could."

Silence fell again, heavier this time.

Jules exhaled slowly.

"When I said there are many things I might not know about you, I meant your struggles. Maybe you went through hardships I never understood. Maybe you were hurting in ways I couldn’t see. But that doesn’t erase the fact that you never treated me like your child."

Her voice trembled, but she did not look away. "You treated me like an extra. Someone you could notice when convenient, or ignore when you felt like it."

Annie’s chest tightened painfully.

"For me, you were everything," Jules whispered. "But now, you are nothing in my life. We were supposed to have a good mother-daughter relationship. That’s what everyone expected. So it’s better if we untangle this mess and move forward separately."

Annie shook her head immediately, her eyes reddening.

"I’ve apologized. I’ll keep apologizing if that’s what it takes. Just don’t leave me like this. Don’t abandon me."