I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM

Chapter 649: The manipulation

"The performance doesn't require traditional acting skills," Mara explained carefully. "It requires... a willingness to step outside your comfort zone. To portray intimacy, affection, closeness with other performers."

Helena's confusion was slowly changing to alarm. "What kind of intimacy?"

Mara smiled in what she probably thought was a reassuring manner.

"Physical intimacy. The patron enjoys watching people express affection in... private ways. But it's all performance, Helena. All acting. Nothing real, nothing that has to mean anything beyond the moment."

Helena stood abruptly, her face suddenly pale.

"You're asking me to prostitute myself? To perform sexual acts for money?"

"Not prostitution," Mara said quickly. "Performance. Acting. With people you trust, in a safe environment, for exceptional compensation. It's completely different."

"It sounds exactly the same!" Helena's voice rose with distress. "And you want me to do this? You think I would degrade myself like that?"

"For your freedom?" Mara countered. "For your children's freedom? Yes, I think you might consider it if you understood the full picture."

Julian watched this manipulation unfold with genuine interest.

Helena was shaking her head vigorously. "No. Absolutely not. I don't care how much it pays. I won't—I can't—"

"The other performers would be Thomas and Sarah," Mara said quietly.

Helena froze completely. "What?"

"Your children have already been participating in these performances for six months," Mara continued, her voice becoming gentler, almost sympathetic. "They've been earning extraordinary sums to pay down the family debt. They've been wonderful. And now, for this final performance that would clear the debt entirely, they need you to participate with them."

The color had completely drained from Helena's face. She swayed slightly, gripping the back of the chair for support.

"My children..." she whispered. "Thomas and Sarah have been... they've been prostituting themselves? For six months?"

"Performing," Mara corrected. "And yes. They've been incredibly brave and dedicated to freeing the family from debt."

Helena's legs gave out. She collapsed back into the chair, staring at Mara with an expression of absolute horror and betrayal.

"What have you done to my children?" she breathed.

And Julian, watching from the doorway, saw the exact moment when Mara's manipulation began to unravel.

"Do you think it was magic that your debt decreased from thirty years to eight years? Do you think some benevolent force simply decided to reduce what you owed out of kindness?"

Helena stared at her, unable to form words.

"Your children. They've been working tirelessly. Everything they've done has been for you, Helena. To free you faster."

She leaned forward and her voice became more intense.

"They didn't tell you because they knew you would react exactly like this."

Helena's hands were shaking. "What kind of performances? What have they been doing?"

Mara's expression became carefully neutral. "Physical performances. Intimate acts. Together."

Helena's eyes widened with horror. "Together? You mean... you mean they've been..."

"Yes," Mara confirmed simply. "Thomas and Sarah have been performing sexual acts together for our patron's viewing pleasure. They're in a relationship, Helena. They love each other. Not as siblings, but as lovers. The performances simply monetized what they were already doing privately."

Helena made a strangled sound.

"My babies," she whispered. "My children are... doing that. And you encouraged it. You profited from it."

"I provided an opportunity," Mara corrected, her voice becoming harder now.

She stood from behind her desk and moved around to stand directly in front of Helena.

"And now, we need you to complete what they started. One final performance—you, Sarah, and Thomas together. The patron is willing to pay enough to eliminate the remaining debt entirely."

Helena was shaking her head violently. "I cannot do that. I would go to hell. What you're asking me to do—that's a sin. My soul would be damned for eternity."

Mara scoffed. "And are you fine with making your children's reality hell? Right here, right now, in this life? You're worried about hypothetical damnation while they suffer actual consequences?"

That seemed to silence Helena. Her mouth opened but no words came out.

Mara pressed her advantage.

"You have a decent body, Helena. Even after all these years, you're still attractive. Seducing any man wouldn't be hard for you. You could remarry, find a husband who could pay off your debt, give you a normal life."

Helena's expression flickered with something—hope, perhaps, at the suggestion of an alternative path.

But Mara's next words crushed it immediately.

"But you know how the bank works, don't you?" Her voice became harder, more brutal. "Once they've chosen their target and marked someone as debt-bound, having any form of social life becomes impossible. You can't remarry. You can't court. You can't even speak to potential suitors without written permission from the bank."

Helena's face crumpled as the truth of those words hit her.

"So no, you can't seduce your way out. You can't marry your way out and definitely can't pray your way out. The only way out is through payment. And the only way to generate enough payment is through what your children have been doing."

Helena was crying harder now.

"This isn't fair," she sobbed. "None of this is fair. My husband—that bastard—he gambled away everything, drank away everything, and left us with this nightmare. And now you're telling me the only way to escape his mistakes is to commit the worst sin imaginable?"

"Yes," Mara said simply. "That's exactly what I'm telling you. Life isn't fair, Helena. It never has been. The question is whether you're willing to do what's necessary to survive it."

She moved back to her desk and picked up one of the diamonds.

"Your children understood this. They've been living with the weight of it for six months while you remained ignorant. And they never blamed you, never made you feel guilty for what they were sacrificing."

Mara set the diamond down and looked directly at Helena.

"But now they need you. Just this once. Just one night. And then it's over."

She paused, letting that sink in.

"Or you refuse, and they continue alone. For eight more years. Performing for strangers. Being used. Being degraded. While you go back to your kitchens and pretend not to know what they're sacrificing for you."