Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress

Chapter 1724: A battle won, but not the war.

Chapter 1724: A battle won, but not the war.

"I found out I wasn't Naylani and Enzo Pierson's son. I was just a child they were raising... because they thought I was theirs."

Penny held her breath, disbelief and shock flickering in her eyes. She just stared at him, opening and closing her mouth, but no words came out.

Seeing her reaction, Zoren let out a faint, bitter laugh. He shrugged weakly and leaned back against the headboard, resting the back of his head on it. His eyes drifted ahead as he thought back to how he'd learned the truth.

"In my first life, while I was investigating your case, I found out I wasn't actually their son," he muttered. "To mock Naylani even further, Nathalie swapped her son with another. According to Nathalie..."

He paused, recalling the exact words that woman had spat at him during their confrontation.

"You should've seen Naylani's face when I told her that kid of hers... is long dead," he quoted. "That I cleared his innards and used her child as a bag to smuggle some things. She was livid-it was a sight to behold."

Penny's breath hitched. She didn't know whether to shudder from the cruelty or recoil from the horror of it. Her heart clenched as she focused back on Zoren.

'Just... how could she...'

Her chest rose and fell slowly, heavily, as her gaze remained on him.

Nathalie being that cruel shouldn't surprise her and yet, she couldn't help but wonder how Zoren endured it. She hadn't known him personally in their previous life, but even now, she knew how much he had respected and looked up to Enzo.

She clutched the bedsheet tightly, her throat going dry.

Zoren exhaled again, forcing a faint smile. "So that's why I couldn't accept that he died saving a kid he thought was his—"

He stopped abruptly as Penny suddenly jumped on him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. A soft, surprised chuckle escaped him as he placed his hand on her back.

"I'm fine, Penny," he said softly. "It was something I barely came to terms with before, but now..."

Again, his voice trailed off as he felt her body trembling. Then came the hiccups, soft and muffled against his chest.

"How can you just say it's fine?!" she burst out through quiet sobs. "It's not fine for me. How can she-how can she play with people's lives, with people's hearts, with families like that?!"

against his chest, her

her cheeks as she struggled to comprehend the

Her voice broke. freewebnovel.com

all made sense to

had wanted to destroy the ghost of Naylani and the child who didn't belong in the Pierson's home. That was why he orchestrated that fire—one meant to take both himself and the

first instinct had been survival—to live differently. Perhaps,

wanted to protect the few people his life touched. He didn't aim to rewrite everything-just

he never said it, clearly remembered everything—and carried

truth late, chose redemption, swearing to

But Zoren?

who, upon remembering

Why?

because he thought his existence itself was a mistake. It showed just how deeply Nathalie

to terms with it, Penny knew...

It wasn't that simple.

the fact that her husband

she wept, Zoren's face crumpled. Slowly, he tightened his

tears came from him-but

wife

to terms with it, when in

[Short Flashback]

remote mansion far

the estate, two

dilated slowly, his breath halting as he stared at the woman across

he

strolled casually to the cement

"For a child... to believe he had everything, only to find out none

Naylani reacted when

between them, her smile

like yours," she

so brightly