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?!"

his chest, her grip on his

spilling down her cheeks as she

Her voice broke. freewebnovel.com

it all made sense

the fake Naylani and protect Enzo from the chaos-it wasn't about vengeance alone. It was the fastest way he could think of to end it all. He had wanted to destroy the ghost of Naylani

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

his life touched. He didn't aim to rewrite

never said it, clearly remembered everything—and

truth late, chose redemption,

But Zoren?

one who, upon remembering everything... immediately thought of ending it

Why?

existence itself was a mistake.

he'd come to terms with it, Penny knew...

It wasn't that simple.

the tears-not for Nathalie's cruelty, but for the fact that her husband had endured it

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

came from him-but helplessness

wife

to terms

[Short Flashback]

quiet. Yet, in a remote mansion far removed from civilization, the sound of gunfire echoed

the estate,

pupils dilated slowly, his breath halting as he stared at the

say?" he breathed out, not

the cement

to believe he had everything, only to find out none of

know how Naylani reacted when I told her the child she used to sing lullabies to...

between them, her smile

just like yours," she said. "Until they burned.

so brightly