When His Perfect Mask Shattered I Awoke (Anneliese and Zacharias) novel Chapter 671

Gianna kept thinking about calling Adrian, but every time she picked up the phone, she froze and never actually dialed the number.

Everything that used to baffle her suddenly fell into place. Wendy's coldness finally made sense in that moment.

So, it's not that Mom only cares about her career after the divorce and doesn't care about me. It's that I'm not her biological daughter at all. Then, who am I?

Gianna ended up calling Pepper after all.

She just had this feeling that Pepper would know the truth.

…

When Pepper got the call, she rushed to the bar, only to find a row of empty glasses in front of Gianna.

She was slumped over the counter, her hair spilling over her face like a curtain.

Pepper's heart twisted at the sight of her like that. She hurried over and gently lifted her. "Gianna? How did you drink all this? Didn't I tell you to wait for me?"

"Aunt Pepper… am I really not Mom's daughter?" Gianna clutched Pepper's arm, her eyes red and raw.

Pepper glanced at the bartender behind the counter before helping Gianna to her feet. "Come with me. Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."

…

She guided Gianna out of the bar and up to a hotel upstairs.

Once inside a room, she wrung out a towel and wiped Gianna's face before sitting down beside her. "Gianna, you really aren't Wendy's biological daughter."

Gianna had already kind of accepted it, but hearing it said out loud with that certainty still made her feel absurd and lost. She stared at Pepper. "So… I'm a b*stard?"

Is it because Adrian cheated and has an illegitimate daughter that Wendy divorced him? Then, where did her own child go?

Gianna had always carried herself with pride. She had grown up believing she was the Malones' golden girl, the one everyone adored and protected.

Steven, her full-blooded brother, had a future that looked limitless as the head of the Air Traffic Control Committee.

Instead, Gianna's reaction was the complete opposite. "Don't touch me." She snapped, shaking her head. "How could I possibly be your daughter?"

She kept shaking her head, utterly unable to accept the reality in front of her.

I do remember thinking, more than once, that I wished Pepper were my mother. But that was only because I had always believed Wendy was my real mom.

Even if Wendy is distant and never particularly warm with me, I still would not trade her for a mother who cannot offer me anything beyond comfort and emotional safety. Compared to having a mother who controls a business empire, I do not want someone who cannot support me in terms of status or material power.

Next to a woman like Wendy, who has real name recognition in the international bridal and fashion industries, Pepper simply does not measure up. She relies on the Malones and runs a dozen or so chain clothing stores. The gap between them is enormous.

And there is something even worse. If I am Pepper's daughter, then what does that make her relationship with Adrian? That would be incest. I would rather be nothing more than an illegitimate child than live with something like that.

"You and my dad… How could you even…" Gianna shook her head, looking completely pale.

Seeing the misunderstanding, Pepper rushed to explain. "No, Gianna. Your birth father is someone else. You are not Adrian's daughter. Back then…" She was about to tell Gianna the truth about what had happened all those years ago.

However, the moment Gianna realized she was never Adrian's daughter at all, that she had nothing to do with the Malones, she completely fell apart.