Reese Zhao had t various people in life as a military man. He had t a wife murdering her abusive husband by poisoning him, a notorious serial killer going out late at night using his taxi to pick up vulnerable young girls - only to kill them out of entertainnt and boredom, a teen who stole food because she was starving for a few days, and even a soldier who had just returned from war and was suffering from trauma.
Reese could understand all of it, but in his eyes, this niece of his was unfathomable. Although her expression was gentle, he could distinctly feel her indifference. Only a few eighteen-year-old won would wear the bearing displayed by Adrienne Jiang.
Indeed, she resembled his older sister so much, but Adrienne was different from her mother. She was smiling, yet, it didn’t quite reach her eyes, and there were no cracks on her expression.
"What brings you here then, Adrienne?" He heard his father ask. "Did your mother ask you to co here?"
Adrienne cocked her head to one side. "Mister Zhao, how could a person who has been in a coma for two years give such an order?"
"What did you just say?!" The old man’s outburst made everyone shiver in fear, except for Adrienne. He hit the small table before him, feeling the news ripping his chest apart. He was wrong. He shouldn’t have hardened his heart to his daughter. He imdiately regretted chasing Rosemary away when she ca with her newborn daughter eighteen years ago.
"Mister Zhao must not have known because you refuse to hear any news about my mother and the Jiang family. Indeed, my mother was involved in a car accident two years ago, and my father suddenly remarried. Did you think they parted on mutual terms and had gotten divorced? That’s not the case at all. It wasn’t even a month since my mother fell into a coma when my father insisted the doctors declare her clinically dead so he could marry his mistress. I’m not sure what thod he used, but he was able to marry his mistress and brought her into our household."
Reese had been trembling in rage from where he was seated. He wanted nothing more than to find the bastard who hurt and bullied his elder sister. He should have made more effort to stop her from marrying that bastard.
But he knew... he also knew they were at fault for this. Because his father was stubborn, he refused to have anything to do with the daughter who disobeyed him. No one had dared to say her na or utter the news of the Jiang family in this household, and he, Reese himself, had mostly been away and hadn’t heard such detailed news from anyone.
If anything, he could only follow his sister’s social dia account and silently check the photos Rosemary uploaded. It was how he knew what Adrienne looked like from when she was born until she reached middle school. Reese had been certain that Adrienne would grow up into a stunning beauty like her mother, but he never expected that the warm and cheerful girl his sister gave birth to would beco a cold beauty instead.
It had been more than twenty years since Rosemary left the Zhao estate, but neither party had moved to patch up things between them. He had failed to convince his sister back then, and he was upset with Rosemary’s decision to marry and his father’s indifferent treatnt of her, so he packed up his things and signed up to join the military.
"Even if your father remarried, it wouldn’t change the fact that your elder brother, Cayden, would inherit everything in your household. Did you co here because his new family threatened your position?"
Adrienne let out a cold laugh, enough for anyone to hear and sense her indifference and hatred.
"Cayden Jiang is my father’s firstborn, that is true, but Grandpa Jiang has nad to beco the successor instead, do you know why? This is because Cayden Jiang isn’t my mother’s child, but a son my father had with his current wife. When my mother was grieving after giving birth to a stillbirth son, leaving her heartbroken, my father brought Cayden ho and confessed his affair to her. He convinced her to take the child in and raised Cayden with the promise of never seeing his mistress again. The sa mistress he is married to now and lives in my mother’s house."
Hearing her words only added fuel to the fire. Even Uncle Mo, who accompanied Adrienne, was left speechless hearing the truth from her.
Adrienne then lowered her gaze, hiding the murderous intent in her eyes from her elders. She would have killed her father in his sleep if she had been in her mother’s shoes.
"I’ve used my money to cover my mother’s hospital bills and have reached rock bottom." She admitted.
Reese then understood why Adrienne had lowered her pride and sought them this ti. She must have been desperate to keep her mother on life support.
"But I didn’t co here to revive our relationship. I ca here to make a deal with you, Mister Zhao." Adrienne suddenly said, breaking Reese from his trance. Then he noticed that Adrienne had kept a distance between herself and the Zhao family by not acknowledging them as her grandfather and uncle.
"What deal?" His father sowhat cooled down, and Reese could sense his simring anger in his tone.
"The person who you’ve been looking for for many years. I know where to find her." Adrienne answered before pulling out a small piece of paper folded in half from her purse. "In return, please intervene and transfer my mother to another hospital with tighter security. Before I reached out to you, I discovered that Camilla and Cayden had bribed one of the nurses to keep my mother in a coma. This is why I had an enmity against my father that can never be appeased in this lifeti. I could only hope Mister Zhao will be sympathetic enough to accept this deal."
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