Adrian was willing to raise her, but that was entirely his business and had nothing to do with her.


    She thought that even if her own daughter had still been alive, she would never have wanted such a selfish and cold father.


    Her daughter wouldn''t have cared about being the eldest heiress of the Malone family either!


    She epted that Gianna held the status of the Malone family''s eldest heiress, but


    she could never give Gianna a mother''s love. She simply could not do it.


    "Mom..." Gianna''s eyes turned red, her voice trembling as she looked heartbreakingly hurt.


    But Wendy just sighed. "You''d better call me Aunt."


    She hadn''t been able to reach Gianna by phone yesterday, so she had already asked someone to look into it. She knew that after leaving her ce, Gianna had gone to meet her younger sister, Pepper.


    Gianna was devastated. She threw herself down at Wendy''s feet, wrapped her arms around her leg, pressed her face against it, and silently let her tears fall as she cried with real emotion.


    "No! You''re my mother. I''ve called you Mom since I was little. Mom, are you not going to want me anymore?"


    She and Pepper had already discussed it and decided to keep things the same for


    now.


    After all, Wendy was no ordinary woman. After the divorce, Steven was set to inherit everything from the Malone family.


    In that case, the huge business empire Wendy had worked so hard to build for so many years needed an heir as well, and a wedding-dress empire was obviously more suitable for a girl like Gianna to inherit.


    More importantly, everyone in their social circle already assumed this. People all believed that Wendy''s high-end Nuaine brand would one day belong to Gianna.


    That was why Gianna could be so highly regarded in elite society.


    Pepper didn''t mind Gianna still calling Wendy her mother. Wendy, however, simply gave her a tissue and pulled her leg back.


    "Gianna, I''ve only got one daughter."


    Gianna''s tears had already soaked through the velvet skirt at Wendy''s knees. She thought she had finally moved her. She never expected Wendy to be this hard- hearted and ruthless.


    Once again, Gianna felt like a joke—a pathetic stand-in desperately clinging on, only to still be rejected and pushed away.


    She clenched the tissue tightly, wiping her tears as she hid the burning humiliation and rage in her eyes.


    She slowly stood up, her eyes red as she looked at Wendy. "If you don''t want me to call you that, I''ll respect your decision. But in my heart, you''ll always be my mother."


    She sounded heartbroken. After saying that, she turned and ran out.


    Wendy smoothed her wrinkled skirt, then her gaze fell on the pregnancy test report in front of her. She sat there for a long time.


    It wasn''t until a small hand rested on the hand she had ced on her knee that she snapped out of it. She lowered her head to find Ellie.


    Ellie was wearing a green dinosaur


    onesie as she stood beside the older


    woman holding her hand with her tiny fingers. She tilted her small face up, quietly looking at her.


    The little girl couldn''t speak, but her big eyes seemed to be filled with worry.


    Wendy smiled and lifted Ellie onto herp. She smiled as she said, "Ellie, do you like Ms. Anneliese? Shall we give her a call?"


    Yesterday Adrian mentioned that Anneliese treated Ellie differently but because of what happened to the pregnancy report, Wendy had been in a terrible mood and hadn''t had time to think about that.


    Now that she was holding Ellie, for some reason, she wanted to talk to Anneliese.


    Ellie stared at her with wide eyes, looking a bit confused, as if she didn''t know who this Ms. Anneliese was.


    Wendy gently tapped her little nose andughed. "Ms. Anneliese is the prettydy we met at the dessert shop yesterday."


    Ellie''s eyes brightened, but she turned away.


    Just when Wendy thought she wasn''t interested, and that Adrian had once again exaggerated, Ellie suddenly grabbed the phone from the table and shoved it into Wendy''s hand.


    Her little granddaughter was urging her to hurry up and call Anneliese. Wendy froze for a moment.


    Ellie rarely showed such a strong emotional reaction.


    Smiling, she opened WhatsApp, found Anneliese''s number, andunched a video call.


    At that moment, Anneliese had already arrived at the hospital and was massaging her grandma''s leg in her ward.


    The olddy''s leg had cramped earlier that morning. When the phone rang, Anneliese said, "Could you help me answer that, Grandma?"


    Her grandma moved her leg. "Let''s stop here. The cramp is long gone. I''m tired, so you answer it yourself..."


    Anneliese pressed her leg down gently. "You need to loosen the musclepletely. Don''t waste all the work I''ve done. Come on, answer it!"


    Her grandmother had no choice but to pick up the phone and answer the call.


    She never expected a chubby little face to suddenly pop up on the screen.