A Woman Worth Billions Dated the Wrong Brother novel Chapter 374

Amber POV

Rose stood behind the microphone with Iris's hand still wrapped around hers.

The room remained completely silent. A few minutes earlier, reporters had been throwing questions at Mr. Stait faster than he could acknowledge them. Now, no one seemed willing to interrupt the little girl standing before them.

Rose looked toward me briefly.

I smiled at her.

She turned back to the cameras.

"I didn't have a name either. Not a real one. Not one that belonged to me."

A murmur moved through the room, but Rose continued.

"I know people call me Rose Becker now because Becker is the family I was born into, but when I lived there, nobody treated me like I was their daughter. I wasn't given an education. I didn't go to school. I didn't have teachers or classes. Nobody cared if I learned to read properly or if I knew the things other children my age knew."

Her voice was soft, but every microphone in front of her carried it across the room.

"I didn't know that wasn't normal because it was the only life I knew."

My fingers tightened around Jason's.

Rose took a small breath before continuing.

"I was hungry a lot. Sometimes Iris found food for me. Sometimes she gave me some of hers, even though she didn't have enough either."

Iris looked down.

"When Amber and Jason found me, I was severely malnourished."

The room shifted.

This time, the whispers were louder.

Rose looked toward us again.

"I didn't know what that word meant then. I just knew I was always tired. I was weak. I was hungry, and sometimes I thought I was going to fall asleep and..."

She hesitated.

"...not wake up."

My eyes burned.

I remembered finding her.

How small she'd been.

How fragile.

How frighteningly easy it had been to see the evidence of neglect on her body.

"I wasn't sure I was going to live," Rose admitted.

Then she turned toward Iris.

"But I did because of her."

Iris immediately shook her head.

Rose didn't let her deny it.

"You kept me alive."

Tears slipped down Iris's cheeks.

"You fed me when you were hungry too. You stayed with me when I was scared. You took care of me when you were only a kid yourself."

Rose's voice broke.

"You didn't have anything to give me, but you still thought about me."

Iris covered her mouth.

"Thank you for keeping me alive all those years."

That broke whatever composure Iris had left.

She pulled Rose into her arms.

For several seconds, the press conference stopped mattering. There were no powerful families, no criminal investigations, no Vincents or Beckers.

There were only two girls holding each other.

One had been a child trying to keep a baby alive when nobody had protected either of them.

The other had survived long enough to thank her.

When they separated, Rose wiped her face and returned to the microphone.

Her expression changed.

"And to the woman who says she's my mother..."

The room became completely still.

"If you wanted to be my mother, you had the chance."

I held my breath.

"You knew I was there. You lived in the same place I did. But you never claimed me as your daughter when I was living there."

Rose's voice trembled, but she didn't stop.

"So you don't get to claim me now because people are watching."

There it was.

Not an argument between lawyers.

Not a custody statement prepared by adults.

A child drawing her own boundary.

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