Non nullable field of object created via reflection is null

I have next class structure:

class ExampleResponse(
    @SerializedName("status")
    val status: String
)

I am creating instance of this class via reflection:

fun convert(typeAdapterFactory: TypeAdapterFactory, gson: Gson): Optional<*> {
 return try {
            val genericTypeClassName = "com.example.package.ExampleResponse"
            val genericClass = Class.forName(genericTypeClassName)
            val genericTypeAdapter = gson.getDelegateAdapter(typeAdapterFactory, TypeToken.get(genericClass))
            val response = genericTypeAdapter.fromJson("{}")
            Optional.of(response)
        } catch (e: Exception) {
            Optional.empty<Any>()
        }
}

I am waiting that on the line genericTypeAdapter.fromJson("{}") it will throw exception, because status will be null. But I am receiving instance of ExampleResponse with null status field. I want to return Optional.empty() if status is null. How can I achieve this without checking fields? (checking field to non null is not acceptable because the real function is universal and I won't know what class I'll receive here).