Chapter 669

Naomi said nothing more. She walked to her unit, pushed open the apartment door, and stepped inside. Before closing it, she noticed Liu still standing in the hallway, watching until the door was fully shut and locked.

The room was small, cramped, and far from comfortable, yet tonight it felt like the only place left that still made sense to her. Naomi set her bag on the table, then leaned back against the door with her eyes closed.

Her head had been throbbing for hours. Too much had happened in a single day. An old name had resurfaced. The symbol she had hidden for years had been seen by others. And most unsettling of all… someone still knew her father.

Cale Miller.

Naomi walked slowly to the tiny kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. Her hand trembled enough that some of it spilled across the table. She let out a long breath.

“Calm down,” she murmured to herself, though her body refused to listen. “Don’t think too much.”

Uncle Yiyang had mentioned that name a few times before. Always briefly. Always carefully.

If one day you truly have nowhere left to turn, find Cale Miller.

Back then, Naomi had been too young and far too stubborn to care. After her uncle’s death, after the news that her entire family had been wiped out in a single night, she had rejected every name tied to the past. She refused to ask questions, refused to search for who might still be left, refused even to hope.

Because hope meant reopening wounds that had never truly healed.

She sat on the edge of her narrow bed, staring at the wall where the paint had begun to peel. “Why now?” she whispered. “Why low, after I worked so hard to forget everything?”

There was no answer except the low hum of the old refrigerator in the corner.

Naomi opened the drawer beside her bed and took out the strip of worn cloth she usually used to cover her left wrist. Slowly, she intied it. Under the dim light, the symbol on her skin appeared faint but unmistakable. Circular lines, sharp edges, a mark she had never truly been able to ignore. She brushed her fingertips over it, then quickly wrapped it again.

‘I hate you,” she murmured, though even she didn’t know whether she meant the mark… or the fate bound to it.

Her whole body felt exhausted. All she wanted was a shower, darkness, and a few hours to forget this day had ever happened. Naomi stood, shrugged off her jacket, and had barely taken two steps toward the bathroom when a violent crash struck the front joor.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Naomi froze.

A second later, the pounding came again, rougher this time, more urgent.

“Open the door!”

A man’s voice.

And not just one.

Her breath caught instantly in her throat. She stepped back slowly, staring at the door as if she could somehow see through the

thin wood.

“Naomi! We know you’re in there!”

Her heart slammed so hard her ears rang. No one called her name here. No one was supposed to know she lived in this

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apartment.

The pounding turned into full-force blows.

“Open up now, or we break it down!”

Naomi spun toward the small window beside the kitchen. Third floor. Too high to jump.

Her hand shot toward the phone on the table, nearly knocking it to the floor from how badly she was shaking. Her fingers scrambled for the business card Liu had just given her.

BANG!

The door rattled on its hinges.

Holding her breath, Naomi dialed the number with trembling fingers.

Outside, another man’s voice rang out, colder than the rest.

“If she won’t open it, we go in.”