Chapter 689
“Why not?” Naomi demanded, unable to hide the indignation in her voice. “They were my parents. Why can’t I visit their graves?”
Cale took a slow step toward her while Naomi continued glaring at him.
The photo frame was still in her hands as the atmosphere in the room tightened even further. Her fingers trembled, not because her body had yet to fully recover, but because too many things had crashed into her at once.
A picture of her family had been kept inside someone else’s house. A moment of happiness preserved on glossy paper, enclosed in an old frame, showing a family that had once smiled without shadows. Beside her mother stood a little girl, no more than three years old, grinning brightly and adding even more warmth to the scene.
“Answer me,” Naomi said softly, though her voice shook with sharp emotion. “Why is my family photo here?”
Cale did not reply immediately. He walked a few more steps inside, then calmly shut the door behind him.
“Put the frame down first.”
“No.” Naomi instantly hid the photograph behind her back. “This should belong to me, shouldn’t it?”
“Miss Naomi,” Liu’s voice came from the hallway. Apparently, he had remained nearby. “Please be careful. The frame is very
old.”
Naomi turned sharply toward the door. “And Mr. Liu knew this was an old family photo too?”
Liu fell silent.
“How impressive,” Naomi continued bitterly. “Everyone knows something about my life except me.”
Cale cast Liu a brief look. “Leave.”
“Yes, sir.”
But before Liu could fully step away, hurried footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor. Lydia appeared in a thin night robe, her loose hair slightly disheveled, clearly having rushed out of her room after hearing the commotion.
“What’s going on?” she asked, looking from face to face inside the room. “Why do you all look like you’re about to attack each other?”
Naomi lifted the framed photograph. “Because apparently a portrait of my family has been sitting in your house.”
Lydia stepped closer and looked at it. Her brows immediately drew together. “I’ve never seen this one before.”
“You overlooked a few details,” Cale said flatly.
Lydia turned to him sharply. “Did I?” She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, then paused. “…Actually, that does seem true. I hardly ever come to this house. Besides, you were the one who told me this was only a temporary place to stay, remember?”
A faint smile touched Cale’s lips. He moved closer to Lydia and gently stroked the top of her head. “You’re right.”
Naomi rolled her eyes in annoyance. Not out of jealousy over their intimacy, but because surely this was not the moment for them to be acting like that while she stood there clutching questions in her hands.
She drew in a shaky breath, trying to hold back the tears beginning to rise.
“Ever since you told me about the tattoo on my hand and the one on yours, I’ve been certain you knew my family well, Mr. Miller. I know uncle Yuyang would never have brought me to a stranger. But I had no idea how much was being hidden from me, or how far it all went.”
She looked straight at Cale.
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“Now I want answers.”
No one interrupted her.
+25 Bonus
“Ever since Uncle Yuyang took me away, the only news I had about my family came through phone calls. Sometimes through letters. Sometimes through stories he brought back with him. After everything ended, I didn’t even know which parts were true and which were lies. Then after years of Uncle Yuyang never visiting again, I finally learned that my whole family was gone.”
Naomi’s voice grew softer and softer, yet somehow that only made it hurt more.
“Were you really one of my father’s most trusted men?” she asked. “Were you there on their last day? What actually happened? Those questions have haunted me for so long.”
Lydia turned to Cale. In her gaze was a silent plea, urging him to tell Naomi the real truth, not just scraps of it. Naomi deserved to know what had happened.