Chapter 780

“Besides, Mrs. Meylani loved you more than your other sisters.” His voice remained calm, but there was unmistakable weight behind every word. “She entrusted you to me. Chairman Devereux always respected his wife’s wishes and… I couldn’t reject the wishes of the people who became my role models.”

Naomi looked visibly uncomfortable hearing that, while Lydia tried hard to keep her expression composed. There was no point asking how she felt anymore. Everything that had happened this morning had left her mind overwhelmed. Never once had she imagined something like this could exist in her marriage.

“And at the time, I was chosen to protect the entire Devereux family empire until you were old enough to reclaim it yourself,” Cale continued. “Because you were the primary heir of the Devereux family. Not your older sister, Luxing Devereux.”

Shock instantly crossed Naomi’s face.

Meanwhile, Lydia sat quietly beside them, listening without interrupting even once, carefully absorbing every word coming out of Cale’s mouth.

“Back then,” Cale said slowly, “maybe I really did feel a stronger sense of responsibility toward a little girl named Naomi Devereux.”

His gaze softened slightly.

“You were hard not to notice. A lot of people wanted to get close to you, but you were incredibly selective.”

Naomi immediately remembered the photograph from earlier. The little girl crying while clinging tightly to Cale’s arm as though the world would end if he walked away from her.

“But after that incident…” Cale’s voice gradually lowered.

The look in his eyes shifted into something heavy with sorrow, carrying traces of profound loss and emotions he clearly still had not fully untangled even now.

“I had to accept the reality that you might never be found again.”

The room grew quieter than before.

Naomi slowly lowered her head. What Cale said was true. Even she never expected herself to survive, much less have fate drag her back toward the people from her past.

“After that, I lived my life the way I was supposed to.” Cale’s gaze slowly moved toward Lydia. “Even after all the losses I went through.”

And for the first time since entering this room, the look in his eyes truly changed. It softened completely, filled with affection and an overwhelming kind of love reserved only for one woman in his life.

“Until I met Lydia.”

Lydia silently looked back at her husband.

“I fell in love with her.”

The sentence was simple. But it sounded so honest that even Naomi fell silent listening to it.

“And when God brought me back to you again, Naomi,” Cale said as he looked at her calmly, “those feelings were already gone.”

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Without realizing it, Naomi let out a faint smile.

An overwhelming sense of relief spread through her chest hearing those words. They validated everything she had believed all along, that everything Cale had done for her came purely from his sense of responsibility toward the Devereux family. She did not feel hurt or disappointed at all because perhaps… that arrangement had only existed during childhood, in a distant past that had long since faded away.

Cale continued speaking.

“What remains now is responsibility. Because you are the Devereux family’s primary heir.” His gaze sharpened with seriousness. “The only one.”

His expression grew far more solemn.

“And my wish to see the Devereux family bloodline reclaim the power that has been in my hands all this time…” His voice was low but firm with conviction. “Will soon come true.”

A brief silence passed before he continued again.

“The true core of Chairman Devereux’s final wish was never simply about marriage. It was about Naomi marrying the right person and inheriting the authority currently under my control.”

“I don’t want it,” Naomi replied immediately. “I don’t understand anything related to the Devereux family. Besides, you’ve been managing everything all this time, Mr. Miller. I’m sure everything is perfectly fine under your leadership.”

Cale gave a faint smile. “You may think so, but do you think everyone else sees it the same way?”