Chapter 8 - The Son Who Was Never Born
The recording stopped.
Nobody moved.
The warehouse suddenly felt smaller.
Colder.
Sebastian stared at the device in his hand.
The final sentence continued repeating inside his mind.
Because Sebastian Vale was never my son.
For years, his entire identity had been built on one fact.
He was Arthur Vale’s son.
The heir.
The successor.
The man who carried the Vale name.
But now a recording from the man who raised him was telling him something impossible.
Everything he believed about himself was a lie.
Lena looked at him.
She didn’t know what to say.
Because she understood that pain.
The feeling of discovering your entire life was built on something false.
She had felt it when she found out her mother might still be alive.
Now Sebastian was feeling it too.
"Sebastian."
He didn’t answer.
Daniel slowly stepped closer.
"Maybe the recording was altered."
Sebastian looked at him.
"No."
His voice was quiet.
"But we need to know why."
He played the recording again.
Arthur’s voice returned.
"If you are hearing this, then I am already gone."
Then the sentence.
"Sebastian Vale was never my son."
The recording ended.
Again.
Sebastian closed his eyes.
A memory appeared.
Not a clear one.
Just pieces.
A hospital.
A woman holding him.
A voice saying his name.
Not Sebastian.
Another name.
A name he couldn’t remember.
He opened his eyes.
"Lena."
She looked at him.
"What?"
"I need to ask you something."
She nodded.
"Anything."
"Did your mother ever talk about a child?"
Lena frowned.
"A child?"
"Another child."
She thought carefully.
"No."
A pause.
"She only ever talked about protecting me."
Sebastian looked away.
Protecting.
The same word everyone kept using.
But from what?
And from whom?
They returned to Bellhaven before sunrise.
Neither Sebastian nor Lena spoke during the drive.
Too many questions.
Too many secrets.
Too many missing pieces.
When they arrived, Daniel immediately secured the building.
But Sebastian didn’t go upstairs.
He went to the old basement.
The hidden room.
The place where everything began.
Lena followed him.
"You think there’s something else here."
Sebastian looked around.
"My father hid this room for a reason."
He opened the old files again.
This time, he wasn’t searching for Lena.
He was searching for himself.
Daniel scanned the documents.
After several minutes, he stopped.
"Sebastian."
Sebastian turned.
Daniel held an old folder.
"This was hidden behind the wall."
Inside was a birth certificate.
Sebastian took it.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
The name was not his.
The date was not the same.
The hospital was not the same.
His hands tightened.
"What is this?"
Daniel looked at the document.
"I don’t know."
Lena stepped closer.
"What does it say?"
Sebastian couldn’t answer.
Because the paper in his hand destroyed the last piece of certainty he had.
His real name.
The one written on the certificate.
Was different.
A name he had never heard.
A name Arthur Vale had erased.
Twenty years earlier.
Arthur Vale had not adopted him.
He had taken him.
The thought made Sebastian sick.
But the evidence was there.
The hidden records.
The altered documents.
The missing history.
Someone had rewritten his entire life.
The question was why.
Lena sat at the old desk.
She looked through the files.
Then she found something.
A letter.
Not from Arthur.
From her mother.
She opened it carefully.
The paper was fragile.
The handwriting was rushed.
Arthur, I know you think this is the only way.
Sebastian looked over.
Lena continued reading.
"But taking him away from his real family will not erase what happened."
Sebastian froze.
"Real family."
Lena looked at him.
The letter continued.
"The boy deserves to know who he is."
A silence filled the room.
Then the final line.
"But if Thomas finds out, he will kill both children."
Lena lowered the paper.
Both children.
Sebastian and Lena.
Two children.
One secret.
One enemy.
Sebastian spent the next hour trying to find answers.
He searched every database.
Every record.
Every connection.
Nothing.
It was like his original identity had never existed.
Someone had erased him.
Completely.
Then Daniel found something.
A forgotten hospital record.
Hidden under an old company archive.
"Sebastian."
He placed the record down.
"Your birth was recorded."
Sebastian looked at it.
"Where?"
Daniel pointed.
A small private hospital.
A hospital owned by the Vale Foundation.
The same place from Lena’s photograph.
Sebastian felt a cold feeling.
Everything led back there.
Lena noticed something.
"Look."
She pointed at the bottom of the document.
A signature.
A doctor.
The same doctor who signed her mother’s medical records.
Sebastian looked at the name.
Then his face changed.
"You know him?"
Lena shook her head.
"No."
But Sebastian did.
Not personally.
From his father’s files.
The doctor had disappeared fifteen years ago.
After investigating the Vale Foundation.
His name was connected to one unsolved case.
The night Sebastian’s identity changed.
That evening, Sebastian returned to his childhood home.
The Vale mansion.
The place where he grew up.
The place where he had learned everything.
But now every room felt unfamiliar.
His mother was waiting.
She knew immediately why he came.
"You found out."
Sebastian stopped.
Those three words answered everything.
"You knew."
His mother looked away.
"Sebastian."
"Don’t call me that."
The pain in his voice surprised her.
For the first time, she saw him not as the Vale heir.
Not as the powerful man everyone feared.
But as a son who wanted the truth.
"Who am I?"
She didn’t answer.
"Who am I?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"You are my son."
"That’s not what I asked."
Silence.
Then she whispered:
"Your father loved you."
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
"My father just told me I was never his son."
His mother closed her eyes.
"Arthur made a promise."
"To who?"
She looked toward the window.
"To your real father."
Sebastian froze.
"My real father?"
She nodded.
"He died trying to protect you."
The room became silent.
"Who was he?"
His mother looked at him.
And for the first time in years, she looked afraid.
"Someone Thomas Reed wanted erased."
Sebastian returned to Bellhaven with one goal.
Find Thomas.
But Thomas had disappeared.
Every location.
Every account.
Every contact.
Gone.
Then Lena found something.
A small envelope had been placed outside her room.
No name.
No address.
Only one sentence.
You deserve to know why your mother left.
Inside was a key.
And a note.
A single location.
The old Vale Foundation hospital.
The same place where everything began.
Sebastian held the key.
"We go tonight."
Lena nodded.
But before they could leave, Sebastian’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No voice.
Only a recording.
A child crying.
Then a man spoke.
"You’re finally looking in the right place."
Sebastian froze.
The voice continued.
"But you’re too late."
A pause.
Then:
"Because the person who knows the truth about your birth is already inside the hospital."
The call ended.
Sebastian looked at Lena.
Then at the location.
The old hospital.
A place abandoned for years.
A place where nobody should have been.
May you like
But when they arrived, the front door was already open.
And someone inside whispered Sebastian’s forgotten name...
