Chapter 4 - The File That Should Have Been Destroyed
The photograph fell from the file.
Sebastian caught it before it touched the floor.
For several seconds, he didn't move.
He just stared at the picture.
A teenage girl.
Dark hair.
The same eyes.
The same small birthmark near her left cheek that I had noticed on the baby bracelet photo.
A girl who looked like someone who had spent her entire life carrying a secret she never asked for.
"That's Lucia."
Sebastian said it like he was afraid the name would disappear if he spoke too loudly.
I looked at the photograph.
"How do you know?"
He didn't answer.
Because he didn't need to.
His face told me everything.
This wasn't a stranger.
This wasn't a coincidence.
This was the child he had been mourning for seventeen years.
Maria stepped closer.
Her face had gone pale.
"Someone found the file."
Sebastian slowly looked at her.
"Who had access?"
Nobody answered.
That was the problem.
Hospitals were built on trust.
Records.
Names.
Memories.
Every person who walked through these halls left behind a trace.
But someone had entered this restricted archive room and searched for one specific file.
Lucia.
Not a random patient.
Not an accident.
Her.
Sebastian walked inside.
I followed.
The room was small.
Old medical records filled every shelf.
Dust covered boxes that hadn't been opened in years.
The emergency lights above us flickered.
The atmosphere felt wrong.
Like we weren't discovering something.
Like we were being allowed to discover it.
Sebastian opened the file.
Inside were documents.
Birth records.
Medical notes.
Hospital reports.
But the first page made him stop.
I leaned closer.
The name at the top was different.
Not Lucia Moretti.
Not even Lucia.
It was another name.
A fake one.
"Why would someone change her name?"
I asked.
Sebastian didn't look away from the paper.
"To hide her."
Maria whispered.
"Or to control her."
The words made the room colder.
Sebastian turned the page.
There was a photograph attached.
A newborn baby.
The same baby from seventeen years ago.
But beneath it was something that made his hand tighten.
A signature.
A doctor's signature.
And beside it...
A note.
TRANSFER APPROVED.
I looked at Maria.
"Transfer?"
She closed her eyes.
"I told you someone inside the hospital helped them."
Sebastian looked at her.
"Who?"
Maria stayed silent.
His voice became sharper.
"Who?"
She looked afraid.
Not of him.
Of the answer.
"Dr. Adrian Vale."
The name meant nothing to me.
But Sebastian reacted immediately.
His expression changed.
"You said he was dead."
Maria nodded.
"He was supposed to be."
A long silence followed.
I felt like I was standing in the middle of a story where everyone knew the ending except me.
"Who is Dr. Vale?"
I asked.
Sebastian looked at the file.
"Someone who knew Lucia was alive before I did."
We took the file back to the NICU.
Not because it was safe.
Because Sebastian refused to leave Baby Boy Miller.
That surprised me.
After everything we had discovered, I expected him to disappear.
To chase answers.
To find Lucia.
To become the man everyone feared.
Instead, he returned to the chair beside the newborn.
He picked up the baby carefully.
Like nothing else mattered.
Like the entire world could collapse around him and he would still protect that child.
"You still think someone will come for him?"
I asked.
Sebastian looked down.
"I know someone will."
The certainty in his voice scared me.
"Then why stay?"
His eyes moved to the baby.
"Because leaving is how I lost her."
I didn't ask who.
I knew.
Lucia.
The baby sleeping against him wasn't Lucia.
But somehow, he was seeing seventeen years ago every time he looked down.
A second chance.
A promise.
A mistake he refused to repeat.
Maria sat across from us.
She looked older than she had an hour ago.
"There's something else you need to know."
Sebastian looked at her.
"What?"
"Lucia didn't disappear because someone kidnapped her."
The room became silent.
I looked between them.
"Then what happened?"
Maria took a deep breath.
"She ran."
Sebastian froze.
"Why?"
"Because she found out who she was."
His expression changed.
"Explain."
Maria looked at the baby.
"Lucia grew up believing her entire life was normal."
She paused.
"Until she found the bracelet."
Sebastian's hand stopped moving.
"The same bracelet?"
Maria nodded.
"She found records hidden by the people who raised her."
I felt a chill.
"She knew?"
"She knew someone had taken her."
Maria looked at Sebastian.
"And she knew you never stopped searching."
For the first time, Sebastian looked confused.
"Then why didn't she come to me?"
Maria didn't answer.
That answer hurt more than anything.
Because Sebastian already understood.
Someone had convinced Lucia that coming back to him was dangerous.
Someone had poisoned seventeen years of memories.
Someone had made a child believe the person trying to protect her was the person she needed to fear.
The next morning, hospital security reviewed every camera.
There was one person they couldn't identify.
The person who entered the archive.
The person who left the file.
The person who wanted Sebastian to find Lucia's records.
At 8:14 a.m., the security officer came into the NICU.
His face told us something was wrong.
"We found the person."
Sebastian stood immediately.
"Who?"
The officer placed a tablet on the table.
The footage played.
A woman walking through the hospital.
Black coat.
Dark hair.
Moving calmly.
Not hiding.
Not rushing.
Like she wanted to be seen.
The camera captured her face.
Maria covered her mouth.
Sebastian didn't move.
Because he knew her.
"Who is she?"
I whispered.
Nobody answered.
The woman stopped in front of the archive room.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then she smiled.
The officer paused the video.
"She left something behind."
He handed Sebastian an envelope.
No name.
No address.
Only one word written on the front.
FOR SEBASTIAN.
He opened it slowly.
Inside was a letter.
The handwriting was young.
Careful.
The first line made his entire body freeze.
I know you promised my mother you would protect me.
Sebastian stopped breathing.
I watched his eyes move across the page.
Then he whispered:
"Lucia."
The letter continued.
I know you searched for me.
I know you thought I was gone.
But there is something you don't know.
Sebastian's hand began shaking.
Maria looked away.
Like she already knew what came next.
He read the final sentence.
And the color disappeared from his face.
Because Lucia hadn't been running from the people who stole her.
She had been running from the person Sebastian trusted most.
The person who helped him search for her for seventeen years.
The letter ended with one name.
A name Sebastian never expected to see.
His own brother.
May you like
And beneath it was a single message:
"He knows where I am."
