The Hidden heir’s revenge

CHAPTER 12 THE MAN WHO KILLED HIS OWN FATHER

For three seconds, Varek forgot how to breathe.

Adrian stood across from him with a pistol in his trembling hand.

“I killed Cassian Vale,” Adrian repeated.

The words echoed through the underground archive.

Varek stared at the man he had hated for most of his life. The man who had stolen his inheritance, ordered his death, and spent years making sure he remained beneath the Thorne family’s shadow.

“You killed my father?”

Adrian’s jaw tightened.

“I didn’t know he was your father.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Yes!” Adrian shouted. “I killed him!”

Varek lunged forward.

Adrian immediately raised the pistol.

“Don’t move!”

Varek stopped, his eyes burning with fury.

“You’re pointing a gun at me after admitting you murdered my father?”

“I don’t want to shoot you.”

“Then put it down.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

Adrian’s eyes shifted toward the computer screen behind Varek. The vault’s red warning lights continued flashing, illuminating the photographs of three newborn boys scattered across the desk.

“Because if I put this gun down,” Adrian whispered, “you’ll kill me before I finish telling you the truth.”

Varek’s fists clenched.

“Start talking.”

Adrian swallowed hard.

“Six years ago, Richard sent me to meet a man at an abandoned property outside the city. He told me the man was trying to destroy the Thorne family and that I needed to deal with him before he exposed our secrets.”

“Cassian Vale.”

“I didn’t know his name. I was told he was a traitor who had stolen money from the family.”

“And you believed Richard?”

“I was twenty-three, Varek. Richard had raised me. He controlled my life, my money, and every piece of information I had about my own birth. I thought I was protecting my family.”

“You murdered a man because someone told you to?”

Adrian flinched.

“I know what I did.”

“No, you don’t.” Varek stepped closer. “You don’t know what it feels like to spend your entire life believing you belong to a family, only to discover that the people who raised you built their wealth on lies. You don’t know what it feels like to learn that your mother was buried while you were still a child, only to discover that she was alive and being hunted because of a secret you were never allowed to know.”

His voice cracked with anger.

“And now you’re telling me that you killed the only man who might have explained who I really am?”

Adrian lowered his eyes.

“I found out the truth two days ago.”

Varek went still.

“What truth?”

“That Cassian Vale was connected to the three boys. I found an old file in Richard’s private office. It contained photographs, hospital records, and a report about the night Cassian died.”

“Show me.”

Adrian reached slowly into his jacket with his free hand.

“Don’t,” Varek warned.

“It’s a document.”

“Use two fingers. Slowly.”

Adrian obeyed. He pulled out a folded sheet of paper and tossed it onto the desk between them.

Varek glanced at the pistol before picking up the document.

The report was old, its edges yellowed. At the top was a date.

Six years earlier.

Below it was a photograph of a man lying beside a black vehicle. His face was partly obscured by blood, but the name beneath the image was unmistakable.

CASSIAN VALE.

Varek’s stomach tightened.

He continued reading.

The report stated that Cassian had died from a gunshot wound. The official investigation had concluded that the death resulted from a confrontation with an unidentified attacker.

But someone had added a handwritten note at the bottom.

THE BODY WAS NEVER IDENTIFIED THROUGH DNA.

Varek read the sentence twice.

Then he looked up.

“You said you killed Cassian. How did you know this was him?”

Adrian’s expression changed.

“I saw his face.”

“Did you see his face after he died?”

“No.”

“Did you identify the body?”

“No.”

“Did you attend his funeral?”

Adrian hesitated.

“No.”

Varek looked back at the report.

“Then what exactly did you kill?”

Adrian’s hand tightened around the gun.

“I shot the man who was standing in front of me. He told me he was Cassian Vale.”

“And you believed him?”

“He knew things only Cassian could have known.”

“Such as?”

Adrian opened his mouth but said nothing.

Varek leaned forward.

“Such as what, Adrian?”

“He knew about the hospital. He knew about the three boys. He knew that Richard had changed our identities.”

“Our identities?”

Adrian’s face had gone pale.

“I didn’t understand it then. I thought he was trying to blackmail Richard. He kept calling me by another name.”

“Which name?”

Adrian looked at the computer screen.

“Damian.”

The lights flickered.

Somewhere deep inside the vault, a mechanical lock clicked.

Varek turned toward the sound.

A new message appeared on the screen.

IDENTITY CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.

Beneath it were three names.

VAREK VALE.

ADRIAN THORNE.

DAMIAN MERCER.

A fourth line appeared.

ONE IDENTITY IS STILL ACTIVE.

Varek stared at the screen.

“Naomi needs to see this.”

He reached for his phone, but the device had no signal.

Adrian let out a bitter laugh.

“There’s no signal down here. This archive was built to operate independently of the outside world.”

“Then we’ll leave.”

“We can’t.”

Varek turned sharply.

“What do you mean?”

Adrian nodded toward the vault door.

“When we entered, the system recognized your fingerprint and opened the first level. When I used the silver key, it activated the second level. But after my fingerprint was rejected, the system sealed the passage.”

Varek hurried to the door and pressed his palm against the scanner.

Nothing happened.

He tried the silver key.

A red light flashed.

ACCESS DENIED.

“Sebastian can open it,” Adrian said.

“Then call him.”

“I already tried.”

Varek turned around.

Adrian was no longer looking at him.

He was staring at the computer screen with an expression that made Varek’s anger briefly give way to suspicion.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Adrian slowly lowered the pistol.

“When I shot that man, he gave me something before he died.”

“What?”

“A name.”

Varek waited.

Adrian’s lips parted.

“He told me that if I ever met the boy who survived, I should tell him that his father hadn’t died alone.”

Varek felt the blood drain from his face.

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“Stop lying!”

“I’m not lying!” Adrian shouted. “He was bleeding. He could barely speak. He grabbed my wrist and told me there was another person in the room when he died.”

“Who?”

“He said the person had been standing behind me the entire time.”

Varek glanced around the archive.

The room was empty except for the two of them.

“Did you see anyone?”

“No. I searched the entire property after I left. There was nobody there.”

“Then why didn’t you tell Richard?”

“Because I found this in my car the next morning.”

Adrian reached into his jacket again and produced a small photograph.

He placed it on the desk.

Varek picked it up.

The picture showed a man standing in a hospital corridor. He wore a dark suit and held a black umbrella despite being indoors.

His face was turned toward the camera.

Sebastian Blackstone.

Varek’s stomach dropped.

On the back of the photograph, someone had written a message in red ink.

THE THIRD BOY MUST NEVER REMEMBER.

Varek looked at Adrian.

“Where did you get this?”

“It was placed on my passenger seat. I didn’t know who had taken it. I kept it because I thought it might help me identify the person who was there that night.”

“You knew Sebastian was involved?”

“I suspected him. I didn’t know what he was hiding.”

“And you waited six years to tell me?”

“I didn’t know you were the boy he was talking about!”

Adrian’s voice broke.

“I spent six years believing I had killed a dangerous man who threatened my family. Then, two days ago, Richard showed me a photograph of you as a child. He told me you were never supposed to survive.”

Varek froze.

“Richard said that?”

“He told me your real identity was Varek Vale. He said you were the reason everything had gone wrong.”

Varek looked down at the photograph of Sebastian.

For the first time, he wondered whether the billionaire who had helped him rebuild his life had been protecting him from the Thorne family—or protecting the Thorne family’s secrets from him.

A sharp sound came from the computer.

The screen went black.

Then a live video appeared.

Sebastian Blackstone sat in a dimly lit room, his face unusually pale. Behind him stood two armed men.

“Varek,” Sebastian said, his voice distorted through the speakers. “If you’re watching this, the archive has entered its final security phase.”

Varek stepped toward the screen.

“Open the door.”

“I can’t.”

“Don’t lie to me, Sebastian.”

“I’m not lying. The system was designed by your grandfather. It will only release the vault when the third identity is confirmed.”

“Then tell me who the third heir is!”

Sebastian closed his eyes briefly.

“I wanted to tell you when the time was right.”

“The time is now!”

A muscle tightened in Sebastian’s jaw.

“Adrian is not the only person who has been living under a false name.”

Varek turned toward Adrian.

Adrian looked genuinely confused.

Sebastian continued.

“Six years ago, the man Adrian shot was taken from the property by someone who arrived before the police. The body was never recovered because there was no body left to identify.”

Varek’s heartbeat accelerated.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that the man Adrian believed he killed may not have died that night.”

Adrian staggered backward.

“No. I saw him fall.”

“You saw a man fall,” Sebastian replied. “That is not the same thing.”

Varek gripped the edge of the desk.

“Where is Cassian Vale?”

Sebastian looked directly into the camera.

“Ask the person who has been calling your mother.”

Varek’s blood turned cold.

“My mother is in the hospital.”

“Then you need to get there immediately.”

The video glitched.

Before the screen went dark, Sebastian leaned closer to the camera.

“One more thing, Varek. Do not trust the name on the hospital records. The person lying in that bed may not be Eleanor.”

The screen went black.

For several seconds, neither man moved.

Then Varek’s phone vibrated.

The sudden sound made both of them turn.

His signal had returned.

One new message appeared from an unknown number.

It contained a photograph of a hospital room.

A woman lay unconscious in the bed, her face hidden beneath an oxygen mask.

Varek recognized the bracelet around her wrist.

It belonged to Eleanor.

Beneath the photograph was a message.

YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO KILLED YOUR FATHER?

Another message arrived.

COME TO ROOM 317. COME ALONE.

Then a third.

AND BRING THE MAN WHO ALREADY KILLED HIM ONCE.

Varek slowly raised his eyes toward Adrian.

Adrian was staring at the phone.

For the first time since their confrontation began, genuine terror filled his face.

Because the final message contained a name.

Not Varek’s.

Not Adrian’s.

DAMIAN MERCER.

And beneath it was a photograph of Adrian as a child, standing beside a woman neither man had ever seen before.

The woman was holding a newborn baby.

On the back of the photograph, in handwriting that looked exactly like Eleanor’s, were six words.

THIS IS THE SON I NEVER LOST.