The Hidden heir’s revenge

CHAPTER 14 THE HEIR WITH TWO FATHERS

Varek Blackstone.

The name stared back at Varek from the hospital record.

For several seconds, he couldn’t move.

His entire life had been built around the name Varek Thorne. Then he had discovered Varek Vale, the identity his family had buried beneath forged documents and stolen inheritance.

Now a third name had appeared.

Varek Blackstone.

And according to the document, Sebastian Blackstone was his father.

“No,” Varek whispered.

Adrian stood beside him, staring at the screen.

“This has to be fake.”

Varek barely heard him.

He enlarged the image, examining the date, the hospital stamp, and the signatures at the bottom. The document appeared authentic, but authenticity meant little when his entire history had been manufactured.

He called Naomi.

She answered immediately.

“Did you see it?”

“Yes. Tell me what I’m looking at.”

“An original birth register from St. Catherine’s Hospital. I found it inside an encrypted archive connected to the old hospital system. The scan is incomplete, but the record number matches several documents we already recovered.”

“Is it real?”

“The record appears genuine. The names may have been altered later, but the original entry hasn’t been conclusively verified.”

Varek closed his eyes.

“Who is Varek Blackstone?”

“That’s what I’m trying to establish.”

“Naomi, Sebastian has been standing beside me since this began. He helped me survive an assassination attempt. He helped me recover my inheritance. He told me he promised my grandfather to protect three boys.”

“I know.”

“He never told me he could be my father.”

“Then you need to ask him.”

Varek looked at the photograph of Richard and Sebastian standing beside his mother’s hospital bed.

“I think he’s been lying to me from the beginning.”

Naomi was silent for a moment.

“There’s something else.”

“What?”

“The birth register contains a second entry. It was added years later, after the original record had been sealed.”

Varek’s pulse quickened.

“What does it say?”

“It lists Varek Vale as deceased.”

“That was the identity they used to bury me.”

“There’s a problem. The death entry was authorized using a signature that appears on several of Sebastian Blackstone’s financial documents.”

Varek stared at the phone.

“Are you saying Sebastian signed my death certificate?”

“I’m saying his signature appears on the record. I haven’t established who actually signed it or whether the document was forged.”

Varek ended the call without saying goodbye.

Adrian watched him.

“You need to calm down.”

Varek turned on him.

“Don’t tell me to calm down.”

“I’m not your enemy.”

“You murdered a man who might have been my father. Your identity opens a vault designed for three heirs. A photograph says you were a baby beside a woman neither of us knows. Now a hospital record says Sebastian is my father.”

He stepped closer.

“And you want me to believe you know nothing?”

Adrian’s face hardened.

“What do you want me to say? That I remember being a baby? That I remember which woman gave birth to me? I don’t remember any of it, Varek!”

“Then help me find the truth.”

“I’ve been trying to!”

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of an engine.

A black SUV rolled slowly into the parking lot.

Neither man had heard it approach.

The rear window lowered.

A woman sat inside, wearing a dark coat and oversized sunglasses.

She looked directly at Varek.

“Get in,” she said.

Varek reached for his weapon.

“Who are you?”

“Someone who can tell you why your name is Varek Blackstone.”

“Then talk.”

“Not here.”

Adrian moved between Varek and the vehicle.

“We’re not going anywhere with a stranger.”

The woman removed her sunglasses.

Varek recognized her immediately.

It was the woman from the photograph of the three newborns.

Older now, with silver strands in her dark hair, but unmistakably the same woman.

She looked at Adrian.

“Damian.”

Adrian went rigid.

The woman began to cry.

“My son.”

Adrian took a step backward.

“No.”

She opened the SUV door.

“Please. I’ve spent twenty-nine years looking for you.”

Varek watched Adrian’s expression collapse.

“Who are you?” Adrian demanded.

The woman pressed a trembling hand to her chest.

“My name is Mara Mercer.”

She looked at Varek.

“And I am the woman who gave birth to the boy your family called Damian Mercer.”

Adrian shook his head violently.

“That’s impossible. My mother died when I was young.”

“Your mother was never your mother.”

The words struck him harder than a physical blow.

Mara reached into her handbag and produced an old photograph.

It showed a younger version of herself holding a newborn baby.

The silver bracelet was around his wrist.

The same bracelet Adrian had found in the hospital.

“Your name was Damian Mercer,” she whispered. “Your father was Daniel Mercer. He disappeared before you were born. After you were delivered, men came to the hospital and told me you had died.”

Adrian stared at her.

“Who told you that?”

“Richard Thorne.”

Varek’s eyes narrowed.

“Why would Richard take her child?”

Mara looked at him with an expression that mixed fear and pity.

“Because Richard wasn’t trying to steal one child. He was trying to control all three.”

She turned toward Adrian.

“You were the child Cassian wanted to protect. Varek was the child Richard wanted to control. And the third boy…”

She stopped.

Varek stepped closer.

“What about the third boy?”

Mara’s eyes filled with tears.

“The third boy was never supposed to exist.”

A cold silence settled over the parking lot.

Adrian looked at the birth record again.

“Then who is Varek Blackstone?”

Mara slowly turned toward Varek.

“You are.”

Varek felt as if the ground had shifted beneath his feet.

“Explain.”

“Twenty-nine years ago, Eleanor gave birth to a boy. I gave birth to another. A third child was delivered that same night, but his birth was kept secret. The men involved agreed that the children would be separated, their identities changed, and their lives controlled by people who owed allegiance to your grandfather.”

“Why?”

“Your grandfather had enemies. He believed one of his sons would destroy the family from within. He wanted heirs he could control, children who could be placed in different households and raised without knowing their true connections.”

Varek’s jaw tightened.

“My grandfather turned children into pieces on a chessboard?”

“Yes.”

“And Sebastian?”

Mara looked away.

“He was there when the arrangements were made.”

“Was he my father?”

“I don’t know.”

Varek stared at her.

“You just told me I was Varek Blackstone.”

“I told you that was the name on the original record. I didn’t say the record was correct.”

“Then why did you come here?”

“Because someone is killing everyone who knows what happened that night.”

A faint sound came from inside the SUV.

Mara flinched.

Varek immediately looked toward the vehicle.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

He moved toward the rear door.

Mara grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t.”

Varek pulled free.

He opened the door.

A man lay across the back seat, his hands bound and his mouth covered with tape.

Varek recognized him from the photographs in the underground archive.

Daniel Mercer.

The man officially recorded as dead six years earlier.

Adrian stared at the unconscious figure.

“That’s impossible.”

Mara’s face had gone pale.

“He wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Varek leaned into the vehicle and checked the man’s pulse.

Alive.

Barely.

“Call an ambulance,” he ordered Adrian.

Adrian pulled out his phone.

Mara suddenly grabbed Varek’s arm again.

“Listen to me. You cannot let him wake up here.”

“Why?”

“Because if Daniel Mercer wakes up, he will tell you who really killed Cassian.”

Varek turned toward her.

“You said Daniel was your son’s father.”

“He was.”

“And you said Richard told you your child was dead.”

“He did.”

“Then what does Daniel know?”

Mara’s eyes darted toward the entrance of the parking lot.

“Everything.”

A gunshot shattered the silence.

The SUV’s rear window exploded.

Varek threw himself over the man in the back seat as glass rained across them.

Adrian dragged Mara behind a concrete pillar.

Another shot struck the vehicle.

“Sniper!” Adrian shouted.

Varek pulled the unconscious man out of the SUV and dragged him toward cover.

A third bullet struck the ground beside his hand.

He looked toward the rooftop of the hospital.

A shadow moved behind a ventilation structure.

Varek raised his weapon and fired twice.

The shadow disappeared.

“Get him inside!” Varek shouted.

Adrian helped him carry Daniel through the hospital’s emergency entrance. Mara followed, clutching her handbag to her chest.

Hospital staff rushed toward them.

“Someone call security!” a nurse screamed.

Varek placed Daniel on a trolley.

“Get a doctor. He’s been drugged, and he has a head injury.”

A physician hurried over and began examining him.

“We need to take him to the trauma unit.”

“I’m coming with him.”

The doctor blocked Varek’s path.

“Only medical personnel can enter.”

Varek pulled out his identification.

“Then make an exception.”

The doctor stared at the document, recognized the name, and stepped aside.

Within minutes, Daniel was wheeled into the treatment area.

Adrian remained beside Mara in the corridor.

Varek turned toward her.

“Tell me the truth. Is Daniel my father?”

Mara shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“Is Sebastian?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then what do you know?”

She reached into her handbag and produced a small envelope.

“I was instructed to give this to the surviving Blackstone heir if I ever found him.”

Varek took it.

The envelope was addressed in his grandfather’s handwriting.

TO THE SON WHO WAS NEVER MEANT TO INHERIT.

Inside was a single page.

Varek read the first line.

If you are reading this, then Sebastian has failed to keep his promise, Richard has broken our agreement, and at least one of my three heirs has learned the truth.

He continued.

The fortune belongs to the child whose identity was erased. But the child whose identity was stolen is the only one who can claim it.

At the bottom was a final sentence.

Do not trust the man who tells you he is your father.

Varek lowered the paper.

Mara was watching him.

“Your grandfather knew this day would come,” she whispered.

Before Varek could respond, the treatment room doors opened.

A nurse hurried out.

“Which one of you is Varek Thorne?”

“I am.”

“Your patient is awake.”

Varek moved toward the door.

The nurse grabbed his arm.

“There’s something you need to know first.”

“What?”

She looked at Adrian, then at Mara.

“The patient is asking for his son.”

Varek stepped inside.

Daniel Mercer lay on the bed with an oxygen mask covering his face. His eyes were open, but his body trembled with exhaustion.

When he saw Varek, he tried to sit up.

Varek approached him.

“Who are you?”

Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.

“You look just like him.”

“Like whom?”

“Your father.”

Varek’s heart pounded.

“Who is my father?”

Daniel gripped his wrist with surprising strength.

“Listen to me. You have been looking at the wrong man.”

“Tell me his name.”

Daniel glanced toward the doorway.

His expression changed.

Terror flooded his face.

“He’s here.”

Varek turned.

Sebastian Blackstone stood in the doorway, his face unreadable.

Daniel began struggling against the bed.

“No! Keep him away from me!”

Sebastian took one step forward.

Daniel ripped the oxygen mask from his face.

“Varek, don’t trust him!”

Sebastian’s security men rushed into the room.

Daniel grabbed Varek’s sleeve and pulled him close.

Then he whispered the words that shattered everything Varek thought he knew.

“Sebastian isn’t your father.”

Varek stared at him.

Daniel’s trembling finger pointed toward Adrian.

“Your father is the man standing behind you.”

Varek slowly turned.

Adrian stood frozen in the doorway.

And for the first time in his life, he looked at Varek with something worse than hatred.

Recognition.

Because Adrian already knew.