The Hidden heir’s revenge

CHAPTER 15 THE FATHER STANDING BEHIND HIM

Varek turned slowly.

Adrian stood in the doorway, his face drained of color.

Behind him, Sebastian Blackstone watched in complete silence.

For one terrifying moment, nobody moved.

Then Varek looked at Daniel Mercer.

“Say that again.”

Daniel struggled to breathe. A nurse rushed toward him, but he seized Varek’s wrist.

“Your father is the man standing behind you.”

Varek’s eyes shifted toward Adrian.

“No,” he whispered.

Daniel’s fingers tightened.

“You have to listen to me. The Thorne family didn’t just steal your identity. They made you believe the wrong man was your enemy.”

Varek stepped away from the bed.

“Are you telling me Adrian is my biological father?”

Daniel opened his mouth.

Sebastian spoke first.

“Daniel, you’re confused. You’ve been missing for six years. You’ve been drugged, imprisoned, and threatened. You cannot possibly remember everything clearly.”

Daniel’s face twisted with fury.

“You still think you can control what people know?”

Sebastian approached the bed.

“I’m trying to keep everyone safe.”

“Safe?” Daniel laughed weakly. “You call this safety? You let them switch the babies. You let them erase names. You let a boy grow up believing his father was a monster.”

Sebastian stopped.

Varek watched him carefully.

For the first time since their partnership began, the billionaire looked genuinely afraid.

“Tell me the truth,” Varek demanded.

Sebastian turned toward him.

“Not here.”

“I’m done hearing those words.”

“Varek, there are things you need to understand before you make a decision that cannot be reversed.”

“You’ve had every opportunity to explain. You chose to lie.”

“I chose to protect you.”

“From what?”

Sebastian glanced at Adrian.

“From the truth about your birth.”

Varek let out a bitter laugh.

“Apparently, the truth is that my greatest enemy is my father.”

Adrian finally spoke.

“I didn’t know.”

Varek turned on him.

“Daniel says you already knew.”

“I didn’t know you were my son.”

“Then what did you recognize?”

Adrian’s mouth opened, but no answer came.

Varek stepped closer.

“Six years ago, you murdered Cassian Vale. You told me the man gave you a name before he died. You told me you thought he was a traitor. Now Daniel says you’re my father, and you’re standing there as if you have known something all along.”

Adrian looked down.

“I knew there was something wrong with my identity.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“I found documents in Richard’s office three years ago. They suggested I wasn’t his biological son.”

“And you did nothing?”

“I confronted him. He told me the records were forged.”

“You believed him?”

“I wanted to believe him.”

Varek stared at him.

Adrian’s voice dropped.

“Richard was the only father I had ever known. He raised me to believe I was his heir. He taught me how to run the company, how to negotiate, how to destroy anyone who threatened our family. If I admitted that he had lied about my birth, I would have had to question everything he had ever taught me.”

“So you ignored the evidence.”

“Yes.”

“And you kept trying to destroy me.”

Adrian’s eyes filled with shame.

“Yes.”

The honesty unsettled Varek more than another lie would have.

Before he could respond, Daniel began coughing violently.

The monitor beside the bed beeped faster.

A doctor rushed into the room.

“Everyone out! We need to stabilize him.”

Varek reluctantly released Daniel’s hand.

As the medical team surrounded the bed, Sebastian caught Varek’s arm and pulled him into the corridor.

“Come with me.”

Varek jerked free.

“Touch me again, and you’ll regret it.”

Sebastian looked at him for a long moment.

Then he nodded.

“You have every right to hate me.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“No. Adrian is not your biological father.”

Varek froze.

“Daniel just said—”

“Daniel is trying to tell you something he doesn’t fully understand.”

“Then explain it.”

Sebastian glanced toward the treatment room.

“Not here.”

Varek’s anger erupted.

“You keep saying that! Every time I ask a question, you hide behind another secret. My mother is missing. Cassian may still be alive. Richard is manipulating everyone. And now you expect me to trust you because you claim to be protecting me?”

Sebastian’s expression hardened.

“I never asked you to trust me blindly.”

“You made sure I had no reason to question you.”

For the first time, Sebastian had no immediate response.

Varek took out his phone.

“I’m calling Naomi. She’ll investigate your records, your companies, your finances, and every person who has ever worked for you.”

“Good.”

Varek frowned.

“What?”

“Investigate everything.”

Sebastian reached into his jacket and produced a small black key.

“Your grandfather left this for you. I should have given it to you earlier.”

Varek didn’t take it.

“What does it open?”

“The Blackstone family vault.”

“And what will I find inside?”

“The original birth agreements. The records of the three children. And the truth about why your grandfather separated them.”

“Why didn’t you give it to me before?”

“Because the vault can only be opened by someone whose identity has been verified by all three family bloodlines.”

Varek stared at the key.

“You’re telling me I need Adrian and Damian?”

“Adrian has now been confirmed as Damian Mercer. The third identity is still missing.”

Varek’s eyes narrowed.

“What third identity?”

Sebastian lowered his voice.

“The identity of the child your grandfather recorded as his final heir.”

Varek felt a chill move through him.

“Another child?”

“No.”

Sebastian looked directly into his eyes.

“You.”

Varek stared at him.

“That’s impossible. The record says there were three boys.”

“There were.”

“And now you’re saying I’m a fourth?”

“No. I’m saying your grandfather created a fourth identity for one of the three boys.”

Varek’s mind raced.

“Which boy?”

Sebastian didn’t answer.

Varek snatched the key from his hand.

“I’m going to find out myself.”

He turned to leave.

“Varek.”

He stopped but didn’t look back.

Sebastian’s voice softened.

“Your mother is alive.”

Varek turned sharply.

“How do you know?”

“Because I spoke to her tonight.”

The corridor seemed to tilt.

“Where is she?”

Sebastian hesitated.

“I don’t know where she is now.”

Varek grabbed the front of his suit.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I spoke to her before she was moved. She told me you were coming to the hospital. She wanted me to stop you from entering the archive.”

“Why?”

“Because she knew what you would find.”

Varek’s grip tightened.

“What did she tell you?”

Sebastian looked at him with something resembling grief.

“She said that if you ever learned the truth about your father, you would destroy the wrong man.”

Varek released him.

Then he walked away.

⸻

Twenty minutes later, Varek sat in the back of a car while Naomi’s voice came through his phone.

“I’ve reviewed the birth register,” she said. “There are multiple inconsistencies.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Fine. I found a financial transfer made on the same day as your birth. Your grandfather transferred a substantial sum to an account registered to a woman named Mara Mercer.”

Varek looked through the window.

“The woman who approached us at the hospital?”

“Yes. The payment continued for eighteen years. Then it stopped abruptly.”

“Why?”

“Because Mara Mercer was officially declared dead.”

Varek sat up.

“She was standing right in front of me.”

“According to government records, she died in a car accident eighteen years ago.”

“Who identified the body?”

“Richard Thorne.”

Varek closed his eyes.

“Of course.”

Naomi continued.

“There’s more. Mara wasn’t the only person whose death was recorded. Daniel Mercer was declared dead six years ago. Cassian Vale was also declared dead around the same period, but the records contain no verified DNA confirmation.”

“So everyone who could expose the truth was officially dead.”

“Exactly.”

Varek looked down at the black key.

“Can you find the Blackstone vault?”

“I’m trying. Sebastian owns several properties, but there’s one location that stands out. An old estate outside the city, registered under a company that hasn’t filed taxes in twelve years.”

“Send me the address.”

“Varek, wait. There’s something else.”

“What?”

“I found an encrypted file attached to the original birth register. It contains a recording from the night you were born.”

Varek’s heartbeat accelerated.

“Can you play it?”

“I’ve managed to extract a few seconds.”

A video appeared on his screen.

The image was grainy, showing a hospital room filled with shadows. A woman lay in a bed. Three men stood beside her.

Richard Thorne.

Cassian Vale.

Sebastian Blackstone.

A fourth person remained near the door, his face obscured.

The woman in the bed was Eleanor.

She was holding a newborn.

Richard spoke first.

“Which one are we keeping?”

Cassian replied, “We agreed. The child belongs with his biological family.”

Sebastian shook his head.

“If we do that, all three children will be in danger.”

“Then we separate them,” Richard said. “One will inherit the Thorne fortune. One will disappear. And the last will carry a name that no one can trace.”

Eleanor began crying.

“You promised me you would never separate my children.”

Richard turned toward her.

“You should have thought about that before you agreed to the arrangement.”

The video glitched.

A loud crash sounded from somewhere outside the room.

Then a man’s voice spoke from behind the camera.

“It’s too late. He already knows.”

The recording ended.

Varek stared at the screen.

“Who is the man behind the camera?”

“I don’t know,” Naomi replied. “But I extracted one more frame.”

She sent another image.

It showed the unidentified man standing beside the hospital bed.

His face was finally visible.

Varek’s breath caught.

He knew that face.

He had seen it in the family portraits, in the photographs from the archive, and in the documents that had supposedly proved the man was dead.

His grandfather.

The Thorne patriarch.

The man who had died twelve years earlier.

Varek stared at the photograph.

“Naomi, this is impossible.”

“Why?”

“Because my grandfather was dead when I was a teenager.”

“Then explain how he was standing in a hospital room twenty-nine years ago.”

Varek looked again.

The date on the recording was correct.

Twenty-nine years earlier.

His grandfather should have been alive then.

But the man in the video looked younger than the photographs taken at his funeral, as though the official records of his life had been manipulated too.

Varek swallowed.

“Find everything you can about his death.”

“I will.”

“And Naomi?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t tell anyone what you’ve found.”

“I won’t.”

He ended the call.

Then he looked at the address she had sent.

The Blackstone estate.

He instructed the driver to change direction.

⸻

The estate stood behind tall iron gates, surrounded by trees and an enormous stone wall.

It was older than the Thorne mansion, its windows dark and its gardens overgrown.

Varek used the black key to open the side entrance.

Inside, dust covered the furniture. Portraits of the Blackstone family lined the walls.

He moved through the house until he reached a staircase descending into darkness.

At the bottom stood a steel door.

A small screen illuminated as he approached.

WELCOME, VAREK BLACKSTONE.

Varek inserted the key.

The lock clicked.

The door opened.

Inside was a room filled with documents, photographs, and locked cabinets. At the center stood a large table holding three sealed envelopes.

Each bore a name.

VAREK VALE.

DAMIAN MERCER.

THE THIRD HEIR.

Varek opened the first envelope.

Inside was a birth certificate confirming his original name.

The second contained a document identifying Adrian as Damian Mercer.

He opened the third.

It contained a single photograph.

A young woman stood beside a hospital bed, holding a newborn boy.

Varek recognized the woman immediately.

Eleanor.

But the man standing beside her wasn’t Richard, Cassian, or Sebastian.

It was Adrian.

Younger, perhaps twenty years old, but unmistakably Adrian.

Varek stared at the photograph.

The date printed on the back was impossible.

It had been taken before Adrian was born.

Beneath the date, someone had written a message.

THE THIRD HEIR IS NOT A BROTHER. HE IS THE FATHER.

Varek’s phone rang.

An unknown number.

He answered.

A man’s voice spoke.

“Now you understand why your family has been lying to you.”

Varek gripped the phone.

“Who is this?”

The man laughed softly.

“Someone who watched you grow up believing you were a Thorne.”

“Tell me your name.”

“You already know it.”

Varek’s blood turned cold.

The voice belonged to his grandfather.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for you to open that vault, Varek.”

Varek could barely speak.

“You’re dead.”

“That’s what they wanted you to believe.”

A pause.

Then his grandfather delivered the words that shattered the last certainty Varek had left.

“Your father isn’t Adrian. Your father isn’t Sebastian. And Cassian Vale wasn’t the man you think he was.”

Varek stared at the photograph.

“Then who is my father?”

His grandfather’s answer came quietly.

“The man who ordered your mother’s death.”

The call ended.

A second later, every light in the vault went out.

And from somewhere behind him, a familiar voice whispered:

“Hello, son.”