The Hidden heir’s revenge

CHAPTER 8 THE TRAITOR STANDING BESIDE HIM

Varek didn’t move.

The nurse stood outside Eleanor’s hospital room, her fingers wrapped around the silver ring bearing the Thorne family crest.

She was young, perhaps thirty, with dark hair pulled tightly beneath her cap. Her uniform carried the hospital’s official insignia, but something about her expression made Varek’s instincts scream.

She wasn’t frightened.

She was waiting.

“Who are you?” Varek demanded.

The nurse lowered her hand.

“Someone who wants to help you.”

“Then explain why you’re holding a ring that belongs to a supposedly dead man.”

Her eyes flickered toward Sebastian.

It lasted less than a second, but Varek noticed.

“Security!” he shouted.

The nurse immediately turned and ran.

Two guards rushed toward her, but she overturned a medical trolley, sending instruments crashing across the corridor. While the guards struggled to get past it, she disappeared through the emergency stairwell.

Varek chased her.

“Varek, wait!” Sebastian shouted.

He ignored him.

The stairwell door slammed ahead of him.

Varek took the steps two at a time, his shoes pounding against the concrete. By the time he reached the ground floor, the nurse was already crossing the parking area.

A black motorcycle waited beside the perimeter fence.

She jumped onto it.

Varek reached the exit just as the engine roared to life.

“STOP!”

The rider looked over her shoulder.

For one brief moment, their eyes met.

Then she accelerated through the open gate.

Varek ran toward the road, but a passing truck blocked his view. By the time it had moved on, the motorcycle had vanished into the night.

He stood beside the road, breathing hard.

His phone vibrated.

An incoming message.

STOP CHASING SHADOWS. YOUR MOTHER ISN’T THE ONLY PERSON IN DANGER.

A second message followed.

CHECK YOUR OWN BLOOD.

Varek stared at the screen.

Then he turned and hurried back inside.

⸻

Sebastian was waiting near the surgical ward.

“She’s gone,” Varek said.

“I gathered that.”

“Get the security footage from every camera covering the parking lot.”

“Already ordered it.”

Varek grabbed his arm.

“Who else knew we were bringing my mother here?”

“Your security team. The medical staff. Me. You.”

“Naomi?”

“No. She doesn’t know which hospital we’re using.”

Varek released him.

“Then someone inside this building is working for Jonathan.”

“Possibly.”

“Or someone inside your security team.”

Sebastian’s expression darkened.

“Choose your next words carefully.”

“I’m not accusing you. I’m telling you that somebody knew exactly where we would be.”

Sebastian studied him, then nodded.

“You’re right. We’ll investigate everyone who had access to the transfer details.”

A doctor approached them.

“Mr. Thorne?”

Varek turned immediately.

“How is my mother?”

“She’s out of surgery. The bullet was removed successfully, and her condition is stable. She’s still unconscious, but we expect her to regain consciousness once the medication wears off.”

Relief washed through Varek so suddenly that he had to steady himself against the wall.

“Can I see her?”

“Briefly.”

Varek entered the room alone.

Eleanor lay beneath a white blanket, an intravenous line attached to her arm. Machines monitored her heartbeat, each steady beep reminding him that she was still alive.

He pulled a chair beside the bed.

For several minutes, he said nothing.

Then he took her hand.

“You disappeared for nineteen years,” he whispered. “You let me believe you were dead. You let me grow up thinking Richard was my father.”

His voice cracked.

“And now I find out that I don’t even know my real name.”

He looked at her face.

“I don’t know whether to forgive you or hate you.”

The monitor continued its steady rhythm.

Varek lowered his head.

“But I won’t let them take you away from me again.”

He was about to stand when he noticed something beneath her pillow.

A small white envelope.

He carefully removed it.

His name was written across the front in Eleanor’s handwriting.

FOR VAREK. OPEN ONLY WHEN YOU DISCOVER THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR BLOOD.

His heart began to race.

He glanced toward the door, then opened the envelope.

Inside was a folded letter and a small transparent pouch containing a lock of dark hair.

He unfolded the letter.

My son,

If you are reading this, then the people who tried to protect you have failed.

I need you to understand something before you begin searching for answers.

Blood does not always reveal the truth. Sometimes, it only reveals another lie.

The child you knew as Adrian was never supposed to inherit the Thorne name. Richard arranged his identity long before either of you understood what inheritance meant.

But there is another secret. One I have hidden even from Cassian.

You were not the only child I gave birth to.

Varek stopped reading.

He read the sentence again.

Then a third time.

His hands began to tremble.

Twenty-nine years ago, I gave birth to two boys. One was taken from me before I could hold him. I was told he had died, but I never believed it.

I spent years searching for him. Every lead ended in a lie. Every witness disappeared or changed their story.

Then, three months before my supposed death, I received a photograph.

The boy in that photograph was alive.

And he had your face.

Varek’s breathing became shallow.

He turned the page.

I don’t know whether the boy is Damian Mercer, Adrian Thorne, or someone else entirely. But I know one thing.

The man who raised you has spent his entire life hiding the existence of your brother.

If you want the truth, find the original birth registry beneath St. Catherine’s Hospital.

Do not trust copies.

Do not trust names.

And whatever happens, do not let Richard discover that you have this letter.

At the bottom, Eleanor had written one final sentence.

There is a reason your grandfather left his fortune to you, Varek. It has nothing to do with money.

He lowered the letter slowly.

A brother.

Another brother.

How many children had been hidden, renamed, or declared dead to protect the Thorne fortune?

He looked at the lock of hair inside the pouch.

Perhaps it belonged to the missing child.

Perhaps it was a clue.

Or perhaps it was another carefully prepared lie.

His phone rang.

Naomi.

“Varek, where are you?”

“At the hospital. My mother is stable.”

“Good. Listen carefully. I’ve recovered the original bank authorization file.”

“And?”

“The account holding the two hundred million dollars was created under your birth identity, but the account holder’s signature doesn’t match yours.”

“Whose signature does it match?”

“Richard Thorne’s.”

Varek’s jaw tightened.

“How much money remains in the account?”

“Almost all of it. But someone made a withdrawal an hour ago.”

“How much?”

“Fifty million dollars.”

Varek stood abruptly.

“Where did it go?”

Naomi hesitated.

“To an account registered under the name Eleanor Vale.”

Varek looked at his mother.

“That account belongs to my mother.”

“I know. But there’s something else. The money wasn’t transferred to a normal bank account. It was moved into a private trust.”

“Whose trust?”

Naomi’s voice dropped.

“Jonathan Thorne’s.”

Varek closed his eyes.

The man had stolen money from an account created before Varek was born, used his mother’s identity to move it, and was now demanding that Varek bring the black case to the family mausoleum.

This wasn’t merely revenge.

Jonathan was gathering the pieces of a plan that had been running for decades.

“Naomi, I need you to investigate St. Catherine’s Hospital. Find the original birth registry and tell me who had access to it.”

“I’ve already started. But Varek, you need to hear this.”

“What?”

“The hospital was demolished twelve years ago.”

He went still.

“Then how am I supposed to find the registry?”

“The records were transferred to a private archive before the demolition. I traced the archive’s ownership.”

“Who owns it?”

Naomi took a breath.

“Blackstone International.”

Varek slowly turned toward the door.

Sebastian stood in the corridor, speaking quietly to a security officer.

His powerful ally.

The man who had promised to help him uncover the truth.

The man who had known his grandfather.

The man who had repeatedly claimed he knew nothing about the missing child.

Varek ended the call and walked outside.

“Sebastian.”

Sebastian turned.

“How long have you known about St. Catherine’s Hospital?”

For the first time, Sebastian didn’t answer immediately.

Varek’s expression hardened.

“How long?”

Sebastian dismissed the security officer with a gesture.

Then he looked directly at Varek.

“Since the night your grandfather died.”

The words landed like a physical blow.

“You told me you didn’t know anything about my birth.”

“I told you I didn’t know the full truth.”

“You own the archive containing the original birth records.”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t think that was worth mentioning?”

Sebastian’s jaw tightened.

“Because the records aren’t safe.”

“From whom?”

“From everyone who wants the Thorne inheritance.”

Varek stepped closer.

“You have one chance to explain yourself.”

Sebastian looked toward Eleanor’s room before speaking.

“Your grandfather gave me the archive because he believed someone would eventually come looking for it. He made me promise that I would only release it when the rightful heir was ready.”

“And you decided that was you?”

“No. I decided that the rightful heir needed to survive long enough to understand what he was inheriting.”

Varek gave a humorless laugh.

“You keep talking about my inheritance as if it’s a gift.”

“It is a weapon.”

“Then tell me who the weapon is meant to destroy.”

Sebastian’s face grew grave.

“Jonathan Thorne.”

Silence settled between them.

Varek slowly reached into his pocket and removed the photograph of the mausoleum.

“He’s waiting for me at midnight.”

Sebastian’s expression changed.

“You’re not going.”

“I am.”

“Varek, listen to me. Jonathan isn’t the kind of man you can confront with anger and a gun.”

“Then perhaps I’ll confront him with the truth.”

Sebastian grabbed his arm.

“If Jonathan is alive, your grandfather’s death was never properly investigated. And if he survived, there’s a reason he stayed hidden.”

Varek pulled free.

“Then I’ll find out why.”

He walked away before Sebastian could stop him.

But as he reached the elevator, his phone vibrated again.

An unknown number.

One photograph.

A young man stood inside a dark room, his hands bound behind his back. His face was bruised, and his eyes were filled with terror.

Varek recognized him immediately.

It was Adrian Thorne.

A message appeared beneath the photograph.

YOU WANT TO KNOW WHICH BROTHER IS REALLY DEAD?

COME TO THE MAUSOLEUM AT MIDNIGHT.

Then another message arrived.

BRING THE BLACK CASE, OR YOUR BROTHER DIES BEFORE YOU LEARN HIS REAL NAME.