Chapter 4: The Missing Child

The waiting room became completely still.

Sebastian looked through the glass wall at the intensive care unit.

The infant lay beneath a warming blanket, surrounded by machines.

He had held that child on the day of his birth.

He had named him Alexander.

He had promised to protect him.

Biology did not change those promises.

But someone had lied.

Sebastian turned to Isabella.

“Whose child is he?”

She shook her head.

“The doctor is wrong.”

“The blood test is not wrong.”

“Then the records are.”

Detective Brooks stepped closer.

“Mrs. Vance, where did you give birth?”

“Vance Medical Center.”

“Which was closed for renovations that week,” Sebastian said slowly.

Isabella stared at him.

He remembered now.

She had claimed she went into labor unexpectedly at the family’s private clinic. Sebastian had been in Singapore negotiating a merger.

By the time his plane landed, the baby had already been born.

Only Isabella, Thomas, and one private physician had been present.

Dr. Adrian Cole.

The physician had retired and disappeared from public life a month later.

Sebastian looked at Thomas.

“You arranged everything.”

Thomas said nothing.

Detective Brooks checked her phone.

“Mr. Harland, sit down.”

“I am not under arrest.”

“You will be if you walk out.”

He sat.

Sebastian moved toward Isabella.

“Did you lose our baby?”

Her face changed.

The hardness vanished.

For the first time, she looked frightened rather than angry.

“Sebastian—”

“Did our child die?”

She began to cry.

Not elegantly.

Not quietly.

Her body folded as if something inside her had finally broken.

“I tried,” she whispered.

Sebastian felt the floor disappear beneath him.

“What happened?”

Isabella pressed both hands to her mouth.

“The baby was born too early.”

“Our baby?”

“A boy.”

Sebastian closed his eyes.

She continued through shallow breaths.

“He lived for eleven minutes.”

Maya turned away, tears filling her eyes.

Sebastian’s voice cracked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because your father told me exactly what would happen if I failed.”

“My father was dead.”

“He told me before he died. He said the Vance family needed an heir. He said a wife who could not continue the family line was temporary.”

Sebastian stepped back.

“That was not his decision.”

“But you were never there!” Isabella shouted.

The waiting room fell silent.

“You were always on a plane, in a meeting, building your empire. I was alone in that clinic with a dead baby in my arms and your father’s voice in my head.”

Sebastian looked toward Thomas.

“What did you do?”

Thomas rubbed a hand across his face.

“There was another baby.”

Detective Brooks’ expression sharpened.

“Explain.”

“A young woman gave birth at a county hospital the same night. She had no insurance, no family support, and no stable home.”

“You bought her child?” Maya asked.

Thomas shook his head.

“No. Dr. Cole arranged it.”

“That is not an answer,” the detective said.

Thomas looked at Isabella.

She stared at the floor.

Sebastian understood.

“The mother did not agree.”

No one spoke.

Detective Brooks stepped closer to Thomas.

“Was the baby abducted?”

Thomas’s composure finally cracked.

“Dr. Cole said the mother had abandoned him.”

“Did you verify that?”

“No.”

The detective turned toward the nurses’ station.

“I need officers at every exit.”

Isabella grabbed Sebastian’s arm.

“I love Alexander.”

He looked at her hand until she released him.

“Then why was there a sedative in his bottle?”

“I wasn’t trying to hurt him.”

“You poured it in.”

“He had been crying for hours. The gala was starting. Reporters were downstairs. I only used a small amount.”

Maya stared at her.

“You drugged a two-month-old baby to keep him quiet for photographs.”

Isabella shook her head violently.

“Thomas told me it was safe.”

Thomas stood.

“That is a lie.”

“You gave it to me!”

“I told you never to use it on the child.”

Detective Brooks raised her voice.

“Both of you, stop.”

Sebastian looked through the glass again.

Alexander’s tiny chest rose and fell.

He was alive.

But somewhere, another mother might have spent two months believing her baby was dead.

The detective’s phone rang.

She answered, listened, then looked at Sebastian.

“The hospital located the original birth file.”

“And?”

“The mother’s name is Claire Bennett.”

Maya made a strange sound.

Everyone turned toward her.

She gripped the back of a chair.

“What did you say?”

“Claire Bennett.”

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