The Homeless Boy with His Eyes

Chapter 2: The Hidden Hospital Record

Sebastian took Lily and Ethan to a private room at a nearby cafe.

Lily sat close to Ethan as if they had known each other much longer than ten minutes. She kept asking simple questions. Did he like chocolate? Could he ride a bike? Had he really slept in a shelter? Ethan answered carefully, still unsure if any of this was real.

Sebastian called his family lawyer, then his doctor, then his house manager and said he would be late coming home.

After that, he sat across from Ethan. "Tell me everything your mother told you."

Ethan nodded. "She said my real father had blue eyes. She said he wasn't bad. If I ever found him, I should show him the photo before asking questions."

"Did she tell you where she got it?"

"No."

"Did she say anything else?"

Ethan thought for a moment. "She said I was born in Saint Agnes Hospital. And she said I had a sister."

Lily gasped.

Sebastian closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he asked, "Did your mother ever explain why she kept you away from me?"

Ethan looked ashamed. "She said she didn't steal me. She said she saved me."

Those words stayed in the room.

An hour later, Sebastian brought both children to his house. He did not care what people would say. He did not care that the servants stared or that his housekeeper looked alarmed.

He put Ethan in a guest room beside Lily's old nursery and told the staff clearly, "He is not to leave this house with anyone. Not for any reason."

Then he took Lily upstairs and checked the birthmark on her shoulder again.

Still there.

Same shape.

Same curve.

Almost the same place as Ethan's.

By evening, his doctor arrived and took cheek swabs from Sebastian, Lily, and Ethan. The DNA results would take at least a day.

But Sebastian could not wait.

He drove straight to Saint Agnes Hospital.

The hospital had changed, but the records office was still in the basement. He showed his name, his identification, and enough authority to make people nervous. After twenty minutes, an elderly clerk brought out Claire's delivery file.

Sebastian opened it with shaking hands.

The front page listed a complicated twin birth.

Twin birth.

Not single birth.

He stopped breathing for a second.

Further down, the page had been altered. One section was missing. Another had been replaced. There was a note that Twin B had been transferred under emergency instruction, but the doctor's signature had been blacked out.

"Who had access to this file?" Sebastian asked.

The records clerk frowned. "Very few people. Your family requested sealed handling back then."

"My family?"

The woman nodded. "Your mother signed the authorization."

Sebastian stared at the page.

His mother, Evelyn Cole, had handled everything after Claire died. She had told him not to torture himself with paperwork. She said grief would kill him faster than truth ever could.

Now he wondered what truth she had kept from him.

As he left the records room, an old nurse passing in the hallway glanced at the open file in his hand.

She stopped walking.

Then she looked up at Sebastian with wide eyes.

"You were told only one baby lived, weren't you?"