The rain blurred the road as Helen drove, the image of Sebastian holding the baby burned behind her eyes. She didn't cry. She couldn't. Her heart wasn't broken—it was suspended. Caught between memory and betrayal. Between love and fear.
Yet beneath the cracks of doubt, love still pulsed. A defiant ember refusing to die.He had lied. But not everything was a lie.
Helen replayed Eliza's words over and over: "He was a child. By the time he understood, it was too late."
That didn't excuse secrets. But it explained the silence.
Still, the video haunted her.
Katherine Voss is Alive.The baby in Sebastian's arms.And the pain in his eyes—real. Raw. But what did it mean?
---
The Next Morning
Helen visited a private OB-GYN to review her old fertility records—something had always nagged her.
And then came the shock.
The doctor looked at her with quiet concern. "Helen, did you know… Steven's sperm count was non-viable for years. He couldn't have fathered a child. Not naturally."
Helen's breath caught.
"What?"
"He had a genetic condition. It was noted in his chart. I assumed you knew."
The room spun.
Steven had always blamed her for their infertility. The pills. The stress. The "bad timing."
But it was him.
All those years of shame—manufactured.
Helen left the clinic in silence.
Steven had lied about everything. Even biology.
And that lie raised a darker question: Why now?
---
Meanwhile…
Jennifer watched the rain from her penthouse window. Steven paced behind her, panicked.
"She's getting too close," he hissed. "That fertility report? If she digs any deeper—"
Jennifer lit a cigarette. "Then we give her something bigger to look at. Misdirection, dear brother. She's a woman in love—she wants to believe Sebastian's the villain."
"She doesn't fully believe it anymore."
Jennifer smiled darkly. "Then we make the lie feel more like the truth."
---
Back at the Beach Cottage
Helen found a package on her doorstep.
No note.
Inside: A manila envelope filled with surveillance photos of Sebastian. At Katherine's house. Entering. Leaving. Holding the baby.
The timestamps?
All within the last month.
A second envelope—audio.
Helen played it on her phone.
Sebastian's voice: "I had to protect you, Kat. Helen wouldn't understand. Not yet."
Katherine: "She deserves the truth."
Sebastian: "She can't know. Not until this is over."
Helen nearly dropped the phone.
Not until what is over?
---
That Night
Sebastian returned. Wet, exhausted, and covered in bruises.
"Helen," he said, stepping inside, "I can explain."
She didn't yell. Didn't run.
She just looked at him.
Quiet.
Devastated.
"Who is that baby, Sebastian?"
His jaw tightened. "Not mine."
"And Katherine?"
"She was never a lover. She was a witness. My father paid her off years ago after she uncovered something… damning."
He stepped closer.
"She faked her death to stay safe. I helped. I've been helping her. Because she's the key to unraveling all of this—the Whitaker ledger, the offshore network. If Jennifer finds her, she'll kill her."
Helen wanted to believe him. But every truth came wrapped in half-lies.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because if anything happened to you—if they came after you the way they came after her—I'd never forgive myself."
He reached for her hand.
She let him.
But her eyes stayed guarded.
"Then tell me the rest. Everything. No more secrets."
He nodded.
And for the next two hours, he told her.
About Katherine. About the ledger. About the offshore banks tied to Jennifer. About Eliza's betrayal—how she had once tried to kill their father and failed. How Jennifer had weaponized that against them both.
About his real name: Sebastian Holt. How he changed it after faking his own death in a boating accident staged to escape the Whitaker empire.
He told her everything.
---
Meanwhile…
Jennifer met with the judge in Helen's custody case. Money changed hands. Promises were made.
"She's unstable," Jennifer purred. "We have her psychiatric evaluation. Her disappearing act. Her involvement with a known criminal."
The judge hesitated. "It's circumstantial."
Jennifer smiled. "Not when I give you a direct witness."
She turned.
Vivian stepped into the room.
And behind her?
Anita and Isabella.
All three looked ashamed—but resigned.
Jennifer placed a hand on Vivian's shoulder.
"They were there when Helen confessed her fear. When she said she wasn't sure who the father really was."
The judge's eyes narrowed.
"File the order. We'll take the child within 48 hours."
Back at the cottage, Helen received a message from Claire, the former PI.
Claire: I ran the voice analysis from the audio you got.
Helen: And?
Claire: It was faked. Synthesized. The voice was cloned. It wasn't Sebastian.
Helen dropped the phone.
She'd almost walked away from him—because of Jennifer's AI-forged evidence.
She ran outside.Sebastian was gone.
And on the porch:A photo.Her baby.In Jennifer's arms.
Scrawled across the back:"Tick tock, Helen. Time to choose: Love, or blood."