Chapter 45: The Other Son

Andrei Sebastian would remember the night Alexander Vance came for Dominic for a very different reason than everyone else probably did.

By then, the circumstances themselves hardly mattered.

Dominic had created a situation serious enough to make Alexander believe he was in danger, apparently convinced that if nothing else worked, Alex’s concern for him still would.

And unfortunately, Dominic had been right about that much.

Alexander came.

Andrei remembered watching him that night and realizing he’d seen Alexander Vance angry plenty of times before.

Across negotiation tables. During difficult meetings. Even on the occasional day when someone apparently decided that wasting the Vance CEO’s time was an excellent career choice.

But that night had been different.

Alexander hadn’t looked angry.

He’d looked finished.

Even so, he came.

That was the part Andrei remembered most.

His half-brother had spent weeks feeding damaging stories to the media and attacking Alexander’s judgment, all while trying to drag Giovanni Mercer into a scandal that had never belonged to him.

Yet the moment Alexander received credible information suggesting Dominic might actually be in danger, none of that seemed to matter.

He simply came to make sure Dominic was safe.

Andrei could still remember the moment Alexander turned toward him.

For the briefest second, something had passed between them. Perhaps professional understanding on Alexander’s part and, on Andrei’s, a trace of embarrassment over something that hadn’t even been his doing.

"Thank you for coming," Alexander had said.

Even now, Andrei found the statement faintly absurd.

Had Alexander been thanking him?

"You didn’t have to stay," Andrei remembered telling him.

Alexander glanced toward Dominic.

"I needed to know he was safe."

After everything Dominic had done, there had been no bitterness in the answer.

Andrei nodded.

"He is. I’ll take responsibility from here."

"Make sure he gets whatever professional support is recommended."

"I will."

Alexander’s gaze shifted briefly toward Victoria before returning to him.

"Andrei."

"Yes?"

"This stays private."

That had made Andrei pause.

Alexander could’ve destroyed what remained of Dominic’s public credibility with a single leak. A disgraced former CEO manufacturing a crisis just to force his ex-fiancé to respond would’ve kept the tabloids busy for weeks.

Instead, Alexander had made sure the incident went no further than the people already involved.

"I understand."

Alexander nodded once.

That was all.

Later, after he’d left and Dominic’s anger had replaced whatever desperation had brought everyone there in the first place, Andrei remembered standing alone in the corridor and thinking about everything his family had lost.

For the first time, the end of the Vance alliance had felt like something more than numbers on a balance sheet.

Alexander could’ve been an exceptional business ally. He was dependable when things went wrong and decisive when someone needed to take responsibility, without treating every disagreement as a challenge to his authority.

Under very different circumstances, he might even have become Andrei’s brother-in-law.

Dominic had thrown that away.

Worse, he hadn’t done it through one catastrophic mistake.

He’d been given opportunity after opportunity to stop digging and had somehow mistaken the shovel for a strategy.

Even now, Andrei sometimes wondered how two sons of the same father could’ve turned out so differently.

Then again...

Perhaps he already knew.

Andrei hadn’t grown up as a Sebastian.

For the first years of his life, he’d been Andrei Laurent.

His mother, Helena, rarely spoke about his father beyond saying that he’d been someone she’d once loved and eventually realized she couldn’t build a life with.

Conrad Sebastian had been young when they met, already ambitious and apparently far better at making promises than understanding what keeping them required.

Their relationship ended before Helena realized she was pregnant.

By the time she discovered it, Conrad had already left the city to pursue opportunities connected to his family’s business.

Helena made her own decision.

She didn’t follow him or ask him for money.

More importantly, she didn’t tell him about their son.

For years, Andrei never questioned why their little family had only two people.

Then he became old enough to notice that other children had fathers who existed somewhere beyond photographs and vague explanations.

Eventually, he asked.

"Is he dead?"

Helena nearly dropped the plate she was washing.

"No."

"Then where is he?"

She dried her hands slowly.

"Living his life."

Andrei stared at her.

"Does he know about me?"

That question took longer to answer.

"No."

"Why?"

Helena sat across from him.

"Because I was angry when I should’ve been thinking about what was fair to you."

It wasn’t the answer he’d expected.

She didn’t blame Conrad, but she didn’t pretend he’d been blameless in whatever had happened between them.

Instead, Helena did something Andrei would remember for the rest of his life.

She admitted she’d made a mistake.

"I thought I was protecting us," she said. "Maybe part of me was. But part of me was protecting my pride too."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"When you’re ready."

Not when she was ready.

When Andrei was.

He was already a teenager when he finally decided he wanted to know who his father was.

The answer came with a surname he’d heard many times before.

Sebastian.

Conrad Sebastian was married to Victoria Sebastian.

And they had a son.

Dominic.

Two years younger than Andrei.

For several days, Andrei couldn’t decide what bothered him more.

That he had a brother, or that his father had apparently spent years raising that brother without ever knowing his first son existed.

When Conrad finally learned the truth, his reaction wasn’t subtle.

He came personally.

Andrei remembered opening the door and immediately knowing who the man was.

They had the same eyes.

Conrad stared at him for several seconds.

"Andrei?"

"Yes."

The man swallowed.

"I’m Conrad."

"I know."

Their first meeting was awkward.

The second wasn’t much better.

But Conrad kept coming back.

Victoria did not appreciate the development.

Andrei understood that even before anyone bothered explaining why.

Conrad wasn’t merely wealthy. His position within Sebastian Group came with substantial ownership and an eventual estate everyone had assumed would pass primarily to Dominic.

Then an older son appeared.

Victoria wanted to know what Helena intended to demand.

The answer seemed to irritate her even more.

Nothing.

Helena refused money she didn’t need and refused to treat Andrei like an unpaid debt Conrad had suddenly remembered.

When Victoria finally confronted her, Helena remained remarkably calm.

"I don’t want your husband’s money."

"Then what exactly do you want?"

"For my son to know his father."

"And afterward?"

"Afterward, Andrei will decide what relationship he wants with him."

Victoria’s eyes narrowed.

"You expect me to believe that’s all?"

Helena smiled faintly.

"What you believe isn’t my responsibility."

Andrei overheard enough of that conversation to understand something important.

His existence frightened Victoria.

Not because he’d done anything to Dominic.

Simply because he existed.

Perhaps that was where the two mothers differed most.

Victoria looked at Andrei and saw something her son might lose.

Helena looked at Dominic and reminded Andrei that the younger boy hadn’t done anything wrong.

"He’s your brother," she told him once.

"Half-brother."

"Half describes the biology."

Andrei looked at her.

Helena continued folding laundry.

"It doesn’t decide how you treat him."

"What if he hates me?"

"Then that’s his choice."

"And what am I supposed to do?"

This time she looked up.

"Then you decide how you treat him..."

It would’ve been easy for Andrei to grow up resenting Dominic.

Perhaps some part of him did.

Dominic had grown up with the father Andrei hadn’t known, and a place within the Sebastian family that Andrei hadn’t even realized existed.

But Helena never allowed that resentment to become an inheritance.

By the time Conrad eventually invited his older son to learn the family business, Andrei accepted for one reason.

He wanted to know whether he could succeed there.

Not whether he could take Dominic’s place.

Whether he could earn one of his own.

Andrei Sebastian entered his father’s company knowing perfectly well that half the family expected him to become a problem.

He simply had no intention of becoming the kind they expected.

Years later, sitting in the interim CEO’s office that had once belonged to Dominic, Andrei found himself remembering his mother’s words.

Half describes the biology.

His phone vibrated with a message from Legal.

A moment later, Finance sent another.

Dominic’s lawyer was still going back and forth with the Sebastian Group over the unauthorized PR expenses, trying to keep the entire cost from being charged back to his client.

Andrei stared at the notifications, then set his phone face down.