~~~~~~
Ro didn’t go ho that night. He couldn’t.
By the ti he reached his condominium, his chest already felt tight. Empty. Wrong.
Calyx and Alpheus offered to stay with him and drink all night, but Ro declined. He didn’t want company. He didn’t want comfort. He didn’t want assumptions he wasn’t ready to hear.
He wanted the truth.
Even if the truth was the very thing his chest already feared.
He changed into a plain shirt and sat at the edge of his bed, elbow resting on his knee, hand pressed against his forehead. He stared at the floor, yet all he saw was Sylvia clutching the boy to her chest like she was shielding him from him, specifically.
And that thought...
...it crushed sothing inside him.
A soft vibration broke the silence. Ro lifted his head.
His phone screen lit up with a na that made his chest tighten.
Gio.
Ro inhaled deeply, steadying the panic rising in his throat.
He answered. "Talk" Ro said quietly.
"Seems like you’ve been impatiently waiting for ," Gio said with a lazy half-laugh. "Anyway, I already have the information you requested. I gathered everything I could... but I think you should hear this in person."
Ro straightened. "In person? Why?"
There was a brief, heavy pause.
"Because... you won’t believe it if I say it over the phone."
A cold weight slid down Ro’s spine. His grip tightened around the phone.
"Where are you now?"
"In the parking basent of your building."
Ro didn’t think.
He stood and left imdiately.
In the dim, cold basent, he saw Gio standing beside his black motorcycle, helt off, a folder tucked under his arm. Gio was never the type to look unsettled. He was the laid-back one who rarely left his room unless the information mattered enough.
Seeing him here, jaw tight and brows drawn, only made Ro more nervous.
Gio gave a slight nod. "It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, Mr. Hariston. Nice to—"
"What did you find?" Ro cut sharply.
"Oh... no invitation to your condo first?" Gio joked weakly. But when Ro didn’t react, he sighed. "Alright, alright. You’re really not giving a chance to breathe after the effort I took getting in here..."
Ro saw the hesitation in his eyes.
"You’re dragging this out," Ro muttered. "Say it. Now."
Gio exhaled. "Okay. okay.. the information you asked for was about the child Sylvia Lincolm—your ex-girlfriend—was hiding from you today, right? The boy. His na is Cairo, and here’s his basic information. It... might interest you."
Ro’s heart slamd painfully against his ribs.
Gio handed him the folder.
Ro opened it imdiately.
The first page was a hospital docunt. He scanned quickly.
Then he froze.
His fingers tightened. His breath stilled.
PATIENT NA: CAIRO LINCOLM
AGE: Six years old
MOTHER: SYLVIA LINCOLM
FATHER: UNKNOWN
Ro stared at the word Unknown, sothing sharp twisting in his chest.
He swallowed hard and read on.
A dical summary followed:
-chronic heart disease
-frequent fainting
-multiple hospitalizations
-doctor recomndations
-fragile constitution
Ro’s breathing turned uneven.
The boy was sick. Seriously sick.
He squeezed the papers, knuckles whitening.
Gio spoke quietly. "That kid... Cairo... he’s been in and out of hospitals since birth. His condition is chronic and complicated."
Ro shut the folder briefly, lips pressed into a thin line. Worry. Pain. Confusion. Sothing he refused to na.
Why did his chest hurt this much for a child?
If he was Sylvia’s child... then—
No. He pushed the thought away violently.
"Continue.." he said, voice strained.
Gio handed him another paper.
A small photo slipped out.
Ro caught it instinctively—and his breath stopped.
A pale, thin child lay in a hospital bed, IV in his arm, smiling weakly at a small toy in his hand.
Gio’s voice dropped. "Tell ... doesn’t he look familiar? He looks almost identical to you."
Sothing inside Ro broke.
Not cracked.
Broke.
He stared at the photo, unable to look away.
The child... looked like him. Like his younger self.
And sothing else—sothing buried deep, surfaced.
The child looked familiar.
Was he the boy he’d seen at the hospital before? The one who ran away from his father?
Then why did the record say father unknown?
Don’t tell ...
Ro’s grip shook.
"There’s more," Gio said softly.
Ro lowered the photo slowly, numb.
"What else?"
"I found hidden information. That child has been living abroad for treatnt. He didn’t grow up with Sylvia or the twins."
"T-twins...?" Ro asked, voice hollow. "He’s... their sibling?"
"Yes."
The word struck like a blade. He wasn’t just a father of twins. He might be a father of triplets.
Ro’s jaw tightened painfully.
So Sylvia hid not one child—but a triplets. She hid them and built an entire life without him.
But why?
Why hide this?
Gio hesitated again. "Mr. Hariston... what can you say about Cairo’s appearance?"
Ro’s stomach twisted. He rembered his son’s little face partly hidden beneath the cap while in Sylvia’s arms and the first ti he ever saw him back at the hospital.
If only he had known back then that the boy was his... maybe he would’ve cherished every second he had with him.
If only he had listened to his instincts—the strange, unexplainable pull he felt whenever he was near the child, the quiet bond he couldn’t understand. If he had followed that feeling and tried to learn more about him...
...maybe he would have discovered the truth much earlier.
Gio continued. "There’s no denying it. That kid looks more like you than the twins do."
Ro’s world tilted.
He opened the photo again, hands shaking.
The eyebrows. The nose. The faint jawline.
His.
His.
The truth struck him violently.
"...why?" Ro whispered.
Gio looked down.
Ro shook, gripping the folder like it could hold him together.
"Why did Sylvia hide him? Why hide... our kids? She should’ve told —"
His voice cracked.
Gio slowly pulled another docunt.
Ro read the heading and the blood drained from his face.
MATERNAL CHECK-UP — SYLVIA LINCOLN
Gestation: 8 weeks
Date: One month before disappearance
Condition: Complicated pregnancy
Ro stared at the docunt, his heart stopping.
"Where did you get this?" he whispered. "She already had complications... while she was pregnant? Before she left?"
"Yes," Gio replied gently. "Based on the records, she went to the hospital multiple tis because of her pregnancy complications. Even after she ran away—there are check-ups from when she was already three months pregnant."
Ro’s vision blurred.
Six years ago. The twins born six years ago.
A boy with his features. Three children.
Triplets.
And he never knew.
Ro stepped back, breath shattering out of him.
"No," he whispered. "Why didn’t she atleast tell about them?"
He braced himself against a cold pillar, chest heaving.
"She did it alone," he whispered. "All of it. The pain... the fear... everything."
His voice trembled.
"How many tis was he hospitalized... while I was living my life clueless? While I was taking care of Gabriel... my brother’s son... not knowing I had my own sick son and two daughters?"
His knees weakened.
For the first ti in years, tears ford in his eyes.
Not anger.
Not bitterness.
Just pure, crushing heartbreak.
Gio asked carefully, "... what will you do now?"
Ro lifted his head.
The pain didn’t fade but sothing else ignited underneath it.
Resolve.
Fear.
Determination.
"I want to see him," Ro said, voice raw. "I want to see Cairo and the twins."
His fists clenched.
"And Sylvia. She doesn’t get to face this alone. Not anymore. Not with our kids... and my sick son."
His voice deepened, steady and frighteningly sure.
"I’m bringing them back."
But beneath that determination...
One terrifying thought whispered.
What if it’s already too late?
What if his children don’t want him?
What if Sylvia lies again?
What if she runs away again, taking them with her?
And that thought—
That horrifying possibility was the one that truly shattered him.
"Anyway, that’s not all the information I have. That’s why I ca here."
Ro froze at that, his eyes lifting to Gio, who now wore a more serious expression.
"While I was digging into Cairo’s private records, I found an answer to sothing you’ve been searching for a long ti. Sothing you didn’t expect to uncover."
Gio paused. "It’s about Sylvia’s identity."
Ro’s brows furrowed. "What about her identity?"
"You still rember what I told you before—that Sylvia isn’t actually an orphan like you believed, right? Well... it seems I was right. I discovered she ran away from her family long before you ever t her. And it wasn’t that hard to trace her background because she never changed her na."
Gio continued. "She cos from the influential Lincolm family in Europe, the owners of the biggest pharmaceutical company. She’s the only daughter of Sergio Lincolm, and the sister of business tycoons Sylvester and Stephenson. aning... she was never a poor orphan like you thought. She’s actually the heiress of the Lincolm family."
Ro went still. But unlike the shock he felt when he learned he had another child besides Paris and Egypt... this ti, he wasn’t as shocked.
Because deep down... he already had a hunch.
He had long suspected Sylvia wasn’t the orphan he believed she was. He’d always had the feeling that soone was hiding her from him when she ran away years ago, because he never managed to trace her, not even once.
At first, he thought maybe it was one of her n who hid her.
But knowing Sylvia’s identity now...
Perhaps it was her family’s connections that helped her escape and made it impossible for him to find her.
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