Missing Pieces (Sebastian Vettel)

12. Truth Be Told

"Your son?" Ella stammered, panic flaring up inside her. He recognised her! He knew Dylan was his! Was he going to tell Dylan?  Would Dylan hate her? 

"Yes, my son! Don't even try to deny it, he's the spitting image of me at that age.  I don't even need to ask for a DNA test!"

Ella managed to wrench her wrist out of Seb's hold.  She took a few paces backwards until her back hit the wall and she could retreat no more.   She was on the verge of tears, terrified of what was going to happen.  He wouldn't hurt her, would he?  He was furious! 

Seb felt a momentary spark of sympathy for the woman who was the focus of his anger.   She looked terrified.  He was about to tell her she had no need to be scared of him, but then he remembered why he was angry with her.  

"Why?  Why did you keep him from me? Does he know?  Was this some sick revenge for me rejecting you?  I couldn't believe it when Rocky showed me his photo.  I thought it was a coincidence, the dates didn't fit, but then I saw a photo of you."

Ella didn't know what to say.    She looked down at the floor as Seb began to pace up and down the small space.   "Sixteen! He's fucking sixteen years old, and I didn't know he fucking existed until ten fucking days ago!"

His words spurred Ella on to speak.  

"Now hang on a minute, don't try and act like this is all on me!   You knew! You knew all along! You didn't want him!   You thought a million poxy euro could get rid of him!  Now all of a sudden you're acting like the doting father."

"What do you mean I knew?  I did not know, because your sister never bothered to tell me!  Now I get she probably didn't know who I was at first, but once he started getting into racing...Surely she recognised me! Did she hate me that much? Or were there so many potential fathers that she just didn't know?"

"Are you calling my sister a whore? I can tell you now, there was never any doubt about who Dylan's father was!"

"So she deliberately kept him from me? She's had sixteen years..."

"Well considering she hasn't been around since he was two..."

"Where is she?"   He stopped in his tracks, his expression softening as he began to wonder just where the mother of his son was.  Ella just shook her head.  "Is she...dead?"

"Legally, yes. Truthfully, I don't know. No one knows. No one's seen her since she walked out fourteen years ago."  Seb cursed.  He suddenly felt bad for Ella. 

"I'm sorry.  I didn't know."

"How could you have? We waited and waited for her to come back, but she never did.   Since then it's been me and Dylan against the world."

"You could have come to me! I'm his father!"

"A father that had made it clear he didn't want to know!"

What the hell was she talking about? He'd not heard a word from Grace or Ella since that summer. 

"I wasn't given the chance!" he spat.  "If Dylan was younger I'd be dragging you through all the courts in the land to get custody of him. You didn't answer my question.   Does he know?"

"Of course he doesn't!  It would have broken his heart to know you were the father that rejected him."

"I didn't fucking reject him!" Seb snarled, closing the gap between them and slamming the palm of his hand onto the wall by the side of her head. 

"Grace wrote to you!"

"She what?"

"She wrote you a letter to tell you she was pregnant."