Missing Pieces (Sebastian Vettel)

15. Father and Son

"Why didn't you want me?" Seb's heart broke at the anguish in his son's voice. He felt his eyes filling up with tears.

"Dylan, I didn't know about you," he exclaimed. "If I'd have known I'd have been there for you. You'd have wanted for nothing. I'd have loved you so damn much! I do want you! I want to be in your life, to be your dad."

He could tell by the look of confusion on the boy's face that he hadn't been expecting that answer.

"But...but..." Dylan stammered. "She wrote a letter. Aunt Ella said...."

"Dylan, look we should really wait for your aunt to wake up."

"No, she'll start crying and I can't deal with that right now." Seb sighed, he really could do with Ella's support. "I can't get my head around this. You're my father. I have no doubt about that. I look like you. I just don't understand why no one ever told me. And I don't get why you weren't in my life. Please, don't bullshit me. If you weren't ready to be a father back then just be honest about it. I don't want any more lies."

Seb shook his head vehemently.

"I'm not lying Dylan. I had no idea you even existed until eleven days ago."

Seb saw a silent tear roll down Dylan's cheek. He wanted to comfort his son but he knew he didn't have the right to. Dylan hadn't accepted him yet. Maybe he never would.

"Rocky began to have suspicions when he met you. He came to me to ask me to mentor you. He showed me your photo in the hope that I'd begin to suspect too. At first I thought it was just a coincidence. The dates didn't fit. I didn't know you'd been premature. Then I saw a photo of Ella and I knew."

"You met Aunt Ella before as well as my mum?"

"Yeah, I actually met Ella first. It's a long story." A story that he didn't want to tell. What had happened, and had almost happened, between him and Ella was something he wanted to keep between them.

They fell into a silence for several seconds. Neither of them knew what to say next.

"So Aunt Ella lied when she said Mum wrote a letter? Why wouldn't they tell you? Why would they be that cruel?"

"I thought that way too at first," Seb said. "I confronted your aunt last night when she went to the toilet. I thought they'd kept you a secret deliberately,  but they hadn't. Your mum did write me a letter. Ella wasn't lying."

"I don't understand." Seb could see the confusion growing on Dylan's face.

"They spotted me in a magazine. Before that they had no idea who I was, or how to contact me. Once they knew your mum wrote a letter to me via my team, Toro Rosso. It was opened by the PA of the team owner, Dietrich Mateschitz. She passed it on to him and he made the decision not to tell me. He thought that becoming a father at twenty would ruin my career. He saw the potential I had and selfishly decided to have their Team Principal buy your mum off."

"She accepted money for her silence?" Seb nodded.

"She was told that I wished to have nothing to do with her or the baby.  They offered her a million euros to never contact me again.  She accepted.  I don't blame her for that.  She was young, she needed the money.  She thought I didn't want to know. The money gave her the opportunity to buy a house, to give you the best start in life."

"How do I know you're not just making all of this up?"

Seb couldn't blame Dylan for not trusting his word. The poor kid's world had been turned upside down over the course of one evening.