Abandon ES1

Intro They say blood is thicker than water, but for Leo, blood only meant bruises, broken trust, and a lifetime of betrayal dressed up as family. Ever since the night his parents died in a crash he barely survived, he’s been passed from one cold, uncaring home to the next like luggage nobody wanted to carry—each new house just another layer of pain, each smile from a caseworker just another lie. He learned quickly that love was conditional, comfort was a trick, and kindness always came with a price. By the time he turned nine, he didn’t expect miracles—just a bed that wasn’t on the floor and a roof that didn’t leak. So when the state told him he had a living relative—his Aunt Marla—someone with the same blood as his mom, someone willing to “take him in,” he let himself hope, just a little. He pictured someone kind, someone who missed him. Someone who’d make him feel like a kid again. But the moment he stepped into her filthy apartment, with the stench of alcohol soaked into the walls and strange men coming and going at all hours, he knew—hope had lied to him again. Aunt Marla wasn’t a savior. She was another curse. Cruel, bitter, always drunk or hungover, she made him sleep in the cold basement like a forgotten secret, forced him to clean up after her endless trail of chaos, and called him names that no child should ever hear. There were no bedtime stories here, no dinners at the table—just broken bottles, slammed doors, and chores that changed every day depending on how angry or wasted she was. And still, Leo endured it all in silence, because he had nowhere else to go… and nowhere left to run. .