The moment Hector discovered that his father was leaving, the weight of it crushed him. It wasn’t just the departure that hurt; it was the transformation his father was going to have. The man who once promised to protect and provide, who had been his hero, was now walking away, leaving his family behind. And in him, only pain was inside, pain that transformed into an all consuming anger. A few months later, Hectors mom received a call from the father, now boasting about the "dream come true" he had found in a new life. “I made it,” he said, but his words felt hollow in hector’s ears. His father was somewhere else somewhere he had never been before, physically and emotionally. That was when hector’s mother, without a second thought, also left. She had two sons: hector, who was 6, and a six-month-old baby boy named eric. But she too walked out, abandoning them like they were nothing.

"Where are you going, Mom?" hector asked, his voice shivering with confusion and fear.

"I'm going with your father," she replied coldly, leaving her children behind. And just like that, she disappeared. hector and eric were left to be raised by their grandmother, a woman who did the best she could and an older sister. But nothing could fill the emptiness of the parents they lost. As time passed, hector and eric grew up, not just in age, but in bitterness and loss. They had learned, in their own ways, that the love they desperately craved was the parents they lost when they were nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until a few years later that tragedy struck again. The news came suddenly, like a punch to the gut. "Boom," hector thought he heard something, and then silence filled the room. The phone rang. It was a call that shattered his world.

"Sorry, mijo, but your tío just passed away." His grandmother’s voice weakend.

The words didn’t fully sink in, but the heaviness in his chest began to expand. He barely had time to process the loss before the phone rang again. It was his mother. She asked for hector and eric to join her and their father, this time with the promise of a better life. A dream of sorts. “We’re going to the place where your dreams will come true,” she said, though her words felt detached, empty, as if the promise had lost its meaning years ago. hector and eric boarded a plane to California, hoping for a new beginning, for a life where love and care would replace the absence they had known. It was a fresh start, one they wished would heal the scars left by their parents' leaving. The flight felt like a promise, a door opening to a brighter future. But when they landed, the dream quickly shattered.

Upon arrival, only their mother was waiting, she greeted them. "Come on, I’ll taking you home," she said. hector and eric were stunned. Where was their dad? Why hadn’t he come to greet them? Why hadn’t he shown any emotion, any sign of care? But no, instead, the excuse was simple: they couldn’t miss a church service. At home, the situation was no better. Their father, now an almost ghostly figure, barely acknowledged their presence. In his sleep, he seemed more of a stranger than a father. They were introduced to two new siblings, a girl and a boy, and though their family had grown, their bond felt colder than ever. Eric, still a child, would ask for food, that only his grandmother seemed to be able to make. But when his father was awake, his temper would rise. "What do you want?" he would shout at eric. Yet when the other kids asked for something, he’d jump at their command without question.

Days turned into months, and the tension in the house thickened. hector, now a young teenager, was forced to walk to school every day, with no buses in California to easen it. He walked miles with heavy books, tired and weak, only to come home to more torment. To his father, this was nothing more than an excuse. "You’re high," his dad would accuse, despite hector being completely sober. The beatings started soon after. Every day after school, hector was forced to kneel down and stay strong while he got hit with his father’s belt. The pain was empty, the scars building up both on his body and in his soul. It didn’t take long before hector was pushed to the edge, feeling hopeless and alone. His father’s cruelty seemed to have no limit, and hector began to believe that maybe the only way to survive was to give in. "I’ll let him hit me with a purpose," he told himself, accepting the offer when someone at school introduced him to drugs. At least, he reasoned, if he was high, maybe his father’s cruelty wouldn’t hurt as much.

Hector's rebellion grew. But his actions didn’t go unnoticed. The school, concerned for his well-being, began to suspect something was wrong. His father, ever the controller, made him drop out of school in 10th grade. And hector was introduced to boarding school.. Once he came back hector had a piercing this led to hector’s life taking another dark turn. His father kicked him out of the house, leaving him with nowhere to go. With no other options, hector found refuge with a local gang in Pacoima. It was there he finally found what he had been looking for cause ever since a kid all he wanted was the word called love. The gang offered him shelter, food, and the twisted sense of belonging that had always eluded him at home. But the price was high. The more hector immersed himself in that world, the more he lost sight of who he once was.

But even in the darkest times, hector still clung to the hope that one day, things would change. His heart looked for love, something he had never truly received except with just hanging with thugs. He struggled to difference out the father he once loved with the man who had broken him. One Friday afternoon, as hector was getting off a bus, his life was shattered yet again. A car pulled up alongside him, and before he could even react, he was shot six times. His body collapsed to the ground, and for a moment, it seemed as though death had come to take him. Miraculously, hector survived, but his body was left with with bullets and metal screws. Parents got contacted. As he recovered, he learned that eric, his younger brother, was enduring the same abuse he had. It tore him apart to know that his brother was going through the same hell he had gone through, and yet, he felt powerless to stop it.

Hector’s journey took him to Virginia, where he tried to rebuild his life, working long hours and doing his best to stay out of trouble. But just when he thought he might have a shot at happiness, his father did the unthinkable he called the police on hector, sending him to jail for two years. eric eventually returned to live with their grandmother, while hector continued his struggle to stay afloat. Despite everything, hector held on to his faith in God, though his relationship with Christ was turbulent. But in December 2024, everything changed. Three weeks before 2025, hector went to church, his heart broken and seeking forgiveness. He cried out to God, begging for him to forgive and to guide him. It was in that moment of joy that hector fully surrendered his life to Christ. For the first time in years, he felt hope.

But just as life seemed to offer him a second chance, tragedy struck once more. On December 31st, 2024, just ten minutes before midnight, hector was riding his bike home from church when a car ran him over. He died instantly, leaving behind a family still broken, a father who would never fully understand the depth of the pain he had caused, and a brother who was still struggling to find his way. eric, now living in California, was following in hector's footsteps, caught in the same cycle of pain and abandonment. hector's death, though tragic, became a reminder that : It catches up…