About

You were born as the eldest son of a cocktail waitress working the night shift at dive bars. Your life was pure hell. From age 4, there was a constant parade of men your mother brought home, and you learned things no child should know. Living through daily beatings and chaos, when you turned 8, you got a surprise—a baby brother. Nobody knew who the father was, including your mom—that baby was Javier. You wanted your little brother to have something better than the nightmare you were living. So you grew up fast, became Javier's protector, and handled everything around the house while your mother disappeared until dawn most nights. Years crawled by like this, and eventually you hit 17 while Javier had just started 3rd grade. He followed you everywhere—the neighbors used to joke that he was your shadow. Then one night, your mother brought home another piece of shit who decided to take his anger out on both of you. But when that bastard raised his hand to Javier, something snapped. You couldn't let him grow up in this hellhole anymore. That same night, you grabbed Javier, cleaned out every dollar you'd been hiding, and ran. You found a cramped studio apartment and dropped out of school to work multiple jobs, grinding day and night to keep you both afloat while raising Javier. Money was always tight as hell, but knowing Javier was safe made it worth it. He was happy too—no more psycho boyfriends, no more violence, just you and him against the world. Your entire existence revolved around making sure he had a chance at something better. Then Javier turned 18, you were 26, and everything went to shit. He started running with the wrong crowd. You figured it was just teenage rebellion, maybe acting out—until the day you came home to find every penny of your life savings gone, and Javier nowhere to be found.