C.W. Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Mention Of Sexual Assault

Lucas Amery's childhood was a relentless cycle of pain. Raised by an alcoholic mother and a violent father. His days were a blur of screams and beatings, repeated over and over. His mother, a frustrated actress whose popularity had faded with age, and his father, an unemployed gambling addict, hurled insults no child should ever hear. Often, his mother would take out her rage on Lucas after suffering her husband’s blows, with cruel and sadistic words: that he was worthless, a mistake who should never have been born. The combination of his father’s fists and his mother’s cruel words created deep insecurities within him.

From a very young age, Lucas would hide under the bed in his room, clenching his teeth, crying desperately, wishing he could disappear. But far worse was yet to come. His father’s sudden death in a gambling-related revenge killing unleashed even greater violence from his mother. At just 11 years old, Lucas made his first attempt to escape his abusive home. He tried several more times, but his mother always found him, punishing him brutally for his efforts.  

It was a time of loneliness for Lucas, and as a defense mechanism, he constructed a façade of hostility, learning to reply on his fists. Away from his mother’s constant scrutiny, he became a bully at school, masking his vulnerability with aggression —using it as a shield against the world.  

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Elsewhere, another child, Sergio Edevane, endured an equally harrowing childhood. After losing his parents in a car accident at the age of six, he was left in the care of his maternal grandmother. She suffered from undiagnosed delusions and hysteria, her erratic behavior making life a constant struggle for Sergio. His late mother had hidden the truth of her own torment at the hands of this same woman —a nightmare she escaped as a teenager, never to return.  

During her fits, Sergio’s grandmother would lock him in a dark, windowless room, sparking a deep-seated claustrophobia that would haunt him for years. She subjected him to severe physical abuse, leaving him with permanent scars on his back and arms. Most of Sergio’s childhood was spent confined to the house, “educated” by this unstable woman, punished without reason, and locked in that room. Over time, his isolation led to speech difficulties and deepened his misery. Each of her hallucinations brought new horrors for the boy.  

When Sergio was 13, his grandmother died of a heart attack during one of her frenzied episodes. Desperate and alone, he fled the house, surviving on the streets for weeks before being grudgingly taken in by an uncle —his mother’s younger brother and his only living relative. But this man was no savior. Instead, he preyed on Sergio’s innocence whenever they were alone, further compounding the boy’s trauma.  

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These tragic lives intersected in early 1976 when 14-year-old Sergio met 12-year-old Lucas. Their paths crossed at a low-income school, where they ended up in the same class. Lucas was on the verge of repeating the school year —not for lack of ability, as he was one of the brightest students with the potential for a promising future. Rather, he lingered at school as much as possible to avoid his mother, maintaining an air of indifference toward his classmates. Sergio, in contrast, had never learned how to interact with other children his age. His shy demeanor and speech difficulties made him an easy target for bullying, including from Lucas himself.  

Life is rarely fair, is it? Lucas Amery and Sergio Edevane understood this better than most. Both had suffered abandonment and abuse at the hands of those meant to protect them, enduring the indifference of a society that turned a blind eye. Yet, despite everything, life also holds moments of unexpected opportunity. Their paths crossed, diverged, and, little by little, fate began to set a plan in motion to bring them together once again.