Captive

chapter 51

Shattered

Jeff sat alone in the living room of his dimly lit apartment. The silence pressed down on him, heavy and suffocating. The walls, once a place of comfort, now felt like they were closing in, suffused with the cold ache of betrayal and despair.

His phone lay on the table, screen still glowing with the latest headline:

“Verdict Reached: Prominent Couple Found Guilty in Human Trafficking Case”
“Jeff Satur’s Parents Sentenced to Prison”

The words blurred as tears welled in his eyes, blinding him. He took a shaky breath, but it did nothing to steady the storm inside him.

They were guilty. The people who raised him, who gave him a home, a name, a family—they were guilty of something unimaginable. How could they? His mind spun in endless circles of disbelief, trying to find a version of reality where this made sense. But there wasn’t one.

He curled his fingers into his palms until his knuckles turned white. A sob escaped, raw and strangled. It tore through his chest, the pain of it clawing at his ribs.

“How did it come to this?” he whispered to the empty room.

Memories surged forward: his mother’s soft smile, his father’s stern but caring eyes, the warmth of family dinners, the reassurance of knowing they would always be there. Now it was all tainted. Their faces were the same, but everything behind those eyes had been a lie.

He pressed his forehead into his hands, his body trembling. The weight of it was unbearable. The foundations of his world had crumbled into dust, leaving him standing in the wreckage, alone.

The sharp ring of the doorbell startled him, but he didn’t move. It rang again, more insistent this time.

Dragging himself off the couch, he stumbled to the door and opened it. Mile stood there, his face grim. Without waiting for an invitation, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

“Jeff…” Mile’s voice was low, cautious.

Jeff turned away, walking back into the living room, his movements slow and mechanical. He sank back onto the couch, his eyes blank.

“They’re gone,” Jeff murmured, his voice hollow. “our whole family… everything I believed in… it’s all gone.”

Mile sat beside him

Jeff’s lips curled into a bitter smile. “ They destroyed lives. And they destroyed ours in the process.”

The room went quiet. The only sound was Jeff’s shallow breathing, the weight of his grief thick in the air.

“I trusted them,” Jeff continued, his voice cracking. “I thought they loved me. But now I wonder if I was just… a tool to fill the void left by their real son. Maybe I was never really their child. Just a replacement.”

Mile’s jaw tightened. “Don’t say that. You were loved, Jeff.”

“Was I?” Jeff’s eyes glistened with tears. “If they could do something like this… if they could lie to me all these years… what does that say about me?”

Mile reached out and put a hand on Jeff’s shoulder. “It says nothing about you. Their choices don’t define who you are.”

Jeff let out a shaky breath, his gaze distant. “It hurts, Mile. It hurts so much. I don’t know who I am anymore. I feel like I’m falling apart.”

Jeff shook his head, fresh tears spilling down his cheeks. “ Everything feels meaningless now. Like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, and there’s nothing left to hold on to.”