Chapter 168: When the dust settles

Ben shuffled back into the dreary apartment in a daze, his entire world having shifted on its axis once more. He had gone to the hospital with hopes of finding solace and comfort in the wake of his mother's arrest - of knowing that at least he still had his father's support to lean on through this nightmare. But Martin had utterly shattered those hopes with a few terse statements that cleaved straight through to Ben's very core. "I am not your father." The words reverberated through his mind like a death knell, chasing away any lingering flickers of the idyllic family life he had taken for granted all these years. Just like that, he was untethered from the one male presence whose love and guidance he had naively expected would always be a constant in his turbulent life. How could his own father disown him so callously? How could any man turn his back on a child in their most desperate hours of need? Chest heaving with ragged breaths, Ben shrugged off his jacket and sank heavily ont