The Billionaire's Mistake

MISTAKE 168

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 onto the worn sofa. He forced his eyes away from the abandoned video game controller sitting on the cushion beside him a silent reminder of the afternoons he used to while away after school before his perfect world had disintegrated around him. That life was over. He was alone now, a pariah tossed aside by both of his parents as if he were nothing more than collateral damage from their toxicity.

Reflexive tears of anger and betrayal burned hotly against his lashes, but Ben angrily swiped them away with a swipe of his hand. No more crying, he vowed to himself. If he was destined to become the forgotten, discarded offspring of these broken people, then sobbing uselessly would only compound his own disgrace.

After several steadying breaths, Ben rose and crossed the small living area to retrieve his laptop from the kitchenette counter. If writing had been his outlet through the upheaval of his parents' turbulent marriage, perhaps it could help dull the sting of losing them both altogether.

For the next hour, Ben poured his anguish and disillusionment into the form of a ranting blog post unlike any of his previous literary efforts. He spilled forth every seething detail of Martin and Emma's deliberate ostracizing of him and his mother from the family estate. He described the years of whispers and sidelong glances whenever Gina was around, the blatant disdain Emma had always leveled towards her stepparent and half-brother.

essence, a torrent of grievances and accusations about

innocent action into some maniacal plot to entrap their father and bleed the family dry of money and status. Well, their insane paranoia has

decided to frase their Art attempted meter

seems to be true now. They poisoned my father against Cina,

way, I'll soon be

born to a family with mean automatically forfen one's right to human decency and dignity? Or do I only face rejection because my word was

be. They're a pair of

any threats to their supremacy along the

crumbles to dust around your cold, empty

at the comers of his mouth as he imagined his blistering diabe sending shockwaves through the upper echelons

do was wait to gauge the internet's reaction to his newfound honesty about the Jones clan's seething dysfunction. He may have lost everything else, but he

post began as little more than morbid curiosity from the outside world. Usernames he didn't

however, seemed to take his defiant accusations more

breaks for this poor kid - having to learn his parents are depraved criminals in such an ugly

him for those

remained to him with his no-holds-barred self-expression, but at least he'd found perfect