"He told me, 'If you don't do as I say, I will kill you and bury you.'"

His family told him that he was unwanted. "You don't deserve to be alive" are the words that defined his first 17 years.

"All children have dreams," Petrus said. "We lost ours as kids."

At 16, he was sent to live with his uncle in Denver. He was never told why he was sent here, a place that felt so foreign to him. The abuse he had experienced throughout his childhood only escalated in his new home. His uncle pressured him to obtain false identification and work long hours. Whenever Petrus refused, his uncle became furious and violent.

"He stepped on my head, kicked my back and whipped me with a belt," he said. "He told me, 'If you don't do as I say, I will kill you and bury you.'" Petrus believed him.

His only refuge was school. In the fall of his junior year, he revealed the abuse to a school counselor who suspected there was a problem. "At first I lied," he said. "I just told her that I fell." He finally showed her the bruises covering his body. When the police arrived he pleaded with them not to take him home. "I was destroyed at that time," he said. "I was just lost."

Social Services placed him at Gemini, Family Tree's program for abused, neglected and runaway youth. "It was the first place in the world where people listened to me," he said. For six months he received safe shelter, counseling and education. His last day at Gemini was his eighteenth birthday.

He graduated with honors from Lakewood High School with a 3.8 G.P.A. and was admitted into Family Tree's program for homeless families, Housing and Family Services. The program helped him to afford, find and furnish an apartment, achieve legal residency and pursue his dream of attending college and studying international business.

Petrus looks forward to his future with confidence and wisdom beyond his age. "I believe that trust that has been broken can be built again by love," he said.