Betrayal is a major theme in The Kite Runner. The central betrayal of the novel, of course, is Amir's inability to help his best friend Hassan while Hassan is being assaulted by Assef. Before this even happens, though, Amir has a troubled relationship with his father, Baba. Amir imagines that Baba sees him (Amir) as a reminder of Amir's mother, who died in childbirth, and that Baba associates him with and possibly blames him for Amir's mother's death. Amir also knows that he is a different person than Baba; Amir wants to be a writer and is a more gentle, sensitive soul, while Baba is a shrewd businessman and is very social. Baba never talks about Amir's mother, and it's possible that Amir views this withholding of information as a kind of betrayal on Baba's part.
The most crucial betrayal between Baba and Amir, though, is the secret of Hassan's parentage. Hassan is supposedly the child of Ali (servant to Baba) and Sanaubar, who abandons the child and her husband. Later in the novel, it is revealed by Rahim Khan that Baba is actually Hassan's father. Amir finds this out only after Hassan has died. He never has a chance to make amends for his betrayal of Hassan when they were children; this is what inspires him to rescue Sohrab, Hassan's son. Amir takes the news that Hassan was more than his friend but was also his biological half-brother especially hard because of Baba's purported hatred of dishonesty. When Amir is a boy, Baba tells him that the worst sin a man can commit is theft and explains to Amir that dishonesty is theft because it takes the truth from another person. Amir has trouble reconciling Baba's secret with this earlier proclamation. At the time he learns that Baba is Hassan's father, Amir has also lost his father to an illness, so he cannot discuss this with him or get any further explanation. Eventually, Amir tries to exorcise the pain he feels at this betrayal by adopting Sohrab and doing what he sees as his duty to Hassan and his family's legacy.
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