Mum never protected him. Dad didn’t either: Dad died. Gabriel’s pretty sure that’s what happened to him. Dad’s dead and Mum’s gone and Gabriel can’t join them. They thought he was going to die too, but he didn’t. He’s here and he’s alive; thirteen years old, stuck in a children’s home.
Little Man, he remembers Mum calling him. My Little Man. He didn’t want to be her Little Man, and now all he wants is to be a normal boy. He wants to play with his little sister in a normal house, with a mum and a dad and a room of his own and no chores and no punishments and no one watching his every move. That’s all Gabriel wants.