Jael had kept him from crumbling after the orphanage was burned to the ground. Rae had only known how to survive in the orphanage, it was a mini-society of its own, and despite being one of the children who had been there the longest, he had climbed his way to the top.
So when it had crumbled, so did everything he ever knew.
His mom was one of the many noname whores that filled the dingy clubs downtown. She hadn't known who his father was, and she hadn't cared to find out, ditching him as soon as she could at the orphanage.
He didn't know if she was still alive or not, he didn't know her name or remember her face, she might as well be dead to him.
He didn't have the fantasies that the other children liked to indulge in, that an estranged parent was going to come to save them. He already knew that his dad was a worthless piece of shit, possibly worse than his mom.
