Sebastian's expression was the picture of composure. "Be good at Grandpa Galloway and Grandma's house. Help out where you can, don't throw tantrums, and call me if you need anything."
He pressed a kids' smartwatch into my hand. I stared at it for a long moment.
"Will you actually pick up?"
He blinked, caught off guard. "Of course I will. How could I not answer my little Desi's calls?"
"Don't worry. Even after the baby comes, you'll always be my favorite. Just be a good boy and stay with Grandpa and Grandma. I'll come get you in a few days."
Liar.
In my previous life, after they dumped me at my grandparents' house, my uncle's youngest son bullied me relentlessly, calling me an orphan nobody wanted.
I called my father in tears. He picked up, said he was at work, and hung up before I could finish a sentence.
That first month, still lost and scared in an unfamiliar place, I called him five times. He answered twice. Each call lasted a few seconds.
By the second month, he'd forgotten to top up the smartwatch plan. The phone couldn't dial out at all.
But back then, I thought I'd broken it myself. I hid in a corner and cried alone, blaming myself, counting the days until Mom and Dad would come take me home.
I waited. And waited. And waited.
A year and a half later, my father finally had my uncle bring me back to the city on one of his trips in.
The moment I walked through the door, my mother pinched her nose. "Desmond, why do you reek of duck droppings? Did you never bathe out there?"
I was six. The shame hit me like a wall. I ducked my head, wishing I could disappear.
Next to my brother, plump and pale as a dumpling, I looked like a scrawny little monkey, skin yellowed from over a year of sun. Not exactly lovable.
But whose fault was that? She was the one who'd had my father ship me off to the countryside in the first place.
This time, I knew what to expect.
The day I arrived at my grandparents' house, my aunt made her feelings perfectly clear.
"His own parents can't be bothered to raise him, and now they dump the kid on us!"
Uncle Galloway glanced at me once, said nothing, and walked back inside.
I carried my backpack to the eaves of my grandparents' cottage, crouched down, and started drawing and writing on my own.
They didn't want me here. But my father sent money every month.
So they wouldn't starve me, and they wouldn't let me freeze.
This time, I wasn't going to cry myself to sleep every night, begging for parents who would never come. I was going to take care of myself and build the strength to break free from all of them.
It wasn't until the sun sank behind the hills that Grandpa and Grandma Galloway came home from the fields.
They didn't recognize me, so I walked up to them first.
"Grandpa, Grandma. I'm Desi. I'm here to keep you company."
Grandma pulled me into her arms immediately, her weathered hands warm against my back. Grandpa's face split into a grin so wide it looked like it might never close. He ushered me inside and dug out a tin of cookies.
That night, I lay on a bamboo mat, and Grandma fanned me while I drifted off. Every now and then, Grandpa would look over at me, then let out a long, heavy sigh.
Tears slid from the corners of my eyes into the mat.
I swore to myself: this time, I would repay every ounce of their love. This time, I would never let them die like that again.
Just like before, my parents didn't come for me until over a year had passed.
The difference was that this time, they came in person.
Lucius lay in my mother's arms, round and milky-white. She nursed him while asking me a few offhand questions about whether I'd been good for Grandpa and Grandma.
Uncle and Aunt Galloway couldn't stop beaming the moment they spotted the gifts my father had brought. They heaped praise on me, saying how well-behaved and hardworking I was, bragging that even though I hadn't started school yet, I could already read dozens of words.
My mother seized on that instantly, her smile bright. "He gets it from me. I was class monitor back in school!"
My father looked pleased too. He bent down and tickled the nursing baby's chin. "Big brother's so smart. Little brother won't be far behind."
They started making plans to bring me back to the city for school.
But I wasn't going back. I said:
