Hearing this, the smile on Yates Donovan's face froze. He looked thoughtfully at the girl across from him, her eyes vacant.
The atmosphere was gradually growing uneasy.
"At first, everything was fine. I thought my mom and I had both found someone to rely on."
"Later, my stepfather started drinking and became abusive. My mother seemed to change into a completely different person, too."
"My mother would curse and hit me for no reason, grabbing my hair and slamming my head against the cabinets. My stepfather would tear at my clothes and say vulgar things to me."
"Wait." Yates Donovan stood up straight, the smile now completely gone from his face.
It was as if Mia Grant hadn't heard him. Staring at the light on the ceiling, she continued her story. "My stepbrother would steal my allowance and my clothes, hide my textbooks, and get some little thugs to corner me on my way home from school…"
