"I was twelve when it happened. A stuh-... strange age. Normally kids that old don't get adopted. But this couple said that's why they did that. Because no one else would. Worked great on our caretakers at the time. The man . . . I duh-... didn't like him from the word go, but hey . . . it was a family. The mother . . . she was dead inside. You could just tell she didn't care about anything anymore. They had adopted two other girls, both when they were twelve." Shannon stopped and swallowed a gulp of air. "The real reason, it tuh-... turned out was that twelve-year-old...