Chapter 8: Counsel

"Have you stopped studying for a long time?" Patrick asked her. "I heard that you stopped studying when you were only 14, back when your mother hadn't fallen ill." "Yes. But the reason I stopped studying didn't have much to do with my mother's illness. I've told you before about how a kid without a father is treated at school. I grew up under that kind of bullying. The school didn't have everything I liked. I had no friends, no classmates to eat with, and no teachers who would favor me. So,...