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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Gregg Olsen
Read between
July 20 - July 24, 2025
the past but an invisible badge of courage. What happened to Nikki made her stronger. It made
Traumaca xo that
it’s the little things—duct tape, pain relievers, the sound of a weed eater—that propel her back to a time and place where their mother did things they swore they’d hold secret forever.
“I don’t understand Shelly’s constant need to try to ruin people’s lives.”
Chuck was mostly quiet—timid, even. Lara would have him sit on her lap while she read to him and listened to him pretend to read to her. Whenever he tried to speak, Shelly was right there answering for him. School was difficult for him too.
“Shelly is only nice to me when there are other people around.”
MY mlther
While her accusations hadn’t ruined him, they’d left a scar.
“My mom could be sweet when she wanted to be,” Sami said.
Convenience
Shelly told Nikki she was ugly and worthless, and she needed time to think about why she was such a rotten girl. She was told that she’d be there awhile. “As long as it takes,” Shelly said. Nikki later recalled it might have been for the entire summer.
Still, Shelly wasn’t completely averse to taking her girls to the doctor whenever they needed medical attention.
My dad
boom. I loved my mother because I didn’t know I had a choice. I had to love her.”
I loce mt mama
castigations.
Going against their mother’s demands meant being stripped naked and forced to wallow or maybe get beaten with an electric cord.
Feel this
Her mom’s lie was audacious. Kathy needed medical attention. Not a stint in a dank outbuilding.
The motr is insane like your hild is dyin and shhs not dlingsnhin abkut it
She’d lost a lot of weight, and the sight of her made Nikki nearly gag. She was black and blue, and her skin hung in soft red folds.
I ge it
“Obviously I wasn’t a doctor, but I think anyone would probably know that there was no way that salt was going to do anything good for Kathy,”
St maeks bloafijng worse
After that was done, Shelly gave Kathy some pills and told her to take those too. Then they locked
I eojl die
Hideous bruising marked her body, and her skin hung in folds from extreme weight loss. She’d lost more than a hundred pounds since she’d moved in with the Knoteks.
Kathy’s death had been an accident. Natural causes. No one’s fault. He was going to have to get rid of her body.
Difficukt to nlt be halpy shes deadbc she was terrinlr
She loved her sisters more than anything, though she also wondered why her mother saw her so differently, treated her with such hatred.
Ilovr my sister mire thn anyhthung
She vomited and had diarrhea for more than a week. If she had hoped to make a statement living a real-life nightmare, no one picked up on
ME tofay
Yet by her senior year, Sami was taking a “fuck it” approach to life. She’d grown tired of covering up what her mom had been doing to her and her older sister. She’d learned from Nikki’s experience that not rocking the boat didn’t stop bad things from happening. It only allowed them to continue.
YEpppp hiding your secrets keepingyou si k
“We’re going to make arrangements to have your sister removed from the home,” the counselor said. “We are going to call your mom now.”
Yes thbank goodness
The state came in to investigate. Each time, Nikki and Lara would be dumbfounded as to why anyone would complain. The staff, patients, and their families all liked her.
Stockhm syndrome
There was a debt of $36,000 associated with her Social Security number. It wasn’t her name on the account, however.
My dad
need to see how you’re developing,” she said. “All moms do this.”
Ewww no thrg dont
Sometimes Shelly would tell Tori to remove her panties too, so she could examine her vagina.
Assait
Why would he disobey Mom? He knows what will happen to him. It made her so angry that he had done that.
Im afrwid pfher
and defensive. MK told me she did not want to ‘be put in a corner again.’”
This one night, us kids heard all kinds of things, so we peeked in Kathy’s room and saw Dad doing something to Kathy, ’cause [a] lot of white foaming stuff was coming out of Kathy’s mouth. I think Mom poisoned her. Or caused Kathy so much brain damage from hitting her in the head. But Kathy wasn’t moving. I think she was dead. We had to run back away from the room ’cause we are not allowed to be downstairs and we didn’t want Mom to know what we saw. She would beat us or do bad things to us if she knew what we saw.”
They are deplosravld psfejts
I hope Dad doesn’t commit suicide because of me.”
Thats jow i feel w my dad
“You need it. All girls do.”
Manchauzens ?
Normal is relative, and normal didn’t have much staying power at Monohon Landing Road.
She asked her mother about his significant weight loss.
“He needed to lose weight, Sami. He was fat. He’s eating healthy. No more junk food. He’s in the best shape he’s ever been. He has muscles where he never knew he
Lowkey trigerinf as im suffern from.anorexia like wowie ofc thi is so jarrin for me
On a separate occasion, Tori heard her mother telling Ron to be a man and jump. She went to look and could see Ron, wearing only underwear, climb to the rail and
SUch a abusve household
Shelly probably didn’t know that bleach was bad either, he said.
But those feet. They were so swollen he could barely move
Me woth neuropthy
but she didn’t want to carry the burden of defying their mother. Her mother had spent years telling
Oof this sounds like menta abue like id use my disorder to find awa to contrl it id feel ao unsafe
What if Nikki didn’t like her? Nikki had been such a huge influence in Tori’s life—taking care of her, playing with her. And then poof! She was suddenly
After all of that was done, she made the call to Dave.
DId shelly stge hissdeathas an accident withthe campin
“There’s no way she caused any abuse on Ron or Kathy. She just didn’t call when Ron passed on. It was just out of fear of what happened in the past. And like I say, my wife worries about everything and she was just looking after her family again. She’s just being the protector that she always is. I don’t see where she had done anything wrong at all.”
WOw he was ao maaipulated by her yk beieve she as good
“She did it before. She did it to all of us. She did it to Kathy.”
“Okay, Nikki,” Sami reasoned, “but Mom wouldn’t really hurt us. Shane was our brother.”
She disappeared and returned with a couple of tablets. “Take these.”
Plwcebos or just pushing or shovib emds ro shut them uo
After all they’d talked about, after every detail Sami knew to be true, she probably had the better grasp of what Shelly could, would, and had done. Nikki had confided in Sami that she thought at one time her parents had plotted to
Like lowwkey manchaasuenn disease im guessingin order to make the kids beliee tyar too sk an need sherri in order to suivive as thkug they dont know ho to take cae offt emselves
they send me back home, what will my mom do to me? she
Giss the fear
“Your mom is now putting stuff into your mind and accusing everyone else for talking about her. The authorities said DO NOT FALL for it.”
We all have to remember that mother is pretty smart, and she manages to weasel her way out of
YEs she does ann dhs trrifyin becaueofthi
“Killing someone is something you never get over,” he said. “Not even for a second. It’s always there.”
I mean ik wwuld hope not if you dd youre iknsmae
Victims of abuse can still love the monster. This ambivalent loyalty might just be the predator’s ultimate form of damage.
Ztockjmsyndrme
