Renovator
I liked the into, I do have a critism though. I see this all the time with tragic backstories, and that is overloading it with tragedy to the point it's almost unrealistic. currently there doesn't seem to be a motivation for the man to adopt a child, nor for the child not to report him for abuse or just run away. It might have been a stronger choice to have things start out alright, and then have things turn for the worse ...like the guys wife dies and then he gradually gets more abusive and things spiral. this kind of choice is also more emotionally tragic since he stays because of a faulty hope things will improve. In so many stories the tragic background , to me, comes off as needlessly cruel. I think cruelty needs a reason to be really engaging. still it's a strong opening keep up the good work.
Nice backstory Though I don't like it when the author just tells us everything that happened in the past and that's it. I guess if you told us slowly, bit by bit through his memories, and mainly through his interactions with other people, cause an insecure and full of trauma person almost always will have problems to communicate. This would give him another depth and also be kinda mysterious. But I also get it that this would give a lot of workđŁ Good chapter anyway
I don't know how the process of Adoption work in your country. However, most of them have strict requirement to make the adoption possible. Most adoption organizations require that the adopter is mentally and financially capable of maintain the adopted kid. This chapter feels really unnecessary and with amount of cruelty and misfortune completely unreasonable and baseless. Author, was there a logical and important reason to have this kind of background?