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When she wrote her book, The Quiet Damage, the journalist Jesselin Cook, said she wanted to open people's minds to a different way of thinking about those who believe in outlandish conspiracies or radical ideologies. Yes, they can seem like lunatics. And yes, some of this stuff is offensive and racist. But Cook employs empathy as a tool to understand why people latch on to this bonkers stuff.

And she tells the story through the experiences of five different families, families whose lives were ripped apart by the Q&ONN conspiracy theory.

One of them is Adams.

As a little boy, Adam adored his father.

He looked up to his father like a hero.

He was this very successful man,

provided a lot for his family,

gave him a beautiful life and a rural home in the South.

Adam wanted to be just like him.

And then tragedy strikes this family.

Adam and his sisters aren't aware of this at the time, but his dad has a very serious

gambling problem.

And when his father loses a really devastating bet, he ends up taking his own life.

This completely shatters all the children, but Adam especially had this very close connection to his dad.

And in this really dark time, he develops this new, very beautiful relationship with his mother, Emily.

She has been a stay-at-home mom for a really long time,

but she realizes she needs to provide for her kids,

so she ultimately goes to school and becomes a lawyer.

Eventually, his two older sisters go off to college, and it's just Adam and his mom, Emily,

at home, and they become just best friends.

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