From the author:"My writing is mission oriented and imbued with a deeper purpose because of my traumatic life experiences: I write nonfiction in order to make an appreciable dent in the effect of domestic violence and dysfunction upon children, families and individuals, as well as long term consequences of dysfunction and domestic violence upon society in general"Torn From the Inside Out by Sara Niles is a narrative memoir Sara Niles was given away to her elderly great-great uncle and aunt, when she was only 3 1/2 years old, in order for them to raise little Sara as their own child when both were in their eighties; the transfer required only the simple request "May we have her?"Sara's kind and noble caretakers died when she was still a child, catapulting Sara into an uncertain future , and inevitably influencing Sara's decision to marry Thomas Niles when she was only sixteen years old. Unknown to Sara, Niles was both abusive and mentally unstable, alternating between the kind and loving husband Sara thought she married, and the controlling and violent tyrant who threatened that he would kill her if she ever dared to leave him.After almost fifteen years of abuse and five children later, Sara made the life or death decision to flee for her life during a February thunderstorm, with her five young children in tow. Sara fled with no certain destination and no sure outcome; like a blind run into the dead of night. The date was February 13, 1987, during the time between the dark of night and the breaking of dawn.