Muriel Hanigan's Links
Muriel is Connor's cousin. She's the only person his age he ever interacted with during his childhood. She was the closest person to him besides his mother. While Connor never actually told her about how his dad treated them, Muriel could see it wasn't good. Whenever she went to his house, she would try to make things nice for Connor so that he could forget how terrible his usual life was.
Connor is Muriel's cousin. Muriel was the only other person his age he ever interacted with throughout his childhood. She was the closest person to him besides his mother. While Connor never said anything to her about how his father ran the house, she was able to figure out that the situation was pretty bad. He enjoyed her presence as she made him feel a little less hopeless.