Vance walked up to Daniel and pulled his hands from his pockets.

The metal handcuffs clicked loudly in the quiet lobby.

Daniel did not struggle, but his fingers clenched into tight fists.

“You are making a mistake, Emily,” Daniel whispered, his voice dangerously low. “You will lose everything.”

“I have already lost everything that mattered to you, Daniel,” I said.

The officers led Daniel toward the lobby doors.

His lawyers followed closely behind, speaking rapidly into their phones.

As the doors closed behind them, a woman in a dark blue suit walked into the lobby from the administrative corridor.

She held a clipboard and wore a badge from the state medical board.

“Are you Emily Vance?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said, holding my boys closer.

“I am Dr. Aris,” she said. “The board has just suspended the operating license of Carter Medical.”

I stared at her, trying to process her words.

“What about my mother?” I asked. “Where is she?”

“An investigation team is going down to the boiler room archives now,” Dr. Aris said. “We have reason to believe patients were kept in unlisted wards.”