“Why didn’t you say anything?” I demanded, tears hot on my cheeks.

“Bellamy threatened to ruin me,” Kenneth said.

“He told me my family would suffer if your father ever left this room.”

“The Bellamy Group has eyes everywhere in this city.”

Charles let go of the doctor’s coat and knelt down.

He snatched the heavy brass key ring from the concrete floor.

“Which key bypasses the lock?” Charles demanded.

Kenneth pointed a shaking finger at a small, silver key with a blue plastic tab.

“That one,” Kenneth said. “It is the manual override key.”

“It only works from the corridor side.”

Charles grabbed the key and shoved it into the brass lock beside the glass pane.

He turned it with all his strength.

A heavy mechanical click echoed through the frame.

I grabbed the handle and threw the heavy door open.

The air inside the small room was freezing and smelled of bleach.

My father stood just three feet away from me.

He looked so frail, his skin almost translucent under the red flashing lights.

“Emily?” he whispered.

His voice was thin, like dry paper scraping against stone.