“The cameras in this section went dark ten minutes ago.”

“The staff has been sent home for the night shift.”

“It is just us, the snow, and a very unfortunate accident.”

The three guards behind him moved into a semi-circle, cutting off our escape toward the main gate.

The cold was starting to seep deep into my bones, making my knees ache.

I looked down at the wooden bird in my father’s hands.

The paint was chipped, but I could still see the blue and green colors I had helped him paint when I was eight.

Everything I thought I knew about my life was a lie constructed by the Bellamy Group.

“Why?” I asked, looking directly into Trevor’s cold eyes.

“Why did Julian Bellamy want my father locked away in a private asylum?”

Trevor sighed, as if he were explaining a simple chore to a slow employee.

“Your father was a brilliant engineer, Emily,” Trevor said.

“But he was also stubborn.”

“He found a flaw in the structural foundation of the Crystal Oak development.”

“A flaw that would have cost the Bellamy Group hundreds of millions of dollars to fix.”