CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN – STUCK IN THE ASYLUM

Lance, desperate to reach his wife, to pull her back from the brink of whatever abyss she had stumbled into, fought tirelessly against the bureaucratic barriers that stood in his way. He made countless phone calls, penned impassioned letters, even showed up at the facility in person, pleading with the staff to allow him to see Kayla. "Please, you have to let me through," he begged, his eyes rimmed with exhaustion and fear. "Kayla needs me – she needs to know that she's not alone in this, that there are people who love her, who believe in her." But his pleas fell on deaf ears, the facility's protocols unyielding in the face of his desperation. Dr. Foster, ever the master manipulator, had ensured that Kayla remained isolated, cut off from the very lifelines that could have anchored her to reality. Yet even in her drug-addled state, glimpses of Lance's tireless efforts managed to pierce the fog that surrounded Kayla's mind. Fleeting images of him pacing outside the facility's gates