CHAPTER FIFTEEN – EXTRA SECURITY

She kept her eyes stubbornly averted during these gauntlets of hostility, flinching with every burst of luminescence but refusing to grant them the satisfaction of cowering. The last vestiges of her pride were all she had left to cling to. "This has gone on long enough!" Richard finally erupted, slamming his meaty fist down on the polished nurses' station counter with enough force to make the entire structure shudder. A terrified-looking nurse clutching a fistful of files shrank back, her eyes widening in alarm at his sudden outburst. "I'm s-sorry sir, but the security staff have made it clear—" she began tremulously before being cut off. "To hell with your blasted security staff!" Richard bellowed, causing the cluster of nurses and orderlies in the vicinity to start like a covey of spooked birds. "They've proved utterly incapable of protecting my little girl from these pestilential vermin!" Lillian laid a calming hand on her husband's forearm, though her own jaw was set in a taut