And with each passing minute, the families waiting in the corridor had grown more desperate. More angry. More irrational. The thin veneer of civilization that wealth and status usually provided had worn away completely, revealing the raw, primal fear beneath.
"WHERE IS MY GRANDSON?!" Madam Chen's voice was hoarse from screaming, the carefully cultivated elegance of her usual tone completely shredded. Her carefully styled hair had come loose from its pins, hanging in disheveled strands around her face. Her expensive makeup was streaked with tears and sweat, mascara running in black rivulets down her cheeks. She looked like someone on the edge of complete breakdown, teetering on that knife's edge between sanity and whatever lay beyond it.
