The guard at the prison entrance looked at me with cold eyes. "Inmate Beaumont is not receiving visitors today."
"Please," I begged, clutching the visitor's pass in my trembling hand. "I need to see my father. It's about my mother—she's not well."
His expression remained unmoved. "Rules are rules, miss. You'll have to come back another day."
I bit my lip to hold back tears. After seeing my mother so deeply depressed, barely eating or moving, I'd come here desperate for advice from the only other person who might know how to help her.
"But I called ahead," I insisted. "They said visiting hours were open today."
"Special restrictions for this inmate." The guard's eyes flickered away from mine, and something in his evasive gaze made my blood run cold.
Before I could press further, a confident voice cut through the tension.
"Is there a problem here?"
