Ellie turned to Joe in the middle of the room, but she couldn't meet his eyes. They stood in silence, neither of them sure of what to say. Joe sighed and plopped down on the salon chair while Ellie followed suit and took the chair along the wall.

"This is ridiculous," Ellie finally said loud enough for Tessa and Freya on the other side of the door to hear. "They can't just lock us in here."

Joe rolled his head back and stretched his neck, looking at the ceiling as he spun in the chair.

"Apparently they can."

"Well, I have nothing to say to you."

"So you're still choosing to be stubborn," Joe said, earning an eye roll from Ellie. "I guess I can't blame you. You probably learned how to hold a grudge from me, anyway."

Ellie's eyes narrowed towards Joe and finally met his gaze when he lifted his head. He looked bored, like being betrayed and held captive by his wife in Freya's salon was the least of his problems.

"Look, Ellie—"

"There's probably a fire escape outside." Ellie walked over to the window and, sure enough, there was a series of metal platforms and ladders leading from the third floor to the ground.

Joe stood to open the window, but Ellie pushed him away.

"I can do it," she insisted. But after a few attempts to lift the bottom pane, it refused to budge. Joe finally stepped in and nudged Ellie to the side. The window creaked and groaned like it wanted to move, but it'd been painted shut. Finally, Joe threw his hands up in defeat, falling back into the spinning chair. He chewed on his bottom lip and swiveled back and forth.

They sat in silence, neither of them wanting to be the first to speak. After what she said to him, Ellie knew she needed to be the one to break the ice that had frozen between them, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Every time she thought she found the right words, her tongue felt paralyzed.

Ellie figured that if they waited long enough, Tessa and Freya would let them out eventually. They couldn't keep them locked in the salon forever. So to pass the time, Ellie inspected Freya's workstation.

Despite Freya's energetic and carefree approach to life, she was a surprisingly tidy person, something Ellie learned in the last few days of living with her. Freya kept her salon space neat and organized. Everything on the table was arranged intentionally, down to the last hairpin.

Freya didn't have many personal effects on display, except for a dual photo frame nestled near the center of the table next to the combs. Ellie picked up the cheap wooden frame and ran her thumb along the edge. The bottom photo showed Enrique Iglesias splayed out in a sunny patch of grass with the same distant gaze he always wore, like he couldn't be bothered to enjoy fresh air. The top photo, a happy memory frozen in time, showed Ellie and Freya together at Ellie's birthday party months ago. The two were leaning in close; Freya wore her usual wide smile, and Ellie showed off a grin that reached her eyes. Ellie remembered that moment. Joe and Tessa did not trust Freya at the time, but Ellie did. The Ellie in the photo never would have thought that, a few months later, Freya would conspire with Tessa to lock her in a room against her will.

Returning the frame to its original position, Ellie turned to Joe, who was preoccupied with studying a water stain on the ceiling.

"Why did you lie to me?" Ellie asked.

With his neck still laid back, Joe tilted his head towards Ellie, his eyebrows pressed together.

"Freya told me everything," Ellie continued. "Why did you take the blame for her?"

A deep sigh pushed its way out of Joe's chest and he sat up straight.

"I didn't lie to you. You just chose to believe what you wanted to believe."

"You could have said Freya was the one that told them to pull me out. Why would you let me believe it was you?"

"You were hellbent on blaming someone, and I didn't want you to be mad at Freya. I figured you needed a friend more than you needed me, anyway."

Joe planted his heels on the floor and turned the chair back and forth. Ellie was amazed by his lack of reaction to their situation, and she feared that her decision to leave the house had something to do with it. She decided that if they were going to be stuck together, she might as well try to get him back on her side.

"I could have gotten a confession out of Him," she said, thinking maybe three days would be enough to change Joe's mind. But she was wrong.

"We've been over this, Ellie. You weren't ready and you panicked. I didn't make the call to pull you out, but I wish I had."

Anger boiled in Ellie again, prompting her to raise her voice.

"All I wanted was to get justice for someone else. I could have died like Anna did. Lizzie could have died like her. Wouldn't you want to know who killed your niece if that happened? I was the only one He would talk to, and for once I wanted to be brave like you and Tessa are."

"What you did wasn't brave; it was senseless. I'm not going to sit back and watch you self-destruct."

Lacking any sort of response, Ellie threw her arms up in defeat and stomped back to the window. Convincing Joe that she was capable of more than he thought was proving pointless. With Freya and Tessa blocking the door, the window was her only hope of escape, so she fixed her palms against the glass and pushed as hard as she could.

Probably feeling the same amount of urgency to get out of there as she was, Joe finally decided to join her. Ellie stepped aside to give him another try, but the window was as stubborn as she was.

Even though Joe was significantly stronger than Ellie, she stepped in to do her part after his arms fell in yet another defeat. Ellie grunted and her jaw tightened as she made another feeble attempt at freeing the edges of the window from their painted bondage. She could have sworn she felt something budge, but her arms ultimately fell limp after another unsuccessful try. It didn't help that her arms already felt like jelly after going so hard at the punching bag a few hours before.

With still no escape in sight, Ellie sighed and turned to Joe. Her eyes threatened to well with tears as she stared at the only man in her life who consistently cared about her. No matter how many times she unintentionally pushed him away, he stayed, and he continued to care.

"I don't like being mad at you," she said, fixing her hands against the window again. "I need you."

This time, Joe stepped up beside her and grasped the top of the pane while Ellie took the bottom. They both pushed up on the window with all their might. It nudged ever so slightly but shifted back into place when Ellie lost her footing. She repositioned herself and pushed again.

As they pushed upwards together, the window gave way a little bit more.

"I'm trying, El," he grunted through gritted teeth. They both went silent as they channeled everything into breaking the window open, each of them playing their part to escape.

Finally, the bottom pane cracked open with a jolt, and the warm late spring air greeted them.

Ellie and Joe sighed together, their arms aching from the amount of force it took to free themselves. Joe wasted no time before he crawled out the window, then poked his head back in and extended his hand towards Ellie.

"I don't know what I'm doing," he said as he pulled Ellie onto the metal platform with him. "I'm not built to be a parent like Chase and Tessa are. These things don't come naturally to me. All I know is how to keep you safe, but I can't even do that right."

He started to climb down the first ladder and jumped halfway down to the second platform, landing with a metallic thud that bounced off the tightly packed surrounding buildings and seemed to rattle the structure. Or maybe it seemed that way to Ellie, considering she had a sudden newfound fear of heights. As she stepped onto the first rung, she looked down from the top floor of the three-story building. The alleyway below seemed farther down than she anticipated, and her grip on the side of the ladder tightened.

"I don't need you to keep me safe anymore," she said, trying to control her wavering voice as she descended the ladder. "I need you to support me." When she was far enough down, Joe held her arm and guided her the rest of the way to his platform.

After making sure Ellie had her footing, Joe started down the second ladder.

"I want to protect you," he said, looking up at her as his hands followed his feet, rung by rung. After he dropped to the ground, he extended his arms to give Ellie the green light to climb down as well. He waited until she reached the bottom rung, which stopped four feet above the ground. It was a jump she could have made on her own, but he still offered his hands to guide her to safety.

After making sure Ellie was firm on her feet, Joe looked at her with soft eyes.

"I can't watch you suffer like you did in the beginning. You were afraid of your own shadow. I could see it happening again in that prison, and it felt like there was nothing I could do to stop it."

Ellie returned Joe's gaze. The few days since she decided he would be the target of her anger suddenly felt like a lifetime of regret.

"I'm not the same person I was when you met me," she said. Joe's eyebrows pressed together and he attempted a smile.

"I know. Freya's a good friend, but sometimes I wish you still needed me."

Ellie's heart swelled. She wrapped her arms around him, and he responded with the same gesture.

"You're my dad," she said into his shirt. "I'm sorry for what I said to you and that I left home. I still need you. But I also need you to support me in this."

Ellie felt Joe tense under her grasp. He moved his hands to her shoulders and pulled away so they were looking into each other's eyes.

"You're not seriously talking about going back to that prison, are you?"

"Anna's family deserves to know who killed her. Please. I want to do this, but I can't do it without you."

Joe sighed. His somber eyes told Ellie that he still didn't want her to go back, but hers asked him to trust her.

"Okay," he finally said. "Okay. Yes. But trust works both ways, El. If it goes south again, you need to trust that I'm doing what's best for you."

Despite the implications of what she was set out to do, Ellie smiled.

"Should we get Tessa and Freya now," she asked, but Joe shrugged.

"Let them figure it out for themselves. I think I saw an ice cream place down the street."

Gravel crunched under their feet as they walked together, and Ellie felt a sense of relief that balance had been restored. She trusted Joe, and he trusted her. The ultimate test, though, was still waiting in prison.