"How is she?"
The doctor put his equipment back into the medical box he carried along before answering the silver-haired man.
"The young lady is very lucky to be alive."
The doctor proceeds to list down all of Adelaide's injuries and explains how she could have gotten them as well as how long it would take to recover from them. The man listened without a word, but Adelaide could see that he was angry. His hands were clenched tight and trembling slightly. His sharp eyes were narrowed down at the doctor as though he wanted to choke him to death for saying that Adelaide has injuries.
But the most obvious sign was the loud voice that was resounding in Adelaide's head.
'How did she get injured to this point?'
'Lady Rosabella did mention that she was rebellious, and it was hard to discipline her'
'Could this be one of her rebellious acts? What is her purpose for making me pity her?'
'What does she want?'
Adelaide narrowed her eyes at the last thought. From her birth till now, she has only wanted one thing and that is to survive. Her life was always hanging on a thin thread and it was stressful that the thread could snap at any time. If God could grant her a wish, she would wish to survive without having to fear if she would be killed off the next day.
But it was a fruitless wish.
The doctor was about to end his visit when the silver-haired man stopped him.
"Doctor, my daughter said something strange before she fainted. She asked me who I was."
The doctor frowned as he pushed up his glasses and turned around to face Adelaide.
"Lady Adelaide, may I ask a few questions?"
Adelaide gingerly nodded, somewhat frightened at the sudden focus on her.
"What is your name?"
"Adelaide."
"Do you know where you are right now?"
Adelaide frowned and shook her head.
"Do you know who the silver-haired man is?"
Adelaide gripped her blanket in her small hands and shook her head again.
"How strange. Lady Adelaide, please do not move your head. I will need to re-examine it again," the doctor held her head and gently prodded the bleeding area that had been patched up and bandaged. Adelaide winced at the sudden pain and the doctor retreated his hands before turning to the silver-haired man.
"It seems like the head injury has caused the lady some memory loss. This condition is not something that can be cured by medicine."
"Memory loss?" The silver-haired man sat on the edge of her bed and peered into her eyes.
Surprised at the close distance between them, Adelaide flinched back. Whenever an adult comes near her, it would mean a beating. Grabbing her pillow from behind her, she hid behind them and gripped them tightly, using them as a guard against any potential attacks.
'Why is she so frightened?'
Adelaide was so tensed up that she did not notice her small frame was trembling. The silver-haired man stared at her, perplexed at her behavior before looking at the maids who normally take care of her for help.
The maids glanced at each other before one of them sighed and walked forward. Reaching out, she grabbed the pillow and tore it from Adelaide's grip with one hand and grabbed Adelaide's arm with the other, restraining her.
Adelaide yelped in pain at the force the maid was grabbing her with and felt tears run down her cheeks at the immense pain coming from the strong grip.
"Stop! What are you doing to a small child?" The doctor yelled, startled at the way the maid handled the lady she was serving.
"The lady is always so unruly. Lady Rosabella has instructed us to discipline the lady should she misbehaves. If we are not strict with her, her tantrums will grow even worse." The maid explained with a calm expression as though she was doing nothing wrong. In her mind, she was doing nothing wrong. The lady of the house has informed all the servants in the mansion that the young lady was going through a rebellious phase. She told them to use force if necessary to restrain the young lady so that the dignity of House Avington will not be tarnished by her bad behavior.
Normally, the young lady would not dare to cause such a fuss when there are guests present. Even more so, when her father is around. The young lady is extremely fearful of her father. She wouldn't dare to even make a noise when her father is near her. Her rebellious behavior is getting worse, just like how Lady Rosabella said it would. The maid narrowed her eyes at the young lady's resistance and yanked her arm hard, causing Adelaide to kneel on the bed with her arm being held up.
"Let me go, it hurts." Adelaide whimpered, unable to stop her tears. The maid was gripping on one of the bruises she had on her arms and it felt as if her arm was about to break.
"Let her go," the silver-haired man ordered.
"Master?" The maid furrowed her eyebrows, confused at the order.
"I said let her go," the silver-haired man glared at the maid's hand as though he wanted to sever it immediately.
"But Lady Rosabella said-"
"Is Lady Rosabella your employer or me?" The maid flinched at the cold tone and knew that she was stretching his patience and obediently let go of Adelaide's hand.
The moment Adelaide's hand was let go, she fell back to the bed causing some of her bandages to come apart. The doctor was flustered at the way the maid treated the young lady of the house and a patient on top of that. He quickly went forward to fix up all the bandages and re-examined if the rough handling of the maid had caused more injuries on the frail lady.
"Do you always treat the young lady like this?" The silver-haired man asked the maid.
The maid gave the explanation that was given to all employees by Lady Rosabella, somewhat frightened by the man's stern face.
"So the servants have been kicking my daughter around because she was rebellious?" The man shook his head and chuckled.
"Albert, get your ass in here."
The man that Adelaide first saw in the cellar entered the doors and respectfully waited for his master's orders.
"Fire every single servant in this mansion that has raised their hand against my daughter."
The maids stared at the silver-haired man in shock, unable to comprehend the fact that they had lost their jobs at that very instant.
"Master, please forgive me. I was following Lady Rosabella's orders, it was not my intention to cause any harm to the young lady." The maids crawled on their knees towards the silver-haired man, begging for forgiveness. If word got out that they were fired by Duke Avington himself, they would never get a job among the nobles again.
"Albert, drag them out. Get new ones for Adelaide, ones who know their place." The silver-haired man waved his hands and two men donning a sword and armor walked in and carried the two maids out of the room. Albert bowed once before he exited the room but not before throwing a curious glance at the confused young lady on the bed.
"I've patched up the young lady and left the prescription on the table. I'll come and visit the young lady for her head injury again in a week's time so please take care," the doctor bowed nervously before leaving as well.
Only Adelaide and the silver-haired man were left in the room.
"Are you always being treated like this?" The man broke the silence first.
Adelaide looked up from her fingers and into the man's eyes before giving a feeble answer.
"I guess so?"
The man frowned at her answer. Seeing the dissatisfied face, Adelaide hurriedly corrected herself.
"Normally they lock me up in the dark room for days so not many people will see me. When they don't see me, they don't hit me."
"Those bastards dared to-" The man stopped himself from swearing in front of a child but he didn't know that Adelaide has probably heard more vulgarities in her short life than him.
'Wait, he doesn't think I am lying anymore.'
As Adelaide realized this, the man stood up from the bed.
"Rest up well, I have some work I need to do." He told her as he walked towards the door.
"Ex-excuse me, I-" Adelaide sat up quickly from the bed and the man stopped in his steps.
"Stay on the bed and say it," Adelaide lied back down obediently at the command immediately and looked at the man.
"Thank you for calling the doctor, mister."
Nobody has done that for Adelaide before so it was a big deal to her. No matter how bad her injuries were, she was never allowed to visit the doctor or have a doctor tend to her. She was always left to her own devices in that dark attic room or storage shed and she would have to fix herself up with torn pieces of cloth or steal some medicine from the medicine cabinet secretly to fix her wounds. Adelaide was really thankful to the man for stopping the maid and also for calling the doctor for her.
"What did you call me?" The man raised an eyebrow before walking back to the bed.
"Mister?" Adelaide blinked her innocent eyes at the man, unsure of what she did wrong.
"Oh right, memory loss. Looks like it's quite severe." The man mumbled to himself before he stared straight at her.
"I am your father so don't call me mister." Adelaide knew that he was the master of the mansion and given the same color of their hair, they are related. They even have the same surname, Adelaide wasn't that stupid.
But her parents in her past life did not allow her to call them Mother and Father. She had to address them as Mister and Madam. Not that she had many chances to meet with her father to call her that. Her mother, on the other hand, would find her to vent frequently. She had to address her as Madam and kneel down before her like a maid and take the beating silently.
Adelaide was not sure if she was allowed to call the man "Father" and so she called him Mister. She did not expect the man to want her to call him "Father".
She pulled her blankets up to her chin and shyly called out, "Father?"
Hearing no response, Adelaide sneaked a peek at the man's face and was surprised at how it was faintly red.
'Is he shy?'
Adelaide had always wanted a happy family and experience life's joys like how her brother did. She had many things she wanted to try in this dream family of hers in her mind and looking at the man in front of her, she decided to push her luck a little bit.
"Daddy?"