Chapter 07: Who is Avery Rossi?!!

Dario's POV

I had just left her room and was now in mine and I couldn't help but wonder what I'd gotten myself into. Just within the time frame from our journey to here, I noticed that she seemed to be talking out loud to herself….or something else I couldn't see.

Had I brought a crazy person into my house? Even if I did, I didn't regret it though. I had no idea why I felt this differently towards her, but I really felt that she was different.

When we were on the road, I heard her say something about not afraid of being starved and how she was sure she could bear anything as long as it wasn't rape. It seemed like she was replying to someone, but when I turned, she had her cheeks glued to the window and seemed to be amazed with the sights she was seeing outside.

I still thought she was having a connection with the outside world  though, so I took out my scanner just to make sure I wasn't taking home a bug and to my surprise, she was clean, leaving me wondering who the hell it was that she was talking to.

Throughout the rest of the ride, she was quiet, and I began to think that maybe she was actually talking to one of us, but we didn't know it was us, but that thought changed when we arrived at the house.

After I asked her to step out of the car, she said…. I'd forgotten what it was, but I knew I considered it rude at that moment, but then she apologized to me and said she was talking to the annoying bitch living in her head.

Did that mean that she knew that no other person could see whatever it was that she was talking to? I've never been this curious about anybody ever before.

Now that I thought of it, I had no idea why I put her in the room which I put her in. I initially planned to keep her in the basement where I've always kept the rest of my captives, but something kept pushing me to make her comfortable. I had no idea what it was though.

Anyways, I had really important stuff to get done, so I might as well get her off my mind.

I had been in my study for about three hours and I wasn't near done, although I planned to do some light work, which entailed being in there an hour and thirty minutes max. I even had plans to make dinner and here I was wasting away.

I checked my wristwatch and it was just 6:38pm. It wasn't too late to start making dinner. I quickly got up and headed to the kitchen to quickly whip up some Mac and cheese, seeing as I was really good at that and I had a guest in the house. I wouldn't want her rejecting my food from the first day.

I had no idea why I was even calling her a guest. She was my captive and I was her captor; I wasn't even supposed to be making her dinner or even letting her stay here comfortably, but seeing as I couldn't get myself to do the opposite, I just got to cooking.

I had been cooking for over twenty minutes and I hadn't heard a sound from her, so I decided to go check if she was alright. I mean, she wasn't locked in, neither did I restrict her from coming out, so I had no idea why she wasn't out yet.

Could it be that she was already used to the captivity in her father's home?! Cause I already knew they were treating her as a captive, what I didn't know was how long it had been.

“Hey Avery.” I called out at her door after I knocked and she refused to respond.

She still didn't answer, causing me to shove the door wide open. The sight I saw left me speechless.

There was Avery on the floor, shivering and still in the worn out sweatshirt she was wearing before we came here. Tears were rolling down her thin cheeks in huge balls.

“What are you doing? Get off the floor.” I ordered angrily. I wasn't about to have a sick kid on my hand.

She slowly and shakily got herself off the floor and onto the bed as I wrapped her in the duvet and turned on the heater, seeing as the room was freezing.

“Why aren't you putting on warmer clothing?” I asked after she had calmed down a bit.

“This is the warmest I've got.” She whispered in her baby voice, making it a lot more difficult to hear her.

“What do you mean? Like this is the warmest clothing you can find in your suitcase?” I was confused.

She nodded. “Yeah, and it's a cloth bag I have. Not a suitcase.”

I stared back at her in annoyed shock as to how a father let his daughter have that won't out trash as her warmest clothing. Even if she was being punished.

“If you knew that your clothes weren't warm enough, what were you doing on the floor? Shouldn't you have been on the bed, wrapped up in the duvet?”

“My clothes are dirty and I didn't want to get your sheets dirty.” She whined. “I didn't want to piss you off.” She looked down at her hands apologetically.

I sighed. “You know what? It's fine. I'll get you some good clothes tomorrow, but for now make sure you wrap up and stay warm. And keep your heater on. I'm not having any sick, malnourished kid die on me.” I scolded as she quickly nodded.

“Now get ready. Dinner will be served in the next ten minutes.” I said and walked away, not bothering to see if she nodded a reply or mouthed it.

Ten minutes later, she was seated at the dinner table, and not wanting to be the cause of her wait, I quickly served her and went to prepare my own plate.

Finally I was done and out to the table with my plate.

“So how do you like it?” I asked, but she only grunted a reply, causing me to look up.

She was eating like she hadn't eaten in years and her stacked plate was already almost empty. I didn't blame her though. I was sure she hadn't had good food in a really long while.

“Would you like more food?” I asked in curious excitement.

“Yes please.” She stared down at her hands timidly as I stood up, grabbed her plate and went to get her some more food.

“Here's your food.” I put it in front of her, and she immediately pounced on it like a rabid animal and as I sat, I couldn't help but wonder.

What had she been going through while she was with Marco?!

She didn't even look anything like him, unlike his other children, so was she really his?!

Who is Avery Rossi?!