Chapter 3: A Father's Heartbreak
1210 Words
A cold wind blew as stars fell from the sky. William Durand spent the entire night sleepless, sitting on the sofa like a monk in deep meditation. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him seemed to be disturbed by his very breath.
The thought of his child constantly tugged at his heart, causing his eyes to burn with a blood-red intensity. After a while, the air shimmered, and Michael materialized beside William.
"My Lord, we've found her," Michael reported.
Two cold beams of light shot from William's reddened eyes. He took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly as he commanded, "Speak."
"The child is alive. She's in an orphanage."
William immediately stood up and headed for the door, with Michael following closely behind. They drove off, ignoring traffic lights and speeding at over 180 mph. Within minutes, they arrived at the suburban orphanage.
"We're here, My Lord. This is the place," Michael announced as he pulled up.
Before the car had fully stopped, William was already at the entrance. With a silent command, the main gate swung open automatically. His spiritual sense swept through the orphanage, analyzing every life form within. But the result made him frown.
"Michael, why isn't my child here?"
Michael's expression turned grave as he approached William. He took a deep breath and pointed to a dog kennel in the corner of the yard. "My Lord, over there."
William's heart skipped a beat. Blood rushed to his head, and he nearly fainted. If not for Michael supporting him, he might have collapsed on the spot.
When he first entered the orphanage, William had released his spiritual sense. He knew there was a life form in the kennel but assumed it was just the orphanage's dog. Now, seeing it with his own eyes, he realized the truth - inside the kennel was a little girl in tattered clothes, fast asleep.
In that instant, William's eyes clouded over with a film of tears, bloodshot and filled with anguish.
The child's living conditions were abysmal. Not only was she in a tiny dog kennel, but her clothes were in tatters, barely covering her small frame. Due to severe malnutrition, she was skeletal, her hair dry and brittle, her skin a sickly dark color.
The kennel was filthy, with excrement and urine left unattended. Most heartbreaking of all was the dog collar fastened around the little girl's neck. She had truly been treated like an animal.
At this moment, William's heart shattered into a million pieces.
"My Lord..." Michael began, trying to offer some comfort, but William raised a hand, signaling for silence.
His body trembling, William approached the kennel. The stench was overwhelming, but he paid it no mind. He gazed at the small face, peaceful yet troubled in sleep, and felt his heart constrict with pain.
The child's face was the spitting image of Sarah, like a miniature version of his wife. But the girl was so much thinner, a hundred times more frail than Sarah had ever been.
William had no doubt - this was his and Sarah's daughter.
The little one seemed to sense a presence. She stirred from her sleep, and upon seeing William, let out a frightened cry and quickly retreated to the back of the kennel.
Heartbroken, William paid no attention to the filth as he crawled into the kennel and embraced his daughter's tiny, fragile body.
"Don't be afraid, sweetheart. It's Daddy," he said, his voice choked with emotion.
Tears streamed down his face as he held the child tightly, but she continued to struggle and scream. With grimy fingernails, she frantically clawed at William's clothes and bit into his neck with her small, sparse teeth.
Afraid of hurting her, William restrained his strength. The little girl showed no mercy, biting through his skin and drawing blood. But this physical pain was nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
William had thought that after crawling out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood over the years, he had become someone beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Now, seeing his daughter, he realized that all his past sufferings were nothing in comparison.
He couldn't even begin to imagine what his little girl had been through.
"My child, Daddy is so sorry," William murmured, holding his daughter close despite her struggles.
When William's hot tears fell on the girl's face, she slowly released her bite and looked up at him in confusion. She didn't understand why he was crying. Since she could remember, she had been the only one who ever cried.
When other children threw things at her and beat her...
When she had no food and her stomach ached with hunger...
When thunderstorms raged, and she felt afraid...
Now, for the first time, she saw someone other than herself crying. This made the little girl feel a strange sense of connection. Because he and she were the same.
The child smiled, gently touching William's cheek. She wiped away his tears with her finger and put it in her mouth.
"No, that's dirty!" William quickly pulled her finger away, noticing the grime and traces of excrement under her nails.
The little girl looked at William in confusion, not understanding his reaction.
Suppressing the pain in his heart, William gently stroked his daughter's head and said, "Now, Daddy's going to take you away from here. We'll get you something good to eat, give you a bath, and buy you some nice clothes!"
The mention of food was something the child understood. Her dull eyes suddenly lit up, and a smile spread across her small, wan face.
Seeing this smile only made William's heart ache more. He took a deep breath, and with a thought, the dog chain snapped. Holding his daughter close, he carried her out of the kennel.
Just as William stepped out, a disgruntled voice came from behind him. "Who's there? It's early morning, can't you let people sleep?"
Hearing this voice, the little girl became terrified and burrowed deeper into William's chest.
The newcomer was a fat woman. When she saw William, her face immediately turned cold. "Who are you? Why are you at our orphanage so early in the morning? Are you here to steal children?"
William gently stroked his daughter's dry, messy hair and said in a soothing tone, "Don't be afraid. Daddy's here. No one can hurt you now."
Hearing this, his daughter calmed down a bit but still hid in William's chest, not daring to show her face.
The fat woman let out a cold laugh. "Oh my! You haven't even adopted her and you're already calling yourself 'Daddy'? How presumptuous!"
William's face turned icy. "You're frightening my daughter."
The obese woman laughed coldly again. "So what if I scare her? What are you going to do about it? Who do you think you are? You're nothing! What right do you have to question me?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Michael swiftly delivered a slap that sent the fat woman flying.
"Ah! You... you dare hit me?" she screamed, covering her face with a hateful expression.
Michael pulled out a tissue, wiping his hand with a cold expression as he spoke, "Disrespecting My Lord deserves far worse than a mere slap."
- Writer
