The Princess and the Pauper (Arabella and Romeo) novel Chapter 1271

"Long ago, your grandpa and I used to travel around, and during one of our trips, we got involved in a bit of a situation. It was on a morning near a desert. There was a woman who ran a food stall by the wayside. She was a gentle and kind soul."

"One day, her gambling-addicted husband came to the stall and demanded money from her to throw away at his gambling den, completely disregarding their sick child who was in the hospital and needed money for treatment. When she refused, he started hitting her right in front of everyone and even threatened to kill her in his fit of rage."

Arabella was shocked to hear such a story.

"Everyone around was scared, no tourists dared to intervene. After all, who wanted to risk their life while they were out enjoying themselves. But your grandpa, seeing the man pull out a knife, fearing he might hurt someone, went forward to stop him. But your grandpa was up there in age, and he got hit a few times."

"Then our bodyguard arrived, quickly restrained him, and handed him over to the police. I felt sorry for the woman running the food stall, so I gave her a few thousand dollars to use for her child's treatment."

Arabella understood, "So you think that Grandpa might have hurt his heart then?"

"The woman's husband was a tall and strong man, and he hit with such force. But I can't remember whether he hit the heart."

"Did Grandpa say anything about feeling unwell when he came back?"

"He mentioned it, but the doctors checked him several times and could never find anything wrong. We didn't take it seriously, we thought he was just getting old and had high blood pressure.”

They never expected it to be a ruptured heart!

If it wasn't for Bella's timely discovery and surgery, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Bella, your grandmother wants to visit you and your grandpa in Dawnstar in a couple of days. Can you talk to Sampson and get him to agree to let me go out. You’re a doctor, and you're his precious niece, he'll definitely listen to you. I’m old, no one listens to what I say anymore.”