Page 183 of Poison Vows

“Samuel and I met when we were just boys. We clicked instantly,” Grandpa Armando starts in a fond tone. “It was the summer before he started med school, and I had visited California to escape my father. We got into some trouble that day that had us both in jail at the end of the day.”

He throws his head back and chuckles.

“Now, I can’t tell you what happened. It’s not worth remembering but just know that bastard had a mean right hook! I told him right then and there that I want him to come work for me and guess what? I knocked me out too!”

Grandpa Armando laughs again; a belly laugh that brings tears to his eyes.

“He must’ve been offended by that, but I just wanted someone with his expertise in fighting. When I explained that to Samuel he then laughed and said that’s not the kind of fighting he wants to do. So, naturally, I asked what he wanted to fight for, he looked me square in the eye and he said, and I quote:‘Lives. I want to fight to save lives.’”

Before I realize it, tears well up in my eyes.

“We became friends. Exchanged letters here and there, updating each other about our lives. I told him about my upcoming responsibilities as heir. He told me about the mean nurse who looked down her nose at him at his hospital and how he’s annoyed by her. I wasn’t surprised when I received another letter telling me that he finally couldn’t take it anymore, so hemarried the mean but actually soft-hearted nurse who had the same passion as him.”

Grammy!

“I told him about Narcissa, my beloved wife and how she was pregnant with my daughter after trying for years. You see, he had been telling me that it would happen for us so I told him if it did, I’d build a hospital for him and make him the chief and chairman of the board. He replied with the location, size of the hospital, plans for the building and the amount he needed.”

“Wait, what?” I ask, surprised by this.

“Yes! That hospital your grandmother still works at now, it was built by your grandfather from the bet we made over my daughter’s life.”

Whoa! “This is crazy!”

“Is it? Westbrook Blues has already been prime location for a few select families already. The Beaumont’s family had owned the whole lot, from the valley to the mountains. I wanted in, so we made a deal, but it was my daughter who saw it through and built her home there. Of course, Samuel had since completed the hospital and had been living there for years.” Grandpa Armando divulges all this history with a faraway look in his eyes.

“I sent my daughter and her husband to live in Westbrook Blues the moment she told me she was pregnant.” His voice takes a mellow tone, depressed and low. “I thought she’d be safe that way. Besides, I trusted my friend to keep an eye on her health and everything. It was going well. When he told me his once promising daughter had moved back home, I was happy because the girls grew up together. All this was good and well until my daughter was taken years later. Two days later, Samuel called me and told me how he’d been working with trafficking victims that had been rescued and how he’d seen my daughter at one of the warehouses, but he wasn’t sure.”

“Jesus,” I gasp, hearing the story for the first time. I remember Gramps did a lot of charity work and outreaches.

“I told him that my daughter had been taken. Alessio was in the hospital. I had no idea what to do and he told me that he’d look into it. Now, I was already on my way to Westbrook Blues when Samuel called back. He told me that he had my Daphne. I was beside myself with relief and so much anger when Samuel described the state my daughter was in. He urgently told me to hurry up and meet him because something was wrong… and well, you know the rest.”

That’s when the accident happened.

“Your grandfather sacrificed himself to rescue my daughter. I didn’t even know his own little princess was in the car too,” Grandpa Armando glances at me with an apology in his eyes. “Even though we talked to each other on the phone, we still wrote to each other. This is one of the last letters he sent me. The rest are none of your business.”

He laughs and then pushes the letter into my hand.

“Go on,” he encourages. “Read it.”

With my heart in my throat, I carefully pull out the letter from the weathered envelope, then unfold it with trembling fingers. When I read the first line, tears spill over like a flood.

October 15th 1998

Old friend! Today is a great day!

I have a granddaughter now and she’s the love of my life!

Ivy Marie Irving.

She’s so tiny, cries a lot, but old friend, one look at her is enough to be won over!

As a parent, you think of all the failures and mistakes you made with your child.

But as a grandfather, you dwell on what you hope for them.

Old friend, I want my granddaughter to know how loved she is.

She is special. Her light is unmatched.

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