This woman thought nothing of it when she decided to assist an old man stranded beside the road. But she would soon discover that her decision was a regretful one because she got the shock of a lifetime when the old man suddenly showed up at her front door the following day.
Bella felt the fresh breeze on her face as she got on her bike and steered home. She had just finished her last day of work for the week and had a lovely, cozy weekend ahead. But as she was cycling home, something suddenly caught her attention. In the distance, a car was in the bike lane ahead, and someone was waving with a red jerry can. It was a busy road, and with the car blocking the bike lane, Bella would have to cross the street. She hoped someone would help the person before she arrived, but as she got closer, nobody had stopped.
However, when Bella got close enough to see who the person was, she was surprised to find that it was an old man. “How can everyone just ignore an elderly person in need?” she mumbled as a frown appeared on her face. Without hesitation, she stopped beside him and asked what was going on. The old man looked grateful that someone had finally stopped and explained that he had miscalculated his car’s tank and had run out of gas.
“The closest gas station is at least 3 miles out, and I can’t make such a journey anymore,” he said, gesturing to his legs.
Bella felt terrible for the old man and offered to take the jerry can to the gas station and fill it up. “But I’m on a bicycle, so it will take some time,” she said. The man was happy to wait, and when she finally returned with a full jerry can, he couldn’t thank her enough. Bella was just happy to have been able to help. “Doing good deeds will always have a positive effect,” she said as she said goodbye to the old man, thinking that would be the last she would see of him.
But she would soon discover that this particular good deed would come back to haunt her. The following day, Bella’s weekend would start very differently than she imagined. As she opened the fridge to make lunch, she was startled by a sudden pounding on her front door.
“Who could that be?” she wondered, not expecting anyone. But when Bella opened the front door, she was shocked to see the old man. Bella was speechless at the man’s sudden appearance, and her mind raced. Why was he at her house? How did he even know where she lived? A shiver ran down her spine as a creepy feeling came over her, which she tried to shake off. There had to be a logical explanation for this. She took a deep breath to try and deal with her overwhelming emotions and eventually found her words.
“What are you doing here? Can I help you?”
But the man didn’t respond and just looked around anxiously. Bella grew impatient, but then he suddenly broke his silence.
“Can I come in?”
Bella was a little taken aback by his request and had to think about it for a moment.
“I need a place to lay low for a while. They’re after me,” the old man pleaded.
A frown appeared on Bella’s face after that comment, but before she could respond, the man suddenly entered her home. The man entered the hallway and looked around. Bella was nailed to the ground due to this unexpected development and didn’t know what to do.
The man’s demeanor was completely different than the day before. Instead of gentle and pleasant, he looked panicked and frantic. It didn’t feel right, and Bella reached for her phone. The old man continued further into her house, and Bella followed. He moved from one window to the next and frantically looked around as if he were looking for something. Then the man looked at Bella and noticed her phone. He pleaded with her not to call anyone.
“Then they will find out,” he said.
After that comment, the man started pacing around the living room, mumbling incoherent sentences. The man’s odd behavior and mysterious comment greatly confused Bella, but he didn’t act violently toward her, causing her to refrain from calling for help. Instead, she decided to try a different approach and calmly asked him to explain. Her change in tactics seemed to work as the man calmed down somewhat. He stopped pacing and looked at her.
“There are bad people after me,” he whispered, causing Bella’s body to tense. She didn’t want anything to do with this.
“I can’t help you,” she responded, trying to sound calm. Whatever the man was involved in, she wanted nothing to do with it and wanted him out of her house. Her heart was pounding, but she tried to seem calm to the disturbed man. Bella gently spoke to him as she approached and guided him back to his car. She was happy he followed. She helped the man back into his car, which she noticed was fully fueled, and urged him to get help.
“The police can help you, or even the hospital would be a good start,” she said worriedly.
When the man finally drove off, Bella felt relieved, but she wouldn’t feel that way for long. That night, while she was sleeping, she suddenly awoke. At first, she didn’t think anything of it as she woke up during the night quite often. So she turned on her side and tried to fall back asleep. But then Bella realized she actually didn’t wake up randomly.
She heard something. It started out so faint that it took her a while to realize what she was hearing. But once she realized it, her eyes widened, and she was instantly wide awake. Bella could hear mumbling coming from downstairs and someone moving around and opening her cabinets. There was an intruder in her house. Bella’s heart pumped adrenaline through her body as she got up sneakily and moved toward her closet to grab her baseball bat.
Armed and ready, she continued out of her bedroom and down the stairs. Her heart was pounding, and she tried to calm herself down. She needed to be ready to face the intruder. When Bella reached the ground floor, she could see a figure moving in her living room through the blurred door window.
The fact that she actually saw someone in her house caused her to hesitate, but she had to do something. She gathered her courage and grabbed the door handle. After taking one final deep breath, Bella swung open the door as fast as she could, hoping to surprise the person in her living room. She hurried toward the nearest light switch and turned it on.
“Get out of my house!” she screamed with as much confidence as she could muster.
But when the light turned on and Bella saw the figure standing in her living room, her words faded, and her blood ran cold. She recognized the person immediately. It was the old man.
“How did he get inside my house? What are you doing here?” she screamed in confusion and anger.
The man was pacing around like he had done earlier that day.
“What are you doing here?” Bella asked again, standing at the door opening with her bat ready.
The man stopped and looked at her. “The window was open. I had to go here. I won’t go back to that prison,” he pleaded. The man continued ranting about the clinically white walls, the fact that he had to eat the same food every day, and the staff.
“They won’t listen. It’s like they don’t care about you at all. It’s actually a living hell,” he continued.
Bella stared at the old man in confusion. Was he crazy? Bella didn’t respond while her mind raced. The man continued complaining about wherever he came from, but her thoughts muffled his voice.
“He won’t go back to prison. Clinically white walls. The same food every day.”
The more Bella thought about it, the more worried she became that she had an escaped prisoner in her house. Even though the man had not shown any sign of wanting to harm her, the situation greatly worried Bella. This was something beyond her control.
She had tried to resolve it on her own, but that clearly didn’t work as the man kept returning. She hurriedly grabbed her phone to call the police, but the moment she took out her phone, the old man suddenly came into action and approached her. For the first time since entering her house, his sudden approach startled Bella, and she took a few steps back to keep her distance.
“Please don’t call anyone. They’re far away now. Let me explain,” the man pleaded.
Every time the old man approached, she stepped back to keep the distance between them even. Her mind was racing. This was the first time he had talked to her. Was it the correct move to call the police, or would the man act out against her? And what was he rambling about? Given that the man seemed to want to talk to her now, Bella felt like she had the situation more under control. She wanted to deal with this quickly. She could always call the police if things went sideways.
“Well, get on with it then,” she demanded.
But the man’s response took her by surprise. “I need to escape my nursing home,” the old man sighed.
Bella frowned as a wave of emotions hit her. At first, she was relieved that the man inside her house wasn’t an actual criminal, but then confusion took over. Why was he trying to escape his nursing home, and why did he have to do it here? Now that Bella knew she was dealing with just an old runaway, her demeanor changed, and she tried the gentle approach, hoping it would work like before. She tried to be empathetic.
“A nursing home can feel like a prison, but I’m sure your family put you there for a reason,” she said calmly.
But the attempt didn’t have the effect she hoped it would because suddenly the man’s expression turned very dark, and he snorted.
“That’s exactly the problem,” he sneered, causing Bella to step back in surprise.
“They sent me there for a specific reason, but not a good one,” he added.
The more the man talked, the more confused Bella became, and apparently, it showed on her face because the man quickly explained what he meant.
“My family sent me to the worst nursing home possible. They want to mentally break me so I can’t make my own decisions anymore,” he said.
Bella stared at the man in disbelief at what she heard. “But why?” she asked, her voice drenched with confusion.
The man looked down and shook his head. “I built a lot of wealth, and my family doesn’t want to wait until I die for their inheritance,” he eventually said in a low voice.
Now that Bella knew why the man wanted to leave the nursing home, only one question remained. “What are you doing here?” she asked him, and the man suddenly realized he had broken into her house.
“I’m so sorry. I needed a place to stay. I had to get out of there,” he pleaded. The man looked Bella deep into her eyes, and she could see tears forming in his eyes. He seemed truly desperate, and she felt awful for him. She gave him the benefit of the doubt and offered him a place to sleep for the night. She would figure the rest out the following morning.
But things wouldn’t be as simple as expected. When Bella entered her living room the following morning, the couch was filled with papers, and the old man was in the middle. When he looked up, he explained that he had slept well for the first time in months and had to make a plan. Bella opened her mouth to respond but didn’t know what to say. Instead, she just shook her head and made some breakfast, during which she noticed the man thinking deeply and getting increasingly frustrated.
“Nothing works,” he grumbled while crumbling the papers.
Bella couldn’t hold it any longer and sat beside him. “Can I help?”
This was something the old man didn’t expect. He looked at her with big eyes. “Would you do that for me?” he asked with a mixture of disbelief and excitement.
Bella shrugged and nodded, causing the man to smile. “This could be the missing piece,” he exclaimed, and the two started brainstorming. Somehow they had to prove that the old man’s family had bad intentions. And now that Bella had offered to help, a plan was quickly devised. They needed to gather proof, and to do that, the man decided to return to the nursing home and act as if everything was normal. Meanwhile, Bella would visit frequently, acting as a relative to gather evidence. She would take pictures and record the old man’s situation inside the nursing home, highlighting the mistreatment and neglect.
But that wasn’t all. They would also record themselves playing games, reading books, or having heated arguments to prove the man’s capabilities. This went on for weeks, during which Bella never crossed paths with the man’s family. Then, one day, the old man received a letter informing him that a judge would visit to determine whether he could still make his own decisions.
“It seems like they made their move,” he said to Bella.
Bella waited patiently outside the old man’s room and saw the family and judge arrive. They had agreed that Bella would wait for a moment before entering the room. When she thought she had given them enough time, Bella knocked on the door and entered, ready to face that awful family.
When Bella entered the room, she was met with confused faces. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” one of the old man’s family members asked her in a strict tone. But Bella didn’t waver and responded with confidence. She explained who she was and accused the family of their plan, confusing the judge.
“What is the meaning of this?” the judge asked seriously, looking from Bella to the family and back.
Bella didn’t give the family a chance to respond. She handed the judge the folder with evidence they had gathered over the weeks. She and the old man also told their side of the story. Bella noticed the judge’s eyebrows rise with every page he turned, but the real convincing evidence came when he started listening to the story and the videos Bella and the man showed him. It proved to him that the man could care for himself and was clear-minded, so it didn’t take long for him to decide.
The judge ruled in favor of the man’s mental stability. The family was outraged by the sudden events and pleaded with the judge to rethink his decision, but he didn’t waver. “My decision is final.”
Bella and the man gave each other a broad smile, happy their plan had succeeded. After the judge and family left, the old man immediately began planning to move out of the nursing home.
“I can take care of myself,” he said.
Not much later, Bella was invited to visit him in his new house. “This was possible thanks to you,” he said when she arrived.
The two remained in touch after that and frequently met, which caused them to grow a strong and family-like bond. It didn’t come as a surprise that over time, the old man saw Bella as his true family and eventually decided to make her the true heir of his inheritance.
