Stewardess Breaks Rules and Helps Guy Visit Dying Mom ASAP, He Rewards Her Fully – Story of the Day

Sarah broke the airport rules by helping a desperate passenger visit his dying mother. But the young stewardess had never expected her genuine kindness would be rewarded with something that had haunted her all her life.

The airport bustled with angry passengers waiting for their flights as Sarah made her way toward the exit. Nobody had expected the weather to turn rough and the flights to be delayed, so the passengers' rage was justified.

As she passed a group of travelers, Sarah imagined the overwhelm of her coworkers as they dealt with the irate customers. Fortunately, she was on a three-day vacation after a long and exhausting shift.

Sarah wanted to make the most of it. Maybe she could finally work on her side business and grab a coffee with Lily, her best friend. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken time off from work.

But Sarah was startled to hear someone calling out to her. She didn't want to stop and help a passenger. Sarah was aware of her job's requirements and knew this was not demanded of her. Furthermore, she was not a member of the ground crew...

"Excuse me! Hello!"

Sarah sighed and came to a halt when the voice called out to her again. She hated herself for it, but she couldn't just let a passenger in need wait.

As she turned around, a sweaty man dashed up to her. His hands were trembling, and he was exhaling heavily.

"Hey, I-I need your help!" he said shakily. "I was—I need to fly home urgently. My mother is dying. Please, I need your help!"

"I'm sorry to hear that, Sir," Sarah sighed. "Let me guide you to the helpdesk. Right this way..."

"You don't understand. My-my flight has been delayed," he stammered. "It's a flight from your airlines...Sarah," he said, looking at the name badge pinned to her uniform and then at her. "Please help me, Sarah. My mother…She is suffering from stage 3 cancer, and this may be the last time I see her alive. Please! I got a call from her hospital!"

Sarah sighed and finally asked for his boarding pass. He was on his way to Mexico, but his flight was delayed by more than 12 hours. And the only one that would leave in the next half an hour was already full. He would certainly never see his mother again if he waited.

Sarah looked around the room. Passengers were canceling tickets and hurling insults at the staff at every counter. She paused for a moment, knowing there was only one way out. She knew she shouldn't have done it—it could cost her her job—but looking at the man's eyes and his tears that threatened to spill, she couldn't help herself.

"Listen, I'm going to try and get you a new ticket, alright?" she said. "But you must promise me that you will keep this to yourself! I'm risking my job to help you out."

Sarah never got to see her own father when he was dying, but she could bend a few rules and make sure this man got to meet his mother.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't know how I'll repay you. Thank you very much!"

Sarah hurried over to Jerry, her coworker. Because they were close, she told him everything. Jerry panicked and told Sarah her idea was insane, but Sarah knew it wasn't. If Jerry could understand how it felt to be in the man's shoes, perhaps he would agree with her.

"Jerry, someone canceled their ticket about 10 minutes ago," she said as she checked the records. "Is that seat still available?"

"It was just booked again. Hit refresh," Jerry said, looking at the computer.

"Well," Sarah spoke slowly, looking into Jerry's eyes so he understood what she meant. "There 'appears to be a problem with the system.' All I see is a canceled ticket. I'm going to give it to that man. Cancel that booking and give me the ticket. If anyone asks, tell them it was my call."

"What? That's insane, Sarah! You'll lose your—!" Jerry shot back.

"No, it isn't. Look at the person who was about to take the flight," Sarah said, looking at the screen. "I recognize him; he's a regular, flying almost every week. Mr. Rodrigo is a reasonably kind gentleman. Talk to him, tell him there was a glitch in the system, and apologize profusely. He'll understand!"

Sarah persuaded Jerry and dashed over to the man.

"Here," she said, handing him the ticket. "Leave right now. And forget that I ever assisted you."

"Thank you very much! Let me pay you for it," he said quickly, pulling out his wallet. Sarah noticed his wallet was full of cash. He paid her more than the ticket price, which she pointed out, but he simply left, asking her to keep it.

As the crowd swallowed him whole, Sarah turned around and left.

"I hope he gets to see his mom," she said quietly as she exited the airport. She had never expected to run into him again.

A couple of hours later, the street lights in the distance reminded Sarah that she was at her childhood home. The taxi pulled over to the side of the road, and the driver assisted her in getting all of her luggage out. How long has it been since I last visited this place? she wondered.

Sarah tipped the taxi driver with the extra money the man from the airport had left her and stood on the curb for a while. Nothing had changed in the neighborhood. It still stood quiet and…dead. She didn't need to remind herself how much she hated it. She could never live a good life here. This place took away everything from her—most importantly, her happy childhood.

But for weeks, memories of her mother and visuals of her father had been haunting her...

Sarah took a deep breath and rolled her luggage to the front door, forcing herself to stop thinking about the past. When she reached into her purse for the key, she noticed the door was already open. Her heart raced, and she took a step back in terror.

After her mother died, Sarah had moved out of this place and had never looked back. She leased the house for a while, but she felt she was disrespecting her mother's memory, so she decided to go back there and give it a good clean-up before deciding what to do with it next.

As Sarah pushed the door open, a chill ran down her spine.

The lights on the front door did not work. The previous tenant was least concerned about getting them fixed, although she had asked him to get it done.

She entered quietly, grabbing a bat from the shoe rack near the front door. As she flipped on the light switch in the living room, Sarah screamed.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!"

The bat slipped from her grasp and landed on the ground. Her hands went to her mouth in shock.

A dead man lay sprawled across the floor in a crimson puddle. The stench of blood had reached every corner of the room and seeped through half the rug. The house was a mess—there were things thrown about, broken glass, and toppled chairs. Someone had broken into her home...and killed a man!

Sarah couldn't take it anymore. She collapsed to the floor, almost tasting the bile in her mouth, and threw up.

Suddenly, something moved upstairs, and she looked up. Someone was still in the house.

"Oh God!" She pressed her lips together to keep herself from screaming as she grabbed the bat and managed to get to her feet. Her whole body shook with fear as she dashed over to hide under the stairs.

Someone was still making their way upstairs. She couldn't call 911 because her phone was still in her luggage. She pressed her free hand to her mouth to keep herself from making a noise.

The footsteps became more audible. They were making their way downstairs. Was it a single person or a group?

Sarah held the bat tightly, and as the man stood in the living room, his back facing her, she flung the bat and struck him on his head. He plopped to the floor with a thud. She dashed over to her luggage and began searching her purse for her phone.

But just then, she was grabbed from behind. The man put his hands over her mouth. "Stop, Sarah! Just stop! I'm not here to hurt you!" he exclaimed.

Sarah recognized the voice. She had heard it before.

It was the guy from the airport.

"I will only let you go if you promise not to do anything stupid!" he warned her.

She nodded hastily, and he finally let her go.

"Wha-what are you doing here?" She was perplexed and breathing heavily. "Who are you? This body—Oh God, what the hell is happening?"

Sarah's head spun. All she had wanted to do was help some guy see his dying mother. She didn't suspect him to be...a monster!

Sarah was trembling in fear, and the man winced from the pain in his head. Sarah's blow had been strong for someone her height and weight.

"Listen," he frowned, rubbing his brow. "I just know you can't be alone here any longer. I have to take you somewhere safer. That's Marco," he pointed to the dead body. "He's a part of a criminal syndicate. They're looking for something, and they think you have it!"

"I have WHAT? Look, I have nothing to do with any of this, OK?" she said sternly. "What are you doing in my house? Tell me the truth: Did you kill this guy? I'm going to call the cops if you don't tell me everything!"

"Hey," he said, raising his hands. "I didn't kill this guy. I knew about him. And...I know now that he's dead, his people are going to come looking for him...and looking for you. We have to get out of here. I'll explain later, I will!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know who you are! I thought I was helping a desperate man. I thought your mother was dying of stage 3 cancer. And now I know nothing about you. Besides the fact that you're possibly a murderer," she shot back.

"Hey. Watch it. You don't know anything about me. Also, are you saying you want to sleep in a house with a dead body? Well, your choice!" he said as he started to leave, but she stopped him. Sarah was a lot of things, but she wasn't the bravest person, and her mind was racing with questions about what a dead body was doing at her mother's house.

She grabbed her purse, locked the front door, and they walked down the street to a cafe.

She got some coffee and a sandwich. She was really anxious, and coffee was the only thing that would calm her down. Not to mention, she had thrown up earlier, so she was hungry.

The man waited for her to sit down, and took a deep breath before saying, "I'm sorry again. For all of this. You're right, you were only trying to help. And yes, I lied about visiting my mom, but she did die of stage 3 cancer a year ago..." a sadness took over the man's eyes for a few seconds before he snapped out of it. "Look, this entire mess is all because of something my Dad did…I'm not sure where to begin."

"Well, you could begin by telling me your name," she suggested, slowly unfreezing from the fear.

As the waiter served the order, they stopped talking. "Thank you," Sarah replied, then reached for the coffee.

"I'm Ryan," the man introduced himself. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I wish I hadn't run into you at the airport. And I wish you hadn't stopped and helped. Today was the wrong day to be kind...

...As I was saying, my father...He was a well-known neuroscientist. He was conducting research with monkeys when he discovered something called 'Sample X' that could treat a fatal illness.

"I don't know much about it, but Dad wrote a research paper about it as well, but he never had the opportunity to share it with the rest of the world. He had just returned from China and was on his way home to meet my mother and me when his car rammed into a truck. He was hospitalized for a few days, but he never got out of there alive. And the paper...it vanished."

"I'm sorry..." Sarah recalled her own father, whom she barely remembered. But this was no time to get emotional. "Ryan, what does all of this—whatever happened—have to do with me?"

"Hear me out. The paper Dad had with him in the car was a fake. Whoever stole it had no idea what was coming, and they were furious when they found out. When my father died, Mom sent me abroad to keep me safe," he explained. "The actual paper...it turns out Mom had it all along. Dad had stored it in a microchip hidden in the pendant she wore all the time.

"She gave it to me on her deathbed. I had no idea it held such valuable information. Marco's men have been chasing me for months now, trying to get hold of the chip. In fact, Marco was the man responsible for my father's death. He orchestrated the accident that killed my dad."

It was a lot to take in for Sarah. A dangerous man was dead in her childhood home, a stranger was sharing an unbelievable story, and she still didn't know how it all connected to her.

"Look, Ryan. For what it's worth, you have my sympathies. I know what it's like to grow up without a father. But I still don't see why anyone would be hunting me down. Why would they think I have it? And why did you want that ticket to Mexico?" Sarah scowled, her arms crossed.

"I was taking the chip to a friend," Ryan admitted. "He works at a Mexican research institute, and I thought he was the only one I could trust. But after you handed me the ticket, just before I went through security, I received a message..."

"What message?" she asked.

"I can't tell you everything. But it said that Marco and his gang had spotted me at the airport. They had seen me interact with you. And while I had escaped their eyes, they were still following you. I knew they would come looking for you, so I used my...'ways' to find out where you were going, and I got to the house before you. But by the time I arrived at your place, Marco had died. And if he's dead, his bosses are going to be livid. This is far from over..."

"What do you mean you used your 'ways?' What are you? Some sort of secret agent? How did you know I was going to my childhood home?" she trembled as the questions flew out of her mouth, and she stood up to leave.

Whoever this guy was, she wouldn't spend another second being seen with him. She had to get away.

"Sarah, don't even think about running off. You will get killed. Am I being clear? Those guys are dangerous and they will find you. Now, I have a plan, and if we stick to it, I can protect you."

"Oh, lovely! I'll just trust the man who can't give me the truth straight!" Sarah hissed. "I can protect myself, thank you. I have friends. People I can actually trust."

Saying this, Sarah pulled out her phone and dialed Lily's number. "Hey, Lily! Listen, I'm coming over toni—" Sarah flinched as she felt Ryan grab the phone away and disconnect the call.

"Do you want to jeopardize Lily's safety? Huh? They'll be knocking on her door before you do. Is that what you want?" Ryan asked, almost pleading angrily.

Sarah realized the risk and plopped back into her chair.

"I can't trust you!" Sarah managed to speak between sobs.

"Will this help?" He took out a pendant from his jacket pocket. "Open it."

Sarah opened the pendant to find a chip inside.

"That's what they are after. I want to protect it with all my life. And now, because I dragged you into this, I'm going to protect you with all my life as well. I know I'm asking a lot out of you. But we're going to come out at the other end of this, and there will be answers waiting for you. I promise."

Something inside Sarah shifted as she looked into Ryan's eyes. A voice from within asked her to trust him. Either way, she couldn't risk Lily's safety, so she couldn't go to her house. And going home after seeing the dead body was out of the question. Ryan was her only way out. So she agreed.

They took a cab to a hotel. They booked adjacent rooms, and Ryan assured her not to worry as he would be awake all night. "Don't open the door unless you know it's me. I'm in the room right next to yours," he told her, and she nodded and went inside her room.

But Sarah couldn't sleep a wink that night. Her mind kept replaying the scenes of the dead body in her mother's house. This was supposed to be a relaxing three days for her, but here she was...trying to forget a dead body and wondering how she got into this mess in the first place.

Sarah finally sat up in her bed. She wondered what Ryan was doing. She walked to his room, thinking she could use a talk. But as she touched her knuckles to the door to knock, she realized it was already open. A strange fear gripped her.

She shuddered at the memory of the incident at her mother's house. But she could hear Ryan's faint voice as she pushed the door open. Maybe he was in the bathroom.

"...of course, she doesn't know."

It seemed like he was talking on the phone, and her heart skipped a beat. Was he talking about her?

The bathroom door was slightly ajar, and she hid behind the wall, eavesdropping on the entire conversation.

"No, I can't tell her. She doesn't know the plan yet. Yes, she's living with me…We are in a hotel," Ryan continued. "Yeah, I will deal with her first thing tomorrow, and then we will figure out how to deal with the rest of it...Of course, I need to get rid of her!"

Sarah did not need to hear anything else. She dashed out of his room, grabbed her purse, and ran out of the hotel. After struggling to think of the next move, she got in a cab to Lily's place.

"I-I should not have trusted him!" she exclaimed, looking out the window. Sarah thought about calling the cops but decided against it because she knew it would land her in hot water.

Her house had a dead body in it. Her fingerprints would be found in the house. She would be the prime suspect if the cops launched an investigation, not Ryan!

The voice of the Uber driver jolted her back to reality. She was at Lily's house. She hurriedly paid the driver and rang Lily's doorbell several times. "Lily! Open the door! It's me, Sarah!"

Minutes later, she heard footsteps approaching the door, and Lily was in the doorway.

"Oh my God!" Sarah threw herself in Lily's arms. "Oh my God! I don't want to go back!"

"What's wrong, Sarah?" Lily asked, pulling away from her. "What are you doing here at this hour? Come on in first! You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Lily led Sarah inside and offered her some water, and then Sarah told her everything that had happened. "He told me such an elaborate story...but now, after what I heard him say on the phone at the hotel...I believe it was all planned!" Sarah cried. "And I was such a moron to help him! The story about his mom moved me, and—"

"Oh, Sarah, you did what anyone would have done. Don't hold that against yourself."

"I'm sorry I came here, Lily. I am putting your life in danger. I-I should leave, but I don't have anywhere to go. I can't even call the cops!"

"Well, what's done is done," Lily was extremely patient with Sarah. She offered Sarah to stay at her house for the night. Suddenly, Sarah's phone pinged, distracting them.

"Oh my God!" Sarah gasped, staring at her screen.

"What is it?" Lily asked worriedly.

Sarah showed her the phone screen. It was Ryan's text: Sarah, where the hell are you? I warned you that going out alone is dangerous!

"We exchanged numbers on our way to the hotel!" Sarah switched off the phone. "Now he can't know where I am…can he? I don't know! I don't know! What else do I need to do? Should I call the cops? Will you drive me to—"

"OK, relax. Your phone is now turned off, and everything is fine. Get some sleep, alright?"

Sarah nodded. She crashed in Lily's spare bed that night, and she didn't know when she dozed off. But some time later, a thud startled her awake.

Terrified, Sarah sat up in bed, gasping a lungful of air, and checked the bedside clock. It was 3 a.m. Her brows were drenched in sweat, and she looked around. It must be her mind playing tricks on her, she thought. It had been a rough day.

But then there was another thud. Sarah knew this time she couldn't have imagined it. "Lily?" She called out. "Is that you?"

Sarah climbed out of the bed and marched to her door.

"Lily?" She screamed. There were no answers.

Sarah descended the steps and looked around. It was completely silent.

"Lily?"

She was on her way to Lily's room when she was grabbed, and her mouth was muffled, preventing her from yelling. The person grabbing her held a towel over her nose, causing her to feel dizzy. Was it chloroform? She didn't know, but her eyes rolled back into her head, and soon, she was in a deep sleep.

Sarah must have slept for hours before her eyes opened. She could not see where she was because it was all black, but her wrists were tied, and her lips were taped.

It took her a few moments to understand she was being kept hostage in a moving truck. She could not free her hands or feet because the ropes were too thick. The vehicle abruptly turned, and her head hit the cargo bed.

Sarah was terrified since she had no idea where this truck was going. Then she heard a voice. "Boss said not to touch her until we reach him, so calm down, Rocky! We can't lay a finger on her!"

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. At the very least, they were not going to kill her. At least not right away.

Sarah silently cried from agony as the ropes pressed into her tender flesh while she tried to free her arms. But it was pointless. She gave up and waited for the truck to come to a halt. She wished she had not gone to Lily's. Had they held her captive, too? Sarah drowned in guilt as she thought of her best friend.

The truck finally came to a halt almost an hour later. Sarah knew there were two men in the truck with her, based on what she heard during the ride. They were transporting her to some 'Jacob.' She had no idea who Jacob was.

The truck door clicked open, and a blinding light blasted into her eyes. That's when the two guys dragged her out.

Sarah let out a stifled growl, wanting to scream at them and tell them not to touch her! But she could not talk because of the tape across her mouth. They escorted her inside what appeared to be an old warehouse. She had no idea what they planned to do with her here.

A small window high up on the wall allowed in a sliver of light. Sarah observed a man in the center of the room. But he was not alone. Behind him stood a gang of hefty men.

"I hope she's still in one piece?" Jacob mumbled. "We have to keep her alive until we find what we are looking for! Tie her to the chair!"

The next moment, the two guys tied to her chair, and Sarah didn't dare to protest. She didn't know what was going to happen next. Who would've thought a three-day vacation would turn into a nightmare like this?

She noticed Jacob pull out a revolver. "Listen to me, darling," he cautioned. "If you dare to act smart, I will pull this trigger. You see it, don't you? And I guarantee I will have no regrets! You are—"

"Stop it, Jacob! Your game is over!" A voice suddenly cut Jacob off. Sarah turned to her side.

"Ryan?"

"I have what you want, so let her go!" Ryan said, raising his hand to show the chip. "Did I not tell you to stay close to me, Sarah? How could you have been such a fool?"

"Oh! You have arrived just in time! Now I can simply kill you both!" Jacob and his men pointed their guns at Ryan. But just then, an army of cops stormed into the abandoned factory. The officers charged at Jacob and his men, shoving them to the ground, and cuffed them before they could flee.

"Are you OK, Sarah?" Ryan removed the tape from her lips. "You should have believed me!"

"I guess they took Lily as well!" Sarah exclaimed. "I-I don't know where she is!"

"Lily is the one who got you into this mess, Sarah! Let's get out of here so I can tell you everything."

Ryan took Sarah to a hospital to make sure she was fine. There, he told her everything that happened. "I kept a secret from you because I didn't want to put you in danger. The paper I was protecting...it was not only my father's work but also your father's.

"What?" Sarah gasped. "That's not possible. Mom would've told me..."

But even as she tried to rationalize, Sarah realized how little she actually knew about her father. All she had heard was that he had abandoned her and her mother when she was four years old. Sarah's mother never liked to talk about him. So Sarah told herself he was a horrible father and grew up hating him, without ever knowing him.

"It was as if he had never existed in my life. I never got to see him, even when he died. All I know is he was killed in an accident…Mom once told me."

Ryan let out a sigh. "Just like my father. During a trip to Malaysia, my father met yours. Sarah, your father was a genius. He and my father conducted research together when they discovered Sample X. They were both in the car when the accident occurred. Their discovery has the potential to save countless people's lives...I'm sorry I hid it from you. I knew about your father, but I never knew he had a daughter. I didn't know who you were when we crossed paths this morning. I had no idea who you were until I got that message at the airport that Marco's men had spotted us. It was then that I dug up all the info I could about you. But they beat me to it—they quickly discovered your identity, and they had been tracking your calls, messages, everything...and I don't know what they said to Lily, but they managed to get her to rat you out the moment you showed up at her door. I visited her a while back, and something seemed off. I threatened to call the cops on her, and that's when she confessed to playing a part in Jacob and the gang's plan."

"NO! Lily, too? I don't believe this. This is just another lie coming out of your mouth!" Sarah screamed. "I heard you at the hotel...on the phone. I heard you wanting to get rid of me..."

"You heard that? I was just going to drop you off somewhere safe. I spent a long time trying to find Marco's gang. I contacted my friend—remember the Mexican guy I was talking about?—he can talk to his institute, and our fathers will finally get the recognition they deserve. I also took care of Marco's body...Sorry for taking so long to get you out of the situation...but, you should have waited for me."

Ryan was still talking, her bruises were being cleaned, but everything was a blur to Sarah. Her friend had betrayed her...and her father had died a hero...and some stranger had walked into her life and brought a storm that almost killed her, but saved her, too.

"Listen, Ryan. I don't want to be a part of this any longer. You told me about my dad, thank you for that. I have some semblance of closure now. But I do not want to hear from you ever again. I don't want to care about Jacob and his guys. I don't want to care about the paper. I don't want to care about Lily. Or about you. Thank you, but this is where it ends," Sarah said half-heartedly and left the hospital.

Sarah went back to her small apartment with a strange feeling in her chest. A cloud had lifted.

Sarah decided she would try to move on. There were still unanswered questions—about Lily's involvement, about Ryan—but the answers around her father's death were enough for her to not care about the other stuff.

But two days later, Sarah was surprised to see Ryan at her doorstep again. "Before you close the door in my face, which I would totally deserve, this is for you," he added as he handed her the envelope.

Sarah opened it and gasped. "Oh my god! What is this? This is too much…Where did you get all the money?" She stared at the significant amount on the check. It was more than enough to bring her business idea, the one she'd been dreaming of setting up for years now, to life.

"Your father and my father collaborated on a million-dollar research project, so I can't keep all the money to myself. And I'm going to ask you for one last thing before I disappear. If you've got 30 minutes, there's a place I'd like to take you to."

An hour later, Sarah stood at her father's grave, bawling her eyes out. "Sorry, Dad," she said as she placed his favorite flowers near his gravestone. "I'm a bit late…for everything. I miss you, Dad. I'm sorry I never got to know you. I'm sorry I never tried. I love you."

The fact that she had never been able to visit her father and pay her respects to him had haunted her all her life. Not that she had opened up about this to Ryan...and Ryan didn't have to do this for her, either. Yet another placeless piece to the puzzle that is this man, Sarah thought.

She stood up, wiping up tears, and turned to embrace Ryan. She didn't need to know everything about him to know he cared about her. But the moment she turned and lifted her eyes, he was nowhere to be seen. But there was an envelope behind her on the grass. She picked it up.

"I am sorry our meeting was limited to this, Sarah," said the letter inside. "You are a strong and kind-hearted person. I hope whatever happened doesn't change that. I could never tell you much about myself. But I hope you remember me as a good friend. Lily has been arrested for disclosing your information to Marco's agents, so don't worry about that. Stay safe. Now, I'm gone for good. I promise.

— Agent R."

Sarah's lips curled into a smile while her tears flowed freely. She knew Ryan would hold a special place in her life. He had paid her fully for the genuine kindness she showed him.

"Actually, no," she thought. "He always paid me a little extra…whether it was the ticket price or this. He reunited me with Dad. That was more than what I deserved."

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