The Princess and the Pauper (Arabella) novel Chapter 1817

Bleary-eyed, she gazed up at the luminous moon hanging in the night sky, memories flooding back of holidays past when her family would gather, feasting and chattering away, ensconced in warmth and laughter.

Those days were blissfully happy.

Her family would look at her with affectionate smiles; she was the cherished little princess of the household.

But everything changed when Arabella returned!

It was like her world had been turned upside down!

It took her a moment to take in her surroundings again. She was in a cluttered storage room filled with various odds and ends. A stack of brand-new plastic basins was tucked away in a corner.

The top basin still held the remnants of the icy water that had been used to startle her awake.

It was just a bit of water, and it came from a fountain, not the kind you'd want to drink.

But driven by instinct, she crawled toward it, eventually bowing her head to gulp down every last drop.

Fountain water, unlike the tap water at home, was unboiled and mixed with melted snowflakes, giving it a peculiar taste.

But Serena didn’t have a choice. She didn’t want to die; she had to save herself, to drink water to cling to life.

Time passed, and she heard the voices of the servants outside.

"The doctor says she won’t last 24 hours, and now there's less than two left. Should we remind Mrs. Collins? It wouldn't be good for her to die here."

So, she was dying?

Serena hadn’t realized her life was ebbing away so fast. A wave of sorrow washed over her.

Was this it for her? Was her life truly over?

In the past, a sneeze or a cough would have sent her parents into a frenzy of worry. The family doctor would have appeared in a heartbeat, always with the best medicine, as her parents couldn't bear to see her suffer even the slightest discomfort.

But now, as the doctor said she wouldn’t last 24 hours, not just her mother, but no one in the household seemed eager to save her.

They truly didn't want her anymore.

Eighteen years of companionship, eighteen years of affection, were not enough to soften their hearts.

They truly didn't care about her anymore.

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With these thoughts, Serena’s heartache grew more intense. Her vision blurred, and the voices of the servants outside faded until she could hear nothing but the weakening rhythm of her own breaths and heartbeat. The world seemed to fall silent as darkness threatened to engulf her.