The Lost Heir

Chapter 3

"Alright then you can go home I'll have the driver pick you up now!" Andie turned off the phone. He exhaled thinking about Ferdinand's problems until now.

The cold wind in Interlaken was getting colder so Margaretha had to spur her horse-drawn carriage towards her residence in Lauterbrunnen not far from the scene of Ferdinand's accident.

"What bad luck! I've wasted hours of my time, I should have just kept quiet and pretended that I didn't know anything about what happened earlier, now it's too late, how is this?" Margaretha babbled to herself endlessly with an agitated look.

Margaretha went to Interlaken just to look for medicinal plants that were urgently needed but had not had time to look for them yet, she was caught up in an incident that she never expected at all. Her eyes, which were starting to sting from glaring at the greenery along the riverbank, suddenly lit up as the medicine she was looking for finally came into view.

"Thank goodness I finally found it," Margaretha said as she continued to pick. 

She continued to walk closer to the riverbank to be able to get more plants, when she arrived there was something unusual caught the sight of her two eyeballs.

"There's a corpse!" she screamed hysterically as she saw a man's body stuck in the river rocks. Margaretha reflexively covered her own mouth then looked around with her heart beating wildly.

"No, I don't want to deal with the police again and be accused of anything." Margaretha walked slowly away with trembling legs towards her carriage. 

Without thinking, Margaretha approached the riverbank again and carefully covered the man's wrist with her own thin cloth and checked his pulse.

"He's still alive, poor you. Margaretha felt a little relieved as the fear slowly disappeared from her mind. By all means Margaretha moved the poor man's body from the riverbank onto her carriage, the journey to arrive home was still about thirty minutes away.

Time was spinning so fast Andie hurriedly woke up before six in the morning he went straight to the hospital to meet up with Levin and Camila who ended up being hospitalized.

"Sir is leaving now?" greeted Andie's personal driver when he saw his master coming down from upstairs.

"No, let me go alone," Andie replied coldly.

"Then I'll prepare a car for you, please have breakfast first," said the driver.

"Later, I want to see Uncle Levin right away." Andie got into the car.

Along the way Andie racked his brains preparing the right sentence to convey to his uncle. Ferdinand's wallet and clothes that were found stuck on the riverbank received from the police as evidence were also not left behind to be used as evidence.

"Morning sir," greeted the servant who had accompanied Camilla last night to meet Andie in the lobby.

"Morning, how is Uncle?" Andie asked.

"Better, sir, but Mr. Levin and Madame Camilla are still anxiously inquiring about Mr. Ferdinand's news," the servant explained.

"I see, take me to Uncle's room." Andie let out a long sigh as his face also looked sluggish due to lack of sleep last night.

"Yes sir," said the servant. They walked through the hospital hallway to the Premier class room where Levin was.

Andie arrived at the door and went inside with her head down, not daring to look at Levin's face.

"Good morning Uncle," Andie greeted carefully. Levin looked so weak while Camilla, who had been looking after her husband all night, was sleeping on the sofa.

"You?!" Levin didn't answer Andie's greeting and his face immediately looked angry at his nephew's arrival.

"I'm sorry Uncle, I only came now because I had a lot to take care of last night," Andie explained. 

"What do you mean, is this the result of your work all night?" Levin's voice raised his hand quickly grabbed the newspaper from the table and threw it right into Andie's face.

"What's going on?" Camilla was startled out of her sleep by the commotion.

Andie stayed down and picked up the newspapers that were scattered on the floor. It was clear that the big headline on the newspaper contained news about Ferdinand's accident, Andie's photo was also displayed large as the representative of the Johansson family who was responsible for giving an official statement last night.

"I can explain Uncle," Andie replied quietly.

"Why are you so presumptuous to announce Ferdinand's death, you know that my son isn't dead yet?!" snapped Levin, his hands clenched into fists in anger but he didn't have enough strength to move from the treatment bed. 

"Calm yourself dear," Camilla said trying to calm him down even though she herself was feeling frantic. Levin seemed to be feeling short of breath again, causing the whole room to panic.

"I'll call the doctor." Andie immediately ran out to get help as soon as possible. The medical personnel immediately provided help to Levin even now the man had to use a breathing apparatus for the time being.

"Please let the patient rest quietly, his condition is quite serious," the doctor asked before leaving the room.

"Yes," Andie replied quickly. Camilla took Andie out and left Levin alone in the room after being given a sedative.

"Tell me, what do you know about my son's condition?" Camilla's voice began to tremble with tears as she saw that Andie could already feel the premonition of the worst news to be received.

"Auntie, we are all in mourning, I never meant to be presumptuous in announcing my brother Ferdinand's death but it's a reality that we must accept together. These are Ferdinand's belongings that the police handed over to me, his body burnt and mixed with the river water," Andie explained in a voice that was also getting heavy. 

Camilla immediately screamed hysterically receiving Ferdinand's clothes that were no longer intact, her tears finally broke out.

"Auntie must be strong for Ferdinand's sake," Andie said and took the middle-aged woman into her arms.

"What should we do now Andie?" Andie chose to remain silent, her cell phone vibrated as Doni informed her that various bouquets of condolences had filled the courtyard of the Johansson family's mansion.

"Auntie, let's go back to the house, the guests and company officials have also arrived to give comfort," said Andie.

"Yes Andie," nodded Camila.

Camilla with puffy eyes and a haggard face tried to stand up to meet the guests who wanted to give condolences, some of Camilla's friends were so concerned about her condition especially since this woman had fainted several times.

"Auntie, if you're tired, you should rest inside and let me meet all the guests," Andie said, approaching Camilla in the crowd.

"You're right, I'd better get some rest." Camilla said goodbye to her best friend with a bland smile. Her heart was so broken that just two days later the glittering party at home had now turned into a funeral ceremony in the same place.