Chapter 5 The Bride and Groom

They sat together on the sofa and held hands. They exchanged cuddles and kisses, missing the butterflies in their bellies that they both felt when they were together. But Sigrid knew she couldn't push it too far and should have a quick talk with Flauber, so as not to displease her mother.

"How crazy is it that you are that gentleman's heir. How did you find out? The last time we saw each other, you didn't look like a boy who was soon to receive an inheritance..."

"I was taken by surprise. Your father went to this man's house. I didn't even know his name. But his name was Harald. I had worked for him before, but he was an administrator who took care of everything. I had never seen the owner of the farm. He was always traveling around looking for his son..."

"What did Erick want with this man?"

"He wanted to rent a piece of land to Harald. But when we got there we found the lawyer and some of his brothers. The servant made us go into a large room, I believe a room for conversation. There were quite a few books in there as well. As soon as people saw me, they exchanged glances with each other. Startled looks. I found this attitude strange, and I also found them very familiar. Then they informed Erick that Harald had been dead for three days. And that they were there to read the will. The lawyer kept looking at me. So much so that he started to bother me and, telling me to wait in the hallway, I left the room. But my surprise was very great, when the lawyer came after me in the corridor. He asked me to accompany him and I followed him down a huge corridor. The mansion is very big. I think I would get lost in there if there was no one to guide me. He stopped at a door and said that this was his client's private office and in life only allowed the lawyer inside. He invited me in and I went in. When I looked at the wall behind the desk, I understood why everyone was looking at me in awe. There was a painting there. And in it was pictured my mother, together with Harald, and me, still small next to both of them. Only Harald and I are identical. I didn't inherit anything of my mother's physique. I look completely like him when he was younger. The lawyer asked if I knew the woman in the painting and as soon as I answered yes he started talking."

"It was God who brought you here today. I needed your presence at the reading of this will, according to my client's will. I looked for you all over the world, but you seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. And your mother? She also needed to be here..."

"My mother passed away a few years ago from pneumonia.

"But you must have some document that proves they are your parents..." The lawyer asked hopefully.

"I don't remember his name on my certificate. I never looked at it. My mother said he had left because of a job and never returned. But I have a copy of my certificate here in my wallet." I said and pulled out the folded, weather yellowed paper and without reading, handed it to the lawyer. He opened the document and shook his head satisfied.

"This document and your very physical resemblance to Harald, proves that you are who I have been looking for. A pity that Harald is not here to see you today. Actually when he took that business trip your mother mentioned, he was in another country. He had a serious accident, he fell down the stairs of a building. He hit his head and lost his memory. No one in the family told him that he had a wife and child, and they tried to erase all traces of your existence. They destroyed the marriage certificate, and let him live without knowing that there were people waiting for him. But, as the years went by, his lack of interest in finding a wife drove him to despair, because he wanted an heir and couldn't find a woman who fit what he was looking for. He found them all too shallow."

"So he started to remember things little by little. And then one day he remembered that he had this farm here. So he started traveling here after he discovered the painting. He told me that he loved that woman and that child even though he didn't know who they were. Until he remembered in tears that they were his family. He paid detectives to find you, but never had any positive news from you. One of the detectives even suggested that you must have died. But he didn't believe me. He made me go to a registry office and find out where he got married, because he couldn't remember that detail. So I took it upon myself to go from church to church across the country until I found his parents' marriage certificate. I brought it to him, and he began to suspect that his detectives, besides receiving his money, were also receiving it from his brothers to do nothing, realizing that I who had no experience at all and yet found the marriage certificate. So he dismissed all of them and hired another one that I trusted, without anyone knowing. To his family, he had given up searching. It was then, from the small town where I found his marriage certificate that the detective discovered that his mother had come to these lands around here. But that was too little, because this state is so vast. So he met someone who had contact with his mother. This person assured him that your mother had put you in an orphanage, because she was too ill and without resources to support and care for you. When she could, she would visit you in this orphanage. But, nobody knew which orphanage this was, and in which city it was. When they thought about helping her in this difficult time, she disappeared. And no one knew where this orphanage was. But the detective suspected that it was around here, because she was always around here and they said that she shouldn't have been taken away. We looked for you in every orphanage in the city, region and state and couldn't find you. No one has ever heard from you two again. But your father looked for you while he had life. He never gave up on you."

"He just told me with tears streaming down his face, Sigrid."

"Is it because he couldn't find you? You were not far from here. And your name wasn't changed, right?"

"Sigrid, he didn't find me was because a family sheltered my sick mother and picked me up from the orphanage. After my mother died I stayed with them. They had two other children, their children, and even though they lived in squalor, they thought I would live better with them than in the orphanage. Then as we grew older, each of their children went their separate ways. The man in the family had died and his wife was sick. I couldn't leave her alone. She took care of me and my mother. So I took care of her lovingly. I found a job on a nearby farm, as I needed food and medicine for her. My effort not to allow her to die was in vain. She succumbed. As soon as her children heard of her death, they came back and threw me out. They sold her house and divided it among themselves and left. Since that day I have lived from farm to farm."

"I am sorry...You deserved the life that your real father could provide for you...But at what point did you find out that you were heir to a fortune?"

"After everything was cleared up, the lawyer invited me to attend the reading of the will and I accepted, after all it was my father who had died and he loved me, he had not been abandoned as I had believed my whole life. When we got back to the library from the office, everyone had a look of disgust on their faces. Erick had probably told them my name, and my undeniable resemblance to him had dashed their hopes of keeping the entire inheritance for themselves. The lawyer began by reading my father's last words, which did not move the brothers at any time. Not even the part where he said he knew they had done everything to thwart his attempts to find his own son. Then the lawyer read out the list of assets saying that he had only one heir, and that he would leave everything to his son if found in time. Otherwise, his billions were to be put in escrow waiting for another ten years for my appearance. The other assets were to be divided among his brothers, if I hadn't shown up. They left the room without greeting me, not even looking at me. So I became heir to a large fortune, and to this day I don't really know what to do with so much money and so many assets, so I hired this lawyer who recognized me, to administer all my assets. Now I'm going to give you the life of a queen. Which is the life you deserve."

"I would already consider myself a queen, being married to you in a hut with a straw roof."

"We can have one too." Flauber said smiling and touching Sigrid's lips with his fingers."

"I think you have satisfied all my curiosity about your heritage...But.... What happened to make you think of marrying Astrid?"

"Erick tried to convince me in a friendly way to marry Astrid. Of course I knew it was because of my inheritance, I just didn't understand what the difference was in which daughter I would marry.... With my constant refusals, he said that he would forbid me to enter his land again and that he would never see you again if I continued to refuse to marry Astrid. I accepted. But only to reassure him until I got around that problem. I thought of several things. I even counted on your sister's difficult genius to refuse, but that didn't happen. So, I thought that the only way would be to run away with you. And for that I would need to have free entrance in here. Until I could talk to you to get ready. When you revealed that you were pregnant, my mind lit up. Besides my great joy at this news, you also gave me the way to force your father to accept our marriage. And you? What did you feel hearing all those horrible things behind the door that day?"

"I felt relief mixed with a lot of resentment. Mom came to my room that day and explained everything to me. I felt joy knowing that he was not really my father. Everything began to fall into place. Then Sigrid told the whole story that her mother had revealed to her.

"I'm glad it all ended well then. Because I promise you that I will make him pay for every suffering he caused you."

"I don't want you to hurt him. He's still Mom's husband and Astrid's father. Besides, what's bad rots on its own."

"I won't hurt him physically. I will only show him that your love is priceless. You have my word."

"Flauber... I hope you won't think badly of me for what I'm going to ask you now. It's two requests."

"Anything you want."

"I need you to put a detective on my father's trail. He's probably out there somewhere and Mom still loves him. And she's miserable next to Erick."

"My love!" Flauber gave a smile with his perfect teeth and then hugged her tight. When he let go he looked her in the eye. "I thought the same thing you did. I'll need the last place he lived so I'll have a reference for where the detective will start his search. What's the other request?"

"I will get from Mom soon the old address of her aunt, who raised him. I want it to be a surprise for her. The other request, is that I would be very happy, if you would take Mom and Astrid to live with us after we get married."

"Yes, I will. With great pleasure. After our honeymoon. I want her to plan her wedding now, and we will travel around Europe for a month. In that time they will have already made arrangements to move in with us. By the way, where do you want to live?

Sigrid couldn't disguise the joy she felt and took a deep breath.

"I want to live in a city that has paved streets, full of stores and schools."

"We can live in Peoria it is one of the oldest towns in the state of Illinois and I have a mansion there too. I believe your mother and sister will love it. Not only will they have total freedom and privacy, but this house is bigger than the mansion your father wants to live in.

"This is perfect!" Sigrid said delighting in that idea and running her hand over Flauber's face affectionately.

Flauber took her hand and deposited a kiss.

"Now I must go. I don't want to abuse your mother's good will." "Flauber said and stood up pulling Sigrid with him. He entangled her around the waist and gave her a long, passionate kiss. Then he let go of her and walked toward the door. But before he left, he turned back and smiled at her, a little sad because he knew that he would not see her again for almost a month. Then without further ado he left.

As soon as he left, Sigrid felt dizzy, but believing it to be just another symptom of her pregnancy, she went to her room. She found it strange that neither her mother nor Astrid were waiting in the hall to hear the news. When she remembered that she probably wouldn't agree to give her father medicine to help him sleep soundly, Astrid had every reason to love Erick. As soon as she opened the door to her room, her mother was inside concentrating on reading a book, but put it down as soon as she saw her enter. She was settled on her daughter's bed. Sigrid approached her and told her all about her conversation with Flauber, leaving hidden only the search they were going to begin for her father. She took the opportunity to find out where he lived, what his name was, and the name of the uncles who had adopted him. In possession of this information, as soon as her mother retired to her room, she wrote down the old address and the names, finding her father's name very beautiful; Visbur.

Early the next morning, Astrid, Sigrid and Mrs. Cleuza went into town to make the arrangements for Sigrid's wedding. She sent a letter to her father asking for help with Sigrid's wedding and taking the opportunity to invite him to the occasion. She was sure that her father would not deny her any money, so she went everywhere and ordered everything that pleased her daughter. He wanted her to get married in her dress, but Sigrid refused, saying low so that Astrid wouldn't hear, that that dress didn't bring good luck to her mother.

Mrs. Cleusa understood and was not offended. She then took Sigrid to the dressmaker who, luckily for Sigrid, already had one being finished, because the groom had left town refusing to marry the owner of the dress. Mrs. Cleuza thought there was more to the story than that, and tried to warn her daughter, but Sigrid didn't listen. And she wanted to keep it anyway. Besides, it wasn't white, which her mother said she wouldn't allow her to do. To get married in white. After that they went to the confectioner's in the small town to order the cake. Sigrid let her mother take care of this and went with Astrid to the town newspaper, where she ordered the invitations. Then they went back to meet their mother. Standing in front of the candy store, they saw Flauber and Erick drive by in the direction of the notary's office. They were not seen. Sigrid slightly resented that her father had any gain from her marriage, because for him it wouldn't happen. But she kept silent so as not to hurt Astrid. After everything was ordered, they stopped for ice cream. Astrid was delighted with a dress she saw in a nearby store and couldn't stop talking about it. Sigrid felt like slapping Astrid and telling her that soon she could have all the dresses she could ever dream of, but she just changed her face. Then they went back to the farm euphoric, planning that the next day would be the day to start preparing the house for the guests. But Erick arrived and put a stop to their plans, saying that the party would be at the mansion on the farm where they would live. And he also said that they should make preparations for everything to be ready, because on the wedding day they would already be living there. They looked at each other, but said nothing. For he was not to know of their plans until Sigrid returned from her honeymoon and came to pick them both up. Astrid didn't know about her mother and Sigrid's plans, but she suspected that this was what they were planning.

And so that month passed.