Prologue
Maude Donovan is my mother-in-law. Actually her name is Maude de la Torres, but she's gone back to using Donovan because it's easier. And, I might add, not as painful.
My name is Bart Maverick, and I'm married to Maude's stunningly beautiful daughter, Doralice. We have three children of our own, with a fourth one on the way, and we live in the town of Little Bend, Texas. I first met Maude years ago, one night when I was one of four Maverick men that walked into her saloon and sat down to play poker.
Nobody could resist Maude. She was bright and beautiful, honest and fair, and in desperate need of someone to slip into Mexico and rescue her daughter from the hangman's noose. It's a long story and I've told the tale elsewhere; suffice it to say that I became something of a hero when I brought Doralice back from certain death.
The years passed and me and Doralice grew closer – Maude was doing some 'growing closer' of her own. Her attorney's name was Cristian de la Torres, and he was several years younger than Maude – but just as honest and upstanding as she was. With a modicum of encouragement they began seeing each other, and after several years of keeping company they took the final step and married.
We were all thrilled, myself included, and Maude spent a lot of time on the road with Cristian. His reputation as a skilled attorney had grown over the years and he was in wide demand around the state of Texas. Eventually Doralice and me married, and when we began havin' babies, I took over management of her saloon. That freed Maude to spend as much time travelling with her husband as she wanted, and they seemed blissfully happy. Until that day in June, right before her second grandson, Breton, was born.
When it was all over, what we had left of Maude was splintered into a million little pieces, and it was up to us to reconstruct Maude Donovan.