Houston, Texas

Closing the front door behind them after watching the car drive up the driveway, turn, and disappear from view, Herbert addressed Rebecca as they stood in the echoey foyer.

"You did an excellent job."

Appearing surprised, she smiled sadly and weakly, "thank you."

"I'm ready to put this behind us now."

Looking even more surprised, this time there was a hint of hope in her expression. "Genuinely?"

"Genuinely."

"Thank you Herbert."

Feeling her wrap her arms around him, he reciprocated for the first time in months, hugging her back, sincere in his emotions. He did love her and he was ready to put her complicated past behind them and get on with their lives.

Down the street, Cliff pulled to a stop at an intersection, waiting for the cars ahead of him to move before he could go again.

The day had been a strange one, one he hadn't expected to end as it had, but he wasn't upset by the developments.

His mother's husband was a businessman, the sort he probably shouldn't like, the sort the Ewing family would likely make good friends with, the sort of man he had little in common with, but despite their differences, he did like him, which was why he'd agreed to come to Houston for a meeting.

"Do you do much as far as probate and estates are concerned?"

Alone in Herbert's study, the question had come from nowhere as far as their conversation had been going, but he hadn't made it known that he'd been thrown by the change of topic.

"I don't do anything like that; it's not my field of expertise."

"But you know of it?"

"I do."

An attorney himself, he had a broad understanding of everything and a specific understanding of a few things, leading him to his answer.

"Would you feel comfortable using what you know in future?"

Serious, but sincere, Herbert appeared to be coming from a good place.

"Hold on a minute, why do I get the feeling these questions are less about my career and more about something else?"

"Because you're a smart man."

"So, what's the hidden agenda?"

Comfortable, with little to lose considering he'd been without a mother for decades now, he didn't shy away from asking a direct question.

"My concern is only that of a situation where Rebecca survives me."

Listening, it didn't take him long at all to understand Herbert's perspective, especially not considering the obvious hints he'd been dropping.

"You're worried I'll claim half of everything my mother has when she passes, leaving Katherine with the other half, not the entire amount you intended."

"You are a smart man."

Clapping him on the shoulder, Herbert's face displayed an expression he'd seen many times before in his life, a friendly smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Hm."

Disillusioned, he'd thought they'd been getting along well on a personal level, but suddenly he wasn't sure whether or not it had all been false, an attempt to get close to him in order to curry favour when he asked for what he was sure to ask for next.

"Can we come to an agreement before this is a problem?"

"What are you suggesting?"

Afraid Herbert was going to offer to pay him to leave Rebecca and Katherine alone, or worse, threaten him with something else in order to make that happen, he was pleasantly surprised when he shrugged and answered, "nothing unfair, simply a clear statement of intention."

"What does my mother think of this?"

"Naturally, she doesn't want any problems."

The answer wasn't particularly substantial, it didn't tell him much, but it didn't scare him either. Rebecca was a strong woman, she'd shown him that in her retelling of her life after she'd left him and his family, she didn't strike him as the type to be pushed into doing something she didn't want to do, not after she'd said enough was enough and left Digger.

"I'd like to discuss it with her first."

Herbert hadn't objected, nodding and doing as he'd asked, leaving them alone to discuss it.

Standing opposite his mother, he'd listened as she'd explained all sorts of things about her life, gathering that it wasn't just Katherine and her legacy that was on her mind, but something more immediate, her marriage.

"Please Cliff, agree to what Herbert is suggesting. You'll get what you deserve, I've provided for you, in a way I never did before. It won't change anything between us now; we can continue to build our relationship, just without the stress I'm under at present."

He'd underestimated Herbert, the man did have a hold on his wife, one she was begging to be released from and in good faith he couldn't stand in the way of. She hadn't said it explicitly but he got the feeling their marriage was falling apart and her only hope of saving it, which she wanted to do, was to gain his agreement about the future.

Rebecca was far from perfect and he was far from loving her unconditionally, but he wasn't a monster and he wasn't going to harm their relationship any more than it had already been harmed, not now after they'd just come back together and not over something that was hopefully not to happen for decades.

Coming from the opposite direction to Cliff, Katherine pulled into her driveway, home from a long morning of tennis. Exhausted, she didn't know why but suspected it had something to do with the fact that she'd won, but only just, working hard to maintain her form, all while wondering whether Florencia had left her tennis dress in the dryer for too long and shrunk it, the fabric distracting her as she darted back and forth across the court.

"Mama? Daddy? I'm home."

Calling out as she closed the front door behind her, she didn't immediately hear anything, however, as she continued through the house, past the closed study door, she understood not to enquire further.

Her parents hadn't been in a good place for a long time, it had been obvious despite their best efforts to hide it, however, that appeared to be over now, something she was pleased about but had no desire to understand the details of herself. Her family was back together, that was all that mattered to her.

To be continued…