Chapter 4

Two hours later, the car pulled up outside the Chavez home.

Rex had changed into a dark suit and redone his hair. He looked far sharper than he had earlier.

Peter Chavez came out himself to greet me, smiling as he shook my hand. "Mrs. Henson, what brings you here in person? A word ahead of time and I'd have prepared properly."

I smiled and stepped inside. "We're old friends. No need for any of that."

Peter sat with me in the living room. The tea was refreshed twice, and he was still making small talk.

I didn't feel like circling around it. "Peter, I've come today to talk about a marriage for my son."

The smile on Peter's face visibly caught.

Just then Doris came down the stairs, and the trace of a smile on her lips stiffened too.

Still, out of courtesy, she greeted me the moment she saw me, prim and proper.

"Aunt Cordelia."

That girl. I honestly liked her.

"Come, sit."

Doris took the seat beside her father, a faint unease already showing on her face.

Peter gave her a reassuring look, then let out a sigh.

"Mrs. Henson, it isn't that I mean any disrespect. Your Fred has been married two years now, hasn't he? The baby's nearly due. This marriage business..."

One listen and I knew they'd misread it.

Doris kept her head down, her fingers quietly curling tight.

Every person in the Chavez house today believed I'd come to renegotiate an engagement on Fred's behalf.

I cut in directly. "Peter, who told you I only had one son?"

Peter wiped at the sweat on his brow and looked up. "Cordelia, what do you mean by that?"

I waved toward the doorway. "Son, come say hello."

Only then did Rex walk in from behind me. He stood ramrod straight and greeted them properly.

"Uncle Peter."

Doris's head snapped up, her eyes lighting up in an instant, curving with the smile. She really was lovely.

I watched her with approval. This girl. Truly fine.

Peter looked at Rex, then at me, and for a long moment didn't catch on.

"And this is..."

"Rex Henson."

I picked up my teacup. "My second son."

That one short line laid my position out plainly.

Peter was a sharp man. He understood soon enough.

He simply had a reservation or two.

"Mrs. Henson, I never heard you mention this before."

"Before was before."

I took a slow sip of tea. "Today I've come to arrange a marriage for my son."

Doris, that girl, I liked in earnest. I thought of her as half a daughter, which made her future husband half a son to me.

And as it happened, that man was Rex. What was wrong with that? What was there that couldn't be acknowledged?

Peter fell silent a moment, then looked to his daughter. "Doris, what's your own feeling on this?"

Doris raised her eyes, without a hint of shyness. "Dad, I love Rex. This marriage, I want it."

Peter understood then. "The one you love, it's him? How long has it..."

"Three years."

Peter nearly choked on the next breath.

I drank my tea, amused. It seemed the boy hadn't lied to me after all.

Everything after that went unusually smoothly.

The two families had always been on good terms, and in the end even the date was set fast.

Three days from now.

I was stunned for a second when I heard the timing.

But Peter took my hand, laughing. "Come now, Cordelia, the children have been together three years. No sense dragging it out any longer. A day sooner or later, the marriage happens all the same."

I nodded. "All right. Then it's settled."

When I came out of the Chavez home, I can't tell you how good my mood was.

Rex opened the car door for me himself, and after I was seated, he shut it for me.

I glanced at him. "You're not getting in?"

"Me?"

"Where do you usually live?"

Rex paused. "My mother passed early. My father rented me a one-bedroom out in the suburbs a while back. I've been living there ever since."

I shifted over to make room. "Get in."

Rex gripped his jacket and looked down, saying nothing.

I gave him a sidelong look. This boy was bright and handsome, a match for the old man in his younger days. No wonder the old man favored this son. He really wasn't bad.

"Get in. There's no such thing as letting my son live off on his own. Rex, so long as you keep your word, you'll be the only son I, Cordelia Harding, truly claim."

I turned my head toward him. "Rex, let me make this clear. So long as you keep your word, from now on you're Cordelia Harding's true son."

He got in without hesitation. "I won't let you down."

I smiled and told the driver, "Drive."

For the next three days I barely had time to touch the ground.

The wedding was on a tight timeline, but the Henson family's grandeur couldn't be spared. Nothing could fall short.

Doris was the girl I favored, so of course I couldn't let her be shortchanged.

The day before the wedding, she came to the Henson home to sit and talk with me.

The two of them were downstairs. I'd just gotten back from the hospital and found them huddled together going over the wedding schedule.

I went over and chatted a few minutes, then, once again, didn't bother circling around it. "When do the two of you plan to have children? Does your family have any thoughts on it, Doris?"

Rex was about to speak when Doris looped her arm through his wrist. "Auntie, Rex already told me. The child will take your surname, Harding."

She smiled, easy and open. "My parents agree too. My father even said, for a child to share the name of someone as remarkable as you is the child's good fortune."

With that, she pulled out a sheet of paper from under the coffee table.

"And Rex and I already picked out a few given names ahead of time. Mom, would you look at which one fits?"

That "Mom" came out so naturally I could barely keep the corners of my mouth from lifting.

"You girl. You aren't even married yet."

"I'll be calling you that sooner or later."

Just as she said it, the housekeeper hurried over and murmured, "Ma'am, the eldest young master is asking for you."

"What is it?"

"He says the young mistress has given birth."

The smile on my face dimmed a little. The housekeeper handed me the phone, and the moment the call connected, Fred's frantic voice came bursting through.

"Mom, Margery's had the baby, it's a boy! Where are you all? Hasn't Dad been waiting all this time for a grandson? Why haven't you come over yet?"

Then his voice turned easy and pleased. "Mom, Margery went through all that to give you a grandson. Don't you and Dad owe her something? Didn't you two mention a yacht before? An estate would do too."

He was still shouting on the other end. "Hey, are you even hearing a word I'm saying?"

Doris didn't interrupt me. She only smiled and slid the paper full of names across to me.

Riley Harding, Miles Harding, Rex Harding.

I looked them over one by one.

Then, on the other end, his voice took on a threatening edge. "Do you still want to see your grandson or not?"