“To life and love,” Brooke responded pointedly, still looking at Bette closely.

As Bette set her glass down, Brooke launched into her worries without preamble.  “Bette, I’m an old woman, and have no patience for beating around the bush.  So I’m going to ask you about rather indelicate matters.”

Bette swallowed her drink and pursed her lips, waiting for Brooke to continue.

“You know how much I care about you and Tina, and your darling angel, so I’ve kept my own counsel ever since I saw certain things,” Brooke started.

Bette sat up.  It was her turn to eye Brooke sharply.

“As I told you last week, my ex-husband was rushed to the hospital with a brain aneurysm and, to my surprise, his lawyer told me that he’d named me as his sole beneficiary and executor of his will.  Given that, now that he is in a coma, I was responsible for seeing to all of his current business also.”

Bette reached out and rubbed Brooke’s hand gently, “I’m sorry, again, to hear about Phillip.”

Brooke gave her a small smile, “Thank you, Bette.  And for sending those lovely flowers every other day to the hospital.  Really lightens up what could otherwise be a dismal atmosphere in his room.…” she paused as the caviar service was brought over.  They each began fixing a plate.

After several minutes, once they’d each had several bites, Brooke continued, “But that’s not what I’m referring to as indelicate.”

Bette bit into a triangle toast that she’d filled with caviar, eggs, onions, and other accoutrements, her mind whirring as she looked over at Brooke, her instincts telling her she and Brooke could soon be tangling over something related to the gold, given that Phillip was in the gold business.   The question was, was Brooke friend or foe?

“Do you know what made our divorce a certainty, Bette?  Photos of Phillip with another woman that someone slipped under our door one lovely summer day, not unlike this one.  What my lawyer later called “photographic evidence of intimacy,” Brooke started again.  “That was many years ago.  And we got a divorce soon after.”

Her hand shook slightly as she picked up the champagne flute, and gazed out of the window.   “But it turned out he never loved her.  And he tried to get back with me.  Even fought me repeatedly to try to do so when I turned him down.”