The will had been read.

The papers had been signed.

Mila and Lucas Cruz stood at the entrance to the new estate - THEIR new estate -in complete, stunned silence.

The property stretched out for what felt like miles in every direction - row after row of meticulously trimmed topiaries stood guard along gravel paths and around walls and columns of sandstone that shone golden in the morning light.

Lucas permitted himself a quiet whistle.

“Yeah,” Mila agreed.

“And you really didn’t know her very well?” Lucas asked.

Mila shook her head. “Barely knew she existed. Wasn’t expecting anything, really. Definitely not THIS.”

Lucas nodded, the silence broken only by the sound of distant birdsong.

At almost a hundred years old, Teresa De León had been the matriarch of Mila’s side of the family, now very widely dispersed around the world. Mila herself had fallen out of touch with the vast majority of her extended family overseas, until she received a summons to the reading of her grandmother’s will.

“Should we go in?” Mila said eventually.

Lucas shook himself awake. “Yeah. Yeah. I’ll leave the luggage here for now and just bring the keys.”

They left their second-hand car parked by the fountain, looking for all the world like a chicken nugget on a wedding cake. Something to be done about that in a week’s time perhaps, but for now the incongruity would just have to stand.

“How big is it?” Lucas asked as they trod the gravel path.

“Big,” said Mila, almost spinning as she walked trying to catch sight of everything at once. “The executor gave me a number but, I mean… just look at the place.”

“I’m looking,” Lucas agreed. “Big.”

A pair of dark wooden double doors greeted them at the end of the path, flanked by stone urns bristling with exotic blossoms.

“Who looks after…?” Lucas wondered aloud, gesturing to the flowers and the gardens to complete his question.

“Oh, there’s groundskeepers and gardeners and all sorts,” Mila said as she inspected each unique specimen. “But they won’t be back until after the week is up.”

“And then they work for us?”

“That’s the deal. We get everything: Land, assets and employees.”

Lucas scanned the estate as it could be seen from the main entryway. “Sounds like a lot of work.”

“There’s a steward that manages everything,” Mila said absently. “I don’t think Teresa actually …