“I’m already telling the cousins in Guadalajara to wear their best gold jewelry.”

“We’ll give her the public spectacle she asked for,” Doña Victoria said, leaning back in her woven terrace chair.

“By Sunday evening, she’ll be begging Alejandro to take back the lease default orders.”

“Do you think Alejandro will try to stop Mother at the gate before the guards throw us out?” Paola whispered to her cousin, laughing behind her hand.

Alejandro stared at his water glass and said nothing as his mother waved the head waiter over to order another round of eighty-dollar country club coffee.