“I sent the group message to all eighteen cousins,” Paola said.

“They’re bringing their phones so we can record her face when she opens that tiny garden door.”

Alejandro stood by the bumper of the third vehicle, adjusting his gold watch strap again and again with a quick jerk of his wrist.

He took a thick ivory envelope out of his coat pocket and turned it over in the bright morning sun.

The heavy Varela family crest, stamped in gold leaf on the flap, caught his eye.