“Oh, Marisela, don’t make that face.

It’s only a little joke.

And it was quite expensive, you know.” She reached toward the baby.

Marisela took one deliberate step back.

The movement was small and perfectly controlled, and it put her body cleanly between her daughter and her mother-in-law’s hand, and something in the ease of it made a few of the nearer guests stop laughing without knowing why.

“Hand her to me,” Sabetha said, her voice going smooth and cool.