During dinner, my father delivered a twenty-minute toast about my sister — “the daughter who has always made us immensely proud,” a phrase he repeated three times, into the microphone, for three hundred people.

I took a sip of iced water and checked my phone.

A text from Rafael glowed on the screen. Just landed at the executive helipad.

At the hotel in twenty minutes. I texted back, Everything’s completely normal here. That doesn’t sound reassuring at all, he replied.

I smiled faintly. Just walk in when you arrive.

At the front of the room, my father tapped his glass and lifted the microphone again.

“Before the main dance, I want to acknowledge my family.” He toasted Marissa, and Spencer, and the aunts and uncles and cousins.