Chapter 2

Cicely shrank back, frightened.

"Mom, just now when I tried to leave, this uncle said if I didn't behave he'd hit me..."

My eyes went cold.

"Nathan, if I remember right, you got out of prison not long ago."

"So?"

"Don't forget I'm a lawyer. Do you really want your cousin to be the one who sends you back in?"

Nathan's face changed.

If I hadn't brought it up, they'd probably all forgotten I was a lawyer.

"Don't you stand here trying to scare people."

Nathan flinched a little despite himself. "I haven't broken any law. What grounds do you have to send me to jail?"

"Besides, this celebration dinner tonight is yours to host."

"You don't pay, you don't leave!"

He was still flexing his biceps to make the threat land.

I smiled coldly. "Then nobody leaves. I already called the police on the way over."

"Called the police?!"

The mixed nuts fell out of Iris Lambert's hand and scattered on the floor. She looked stunned.

"Dorothy, honey, aren't you blowing this way out of proportion? Calling the police?"

"We're all family. Your daughter got into an Ivy League school, a huge occasion, and we helped you put on a real show. And you're not even happy about it?"

"Exactly!"

Stella Lawrence jumped in.

"Five hundred grand is a bit much, sure, but think about it. Your girl's going to be an Ivy League student. That kind of spread suits her!"

"Word gets around, and the relatives will all know your family does things in style!"

Gladys Chavez was even more self-righteous.

"You've been a penny-pincher since you were a kid, and now your daughter's made something of herself and you're still like this."

"We did all the arranging for you. Fine, don't thank us, but who are you throwing that face at?"

"It's a happy day. Stop bringing bad luck and go settle the bill."

I looked around at the six tables of relatives.

Forty or fifty of them.

Every mouth greasy from the food.

Party favor boxes stuffed into their pockets.

And every one of them staring at me now like I was the guilty party.

As if I were the one in the wrong.

"Manager Dickerson."

I ignored them.

I called the lobby manager over directly.

"Would you print me a copy of the menu breakdown and the full itemized bill?"

Bruno handed over a thick stack right away.

I skimmed it.

Two Australian lobsters per table.

King crab, wild-caught sea bass, a lavish seafood stew, abalone and scallops...

Three bottles of top-shelf whiskey per table.

Six bottles of imported wine.

Party favors were a designer scarf set, plus flowers, lighting, a live band...

Add up all the odds and ends and it came out to a round five hundred thousand.

"Done reading?"

Sophie leaned in. "That's not expensive, is it? The resort even gave a discount!"

"A high-end place like Crestwood Resort, only a price like this does its class justice!"

I folded the bill up, unhurried.

Lifted my head and looked around the room.

"There are a few things I want to state clearly again."

"First, when I booked the Lakeview Hotel, what I posted in the family group chat was an invitation, not a request for opinions."

"You changed the venue on your own. That's acting beyond your authority, and I won't cover the charges it created."

"Second." I turned to look at the extravagant spread on the tables.

"Anything ordered when I wasn't present, none of it was authorized by me."

"The dishes you ordered, the liquor you opened, the party favors you took. Whoever ate it, drank it, took it, pays for it."

"Third—"

Before I could finish, Sophie cut in, furious.

"Dorothy Butler, what is that supposed to mean?"

"We did all this to bring your family some honor!"

"Your daughter got into an Ivy League school, and you'd rather cram two tables into some run-down little hotel and treat everyone like beggars?"

I said nothing.

The Lakeview Hotel ran two hundred a head.

How did that become a run-down hotel in their mouths?

Iris tossed a shell of the mixed nuts onto the table.

"You've come up in the world now and you won't spend even this little bit?"

"You think we don't know how much that company of yours pulls in a year?"

"The old saying's true. The richer they get, the stingier they are."

I gave a cold laugh.

Besides practicing law, I ran a small legal partnership.

Over the years I had made some money, yes.

But every cent of it came from all-nighters revising cases.

And these so-called relatives, the ones who dropped by my office on every holiday and helped themselves to gift boxes.

The ones who borrowed money and never paid it back, who wanted me to find them jobs...

Never once held back.

I let out a cold laugh and turned to Sophie.

"Aunt Sophie, last month your son got married and took thirty party favor sets from my company. You agreed to pay the two thousand cost. Where's the money now?"

Sophie's face changed.

"That, that's what you owe us as the older cousin..."

I looked at Iris next. "Aunt Iris, last year your daughter went to study abroad and borrowed fifty grand from me. You said six months."

"It's been a year and a half now, and not a word about interest."

"Oh come on, we're all one family..."

Iris's eyes started to dart away.

"One family?"

I laughed coldly, and the laugh never reached my eyes.

"One family holds my daughter here as a hostage the second I'm not around?"

The banquet hall went silent in an instant.

Seeing how ugly and awkward the standoff was, a few of the younger cousins dropped their heads and started messing with their phones.

Pretending they weren't there.

A few thinner-skinned relatives couldn't keep it up and wanted to say let it go, let it go.

But the ringleaders, these aunts, still wore that look of refusing to back down.

"Dorothy Butler, either way tonight is your family's celebration dinner!"

"You can talk till the sky falls, you're still paying this bill."

I spoke coldly. "And if I simply won't?"

At that moment Bruno stepped forward and said in a low voice:

"Ms. Butler, there's something I need to explain to you."

"When these relatives of yours arrived, they said you'd fully authorized them to handle everything, and they even signed your name..."

My pupils shrank. "What?"