“Papá, please,” Lo sweetly scolded, ignoring the look of contempt her father flashed her.Surely, he would punish her later.He always demanded that she spend more time with the girls in their social circle.But Mayté was her best friend and the one part of her life she refused to include in this charade.She really didn’t give a damn if something so trivial ruined her reputation.
“Buen día, señor.I’m doing well today, in case you were curious.”Mayté lifted her chin.“I came to see Lo.”No matter how many times Lo’s father tried to chase her away, Mayté was like a mosquito.Either she would get her feast of blood or she would die trying.
Lo absolutely loved her for it.
“Welcome, welcome!”Lo waltzed over and kissed Mayté’s right cheek before dragging her to the mirror.“Do you like my new gown?”She twirled once again.
“It’s very nice.The yellow suits you.”
“Oh, really?It’s becoming my favorite color, you know.”
“Is that so?”Mayté fidgeted, clutching the paper in her hands.
Lo studied her father through the glass.He impatiently tugged at the sleeve of his dress shirt.Waiting.Of course hewas.Always around when he wasn’t needed.The butler, Alfredo, strode in and spoke to him in a hushed voice, then helped him into his suit jacket, brown and embroidered with gold.
“Lorena,” her father gruffed.“I have some business to attend to.”
Business.He always spoke of his business, trading and selling land, yet Lo wasn’t convinced that that was the full story.Some nights he returned in the wee hours of the morning, suit coat wide open and shirt ruffled, with a stupid smile on his face.Lo wasn’t all that old when she overheard whispers about her father’s mistresses.Mamá had been sitting nearby watering her potted plants and hadn’t even batted an eye.
“Once you are done here, you are to tutor your sisters and continue your needlework until tonight’s dinner banquet, where you will sing.”Her father put on his hat and waited expectantly for her response.
A banquet and singing.On such short notice!To some, it might appear that her father was simply keeping her on her toes, but she knew without a doubt that he did it to torture her.These so-called banquets were all the same.Suitors would arrive, teeth gleaming, ready to spend the meal sucking up to her father while she and her sisters performed and sat quietly unless spoken to.A dreadfully boring affair.
“Yes, Papá.”Lo obediently lowered her head like the dutiful daughter she never was.
She perked back up once he left.Mayté collapsed onto a chair, fanning her cheeks.By now, her entire face was flushed, almost as red as the flowers on her long, billowing skirt.“I thought he’d never leave.”
Lo burst out laughing.“At leastyoudon’t have to live with him.”Ever so carefully, so as not to upset her already achy scalp,she undid her bun and shook out her hair.Her thick curls sprang back to life, happy and free.
“Hmph.My father’s never home,” Mayté teased.“Trust me, it doesn’t help.”
The two had perhaps the worst fathers in all of Milagro, and they had been together for it all.Lo hid out with Mayté whenever her father was in one of his moods, breaking vases and raising his voice, while Lo lent Mayté dresses and coins whenever her family had to sell off their stuff to make up for her drunkard father’s shenanigans.Both girls understood that the other was in a terrible situation, but it was never a competition to see who had it worse.That was why Mayté was one of the only people Lo could trust.Even more so than her own sisters.
“Ay, you look horrible.”Lo sat across from her best friend and scrutinized her.The dark circles under her eyes looked like black petals from a cursed rose.All the wrinkles in her short-sleeved top gave away that she likely hadn’t changed clothes in at least a day.Black paint stained her nailbeds, and there were flakes of green in her left eyebrow.Lo bit back a laugh.“Were you up all night painting again?”She took the opportunity to snatch Mayté’s rebozo, tan and dull, and set it aside.Lo had never liked the dreadful things.They weren’t very flattering and seemed like a hassle to carry around.
“Two nights.”Mayté proudly grinned, but then let out a sound somewhere between a huff and a yawn.“But that’s a story for another time.Look!”She handed the paper to Lo.
“Hmm?”Lo smoothed it out on her lap.A poster of a calavera.She ran her fingers across the parchment, dark as night, and the lettering winked in the sunlight.She skimmed the text, though she didn’t get very far before gasping.“Fortune’s Kiss?”Her mind raced, but everything was a blur.Like fiesta lights inthe distance.They swirled into something beautiful, yet terrifying.“Mayté.”Lo looked over her shoulder to make sure they were alone.“Is this real?”
It couldn’t be.But what if it was?
Her pulse quickened and a flush crept up the back of her neck.Ten years ago, when Mamá ran away, her destination had been Fortune’s Kiss.Loretta de León was supposed to return with a fortune big enough to set herself and her daughters free.
She had promised.
“Yes!”Mayté scooted to the edge of her seat and took Lo’s hands, giving them a squeeze.“Think of all the duos that have won.The Lucky Angels, and weren’t there those lovers from Milagro a long time ago?”
Lo remembered the legend of the Lucky Angels.Everyone did.Twin brothers named after archangels who stuck together and emerged from the game victorious.Their lives became heaven on earth.She couldn’t quite remember what happened to the lovers.“What did they win again?”
Mayté shrugged.“More than we can imagine.The point is, that could beus.”
It was true.The story was that every time Fortune’s Kiss appeared, there emerged a winner or two who left with a huge fortune and their wildest dreams fulfilled.But still—
“It’s risky,” Lo whispered.Those who returned from the game as losers were a mess.Not only broke and humiliated, but barely uttering more than a few words and never leaving their homes.
Many didn’t return from the game at all.
Like Mamá …
