Chapter 25
This had genuinely been one of the best birthdays Rio had ever had. It was definitely in the top two. She couldn’t decide between this one and her fifteenth where her Abuela had saved up enough money to take her and Alice to a deadly plant exhibition in the city, bought them dollar pizzas from a pizza place and surprised her with a huge tray of Tres leches when they’d gotten home.
They’d spent most of the day on the yacht. The yacht crew had set up a slide that went into the water, a water trampoline and various water toys. They’d also brought out the jet skis where they’d challenged each other to races. Rio won against Agatha, lost against Alice, and Jen refused to get on again when Alice went so fast, she fell off into the water.
Now she and Agatha were getting ready for dinner and waiting for Nicky to call. He had wanted to wish Rio happy birthday the second he woke up, but Agatha decided to wait until they had sobered up. They were in no condition to be talking to a five-year-old.
Rio was sitting on the bed whilst Agatha was in the bathroom after kicking her out. Agatha told her she was too distracting as at any given moment Rio would kiss her. It’d only be a peck at first and then it would grow into something far more intense. Hands would start wandering and the next thing they knew both of their makeup was ruined and they’d have to do it all over again.
This happened three times before Agatha found the strength to tell Rio to leave otherwise, they’d be late for dinner.
She heard her wife’s voice from the bathroom, light and cheery like it always was when she spoke to Nicky. Agatha emerged soon after.
“Someone wants to talk to you,” Agatha smiled, turning her phone so that Rio saw those big brown eyes and gappy smile.
“Feliz cumpleaños, Rio!” Nicky squealed when Agatha gave her the phone.
“Muchas gracias, Nicholas,” Rio teased.
“How old are you now?”
Agatha mouthed that she was going back to the bathroom and Rio nodded in acknowledgement.
“I’m thirty-three!”
“You’re old,” Nicky giggled.
“I know. I’m going to have to spend more time with you to give me my youth back.”
Nicky giggled once more. “Did you have a good day?”
“Yes, I did thank you,” Rio smiled.
“Can I come to Italy too next time?” Nicky asked.
“You better! I wish you were here,” Rio told him.
And she realised she meant it. Agatha always came to life whenever Nicky was around. To have that around her on her birthday every year would be the only present Rio would ever need. She also wanted Nicky around for herself too. Rio thought it was too soon to say that she loved him, but she was fond of him.
He had this light about him that she thought would work on her even on her darkest days.
“I miss you, Riro,” Nicky said.
She laughed at the nickname he’d accidentally given her and had stuck. She was teaching him how to say red in Spanish and he’d gone to say her name and gotten it mixed up with the colour, merging the two words together.
“I miss you-”
A voice she’d never heard before cut her off.
“Nicholas? Who are you talking to?”
“Riro…Rio,” Nicky corrected. “It’s her birthday!”
The phone turned and two ice blue eyes locked on to her. They were supposed to look like Agatha’s, but they didn’t. Where Agatha’s eyes sparked regardless of the depth of them, these eyes were void of anything. They appeared muted, no, dull. That was the best way Rio could think to describe them.
“Oh. So, this is her,” Evanora said, locking onto someone across the room that Rio could only assume to be Wanda.
“Could I have the phone please, Nicholas? I want to wish Rio happy birthday.”
Rio swallowed.
Nicky didn’t say anything just handed the phone to his grandmother.
“Thank you, dear,” Evanora replied. “Go into the other room would you please?”
“But Grandma!” Nicky protested.
Rio watched Evanora tilt her head, her eyes burning into the little boy behind the screen. It made the hairs on Rio’s arms stand up. She couldn’t even imagine what it was doing to Nicky. She heard rustling on the other end, Nicky getting up to leave.
Rio heard a soft thud of a door closing, and Evanora’s eyes returned to Rio.
“You’re a pretty little thing aren’t you, dear,” Evanora smiled. It was an empty one and the compliment didn’t seem like a compliment. “Not as pretty as my Wanda here, but you’ll do.”
I’ll do? What the ever living fuck does that even mean?
Agatha had never gone into detail about her relationship with her mother. Rio only knew they didn’t get along and she’d had to figure that out on her own.
Rio wasn’t going to bother with niceties. She wasn’t going to say thank you for a compliment that was disguised as something else, so she simply stared at the old woman on the phone.
“Has my daughter been looking after you on your special day?” Evanora continued.
“Yes,” Rio replied bluntly.
“Oh, I bet. A poor girl like you loves to take advantage of the filthy rich.”
Rio knew she was being baited, and she wouldn’t rise to it.
“Could you put Nicky back on the phone, please?” Rio snapped.
Evanora ignored her. “Tell me, what lies have you fed her to trap her like this? It isn’t like you have much to offer. You come from nothing, your mother and grandmother are dead, and your father left you.”
Rio’s stomach dropped. How did she even know that?
She wanted to shrink into herself. She knew this was what Evanora wanted, to make her feel as small as a grain of rice. And Rio hated that it was working because what did she have to offer to Agatha?
Nothing. She had absolutely fucking nothing.
“I…”
Evanora’s lips curled into a cruel smile. She already knew she’d won.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Agatha shouted as she snatched the phone from Rio. “Don’t you ever fucking speak a word to her, don’t even look at her!”
Rio heard the old crone cackle on the other end.
“My darling daughter, just as naïve as ever. You really think she wants you? Coming to her defence as if anyone would do the same for you. No, darling. She wants you for your money, for what she can get out of you because you’ll never be more than a vile little slut-”
Evanora got cut off when Rio pressed the end call button, the room plunging into silence.
Agatha stared at her now blank phone screen and Rio stared at her.
This was the type of thing Agatha had been putting up with her entire life? Guilt edged its way into Rio’s self-doubt. Agatha had told her; her upbringing wasn’t as perfect as the photos made it out to be and Rio had thought she’d only been saying that to make Rio feel better. Or she was making it out to be worse than it was when in fact she’d been undermining it entirely.
Her mother had spoken a few sentences to her wife, and she’d said that. Rio couldn’t imagine what a whole conversation would be like, Agatha’s whole life would’ve been like. Rio only had her Abuela growing up and she’d felt more love than she thought humanly possible. Did Agatha even know what it was like to feel truly loved by a parental figure? She’d never spoken about her relationship with her father.
“Aggs…” Rio started and then stopped.
Words wouldn’t work.
She got up from the bed and tugged her wife into her arms, squeezing her tightly and hoping Agatha could feel just how much Rio appreciated her from the act alone.
“It isn’t true,” Rio told her, rubbing circles on her wife’s back. “Nothing she said is true.”
“What did she say to you?” Was Agatha’s sharp reply.
“Nothing that matters,” Rio said.
She’d work through her own feelings of worthlessness later. Right now, she only wanted to be there for her wife as it was apparent no one else had been.
Agatha pulled back. “No. Tell me.”
Rio sighed. “Agatha-”
The other woman cut her off. “Tell. Me.”
Rio ran her hand through her hair. What good would this do them? But there was no point arguing about it, it was clear Agatha wouldn’t let this go.
“She basically just said that I was nothing. That I didn’t have anything to offer you.” Rio hated the words on her tongue.
Agatha blinked as if she were fighting off tears. Wordlessly, she turned around and headed towards the door.
She was running, just like she told Rio she always did.
Rio felt tears in her own eyes. Was that it? She thought they weren’t doing that anymore. The door opened and closed, and Agatha was gone, leaving Rio alone.
She flopped back onto the bed, tears streaming down her face. She wiped at them fiercely. No. No, she wasn’t going to cry about this. So, what her wife had left her, would rather run than talk to her, would rather force them to deal with this on their own instead of together like they’d promised they’d do.
More tears fell.
Rio really didn’t have anything to offer her because that’s why Agatha had left right? There was no other explanation for it. Her mother’s words had opened her eyes and now Agatha saw her.
A nobody with nothing to offer anyone.
Fuck, how had Rio been this stupid to think she could be anything more? This is why she never let anyone get close to her, this is why she detached because sooner or later they would see Rio for who she really was.
Why would Agatha be any different?
But she was supposed to be.
A sob floated out of Rio’s lips, and she clamped her hand around her mouth to stifle it. And then she removed it because who the fuck cared. She was crying on her birthday, and her wife had smashed her heart in two. She was allowed to fucking cry and be loud about it.
Rio jumped when she felt hands on her. She blinked and saw Agatha in her blurry vision. She must’ve missed the door opening because of how loud she’d been.
“Sweetheart?”
Rio wanted to fucking smack her. How dare she just fucking leave and then sweetheart her.
Rio sat up, pushing Agatha’s hands off her body. “Don’t fucking touch me or I’ll-”
“No, listen to me,” Agatha cut her off. “You aren’t nothing, never to me I told you that. You’ve given me everything. I can’t even put into words how much you’ve done for me in what…two months and a bit.”
Rio glared at her, tears still streaking her face.
“I shouldn’t have left like that I know, but I had to get this to prove it to you and it was in Jen and Alice’s room.”
It was only then Rio noticed the red velvet box in Agatha’s hand.
Her wife opened it and a gold band with an emerald in the centre shone back at her. Little ferns had been engraved around the rest of the ring.
“It’s to replace that,” Agatha nodded to the plain ring that decorated Rio’s ring finger. “You deserve better than that.”
Rio blinked at her. She was so fucking confused she thought she might pass out. So…her wife wasn’t running away she was just getting a ring…and her wife didn’t think she was nobody…and she shouldn’t be angry at her…?
“Rio?”
Her mouth opened and closed. “I…” She looked back at the ring, then back at Agatha kneeling on the floor holding the ring. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again!”
That probably wasn’t the right thing to say but Agatha smiled, nonetheless.
Agatha shook her head, bringing Rio’s hand to her lips and kissing the knuckles.
“May I?”
Rio nodded.
Agatha slid off the old ring and replaced it with the new one. “Fits like a glove,” Agatha commented.
It did and Rio loved it, but she wasn’t going to give Agatha the satisfaction just yet after the stunt she’d just pulled.
“I’m going to fix my makeup,” Rio said, getting up and heading towards the bathroom.
“Okay,” Agatha laughed.
***
The four wives were at dinner in the hotel restaurant. The view was to die for. A pink and orange sunset cast the perfect backdrop on the colourful buildings of Portofino. The sea glistening just below.
Rio was still angry at Agatha, but she was holding her hand underneath the table, and that was good enough for her.
“Let’s see it then,” Alice said.
Rio lifted her hand and Alice took it from across the table. She nodded her approval.
“Came out way better than I thought it would. This one wouldn’t stop nagging me to make sure she’d done it right,” she nodded at Agatha. “You like it?”
“Yes…love it actually,” Rio begrudgingly admitted.
Agatha smiled. “First time I’m hearing it.”
Rio shot her a look and Agatha stifled a laugh. She was in no position to be teasing Rio right now.
“When are you going to replace my ring?” Jen glared at Alice. “We’ve been together longer than them and my best friend beat you to it?”
Alice sighed. “Was the necklace I gave you not good enough?”
Agatha caught sight of the gold necklace with a small ‘A’ pendant hanging off Jen’s neck.
“No,” Jen snapped.
“When was the last time you ate?” Alice asked, her hand coming up to rub Jen’s arm.
Jen pulled a face at her. “You think just because I haven’t eaten that’s why I’m-”
She cut herself off when Alice gave her a pointed look.
“This morning,” Jen mumbled.
Alice smiled knowingly. “I’m going to get you some nuts from the bar and ask the waiter to hurry up with our food. You guys want anything?”
Agatha and Rio shook their heads.
Alice gave Jen a quick kiss on the cheek before heading off towards the bar.
Agatha smiled. She was happy that Jen had found someone who understood her.
She looked to Rio then who had started up a conversation with Jen about how much of a pain in the ass their wives were.
Agathe hoped Rio knew how much she understood her; how much she saw her. She wasn’t sure if the words were enough, she’d already told Rio she would always be someone in her eyes and a five-minute conversation with her mother had ruined that.
She’d seen it in Rio’s eyes how much she believed what her mother had told her when she’d asked what she’d said back in the room. And Agatha didn’t know what else she could do to prove it to her. Was the ring enough? She’d only found out a minute ago that she actually liked it.
But Agatha understood. It had taken her years to realise that her mother’s words weren’t true and even then, it was hard to tell sometimes. Rio had been exposed to it for the first time today and Agatha vowed she’d never let Rio hear something like that again.
***
Belly’s full and three bottles of wine deep, all tension from the beginning of the evening had faded away. Rio was pressed against Agatha next to her, and Jen was holding hands with Alice across the table.
“No, I’m telling you we would all be dead,” Jen laughed.
Alice wiped at her eyes. “No, you’d all be dead, they’d never suspect me. I’m quiet as a mouse unless I’m around people I know.”
“What about me?” Rio protested.
“You’re quiet but you’re freaky, Ri,” Alice replied. “You look like you do blood magic in your spare time, the witch hunters of Salem would sniff you out before you knew it.”
“I’m gonna have to agree on that one,” Agatha laughed. “You would not survive the witch trials.”
“And neither would you,” Rio shot back. “You’re too smart for your own good and you could never keep your mouth shut.”
Agatha put a hand to her heart and feigned offence. “I could keep my mouth shut if I really wanted to.”
Rio and Jen shot her looks as if to say, ‘Be serious.’
“What!”
Jen rolled her eyes. “Just shut the fuck up.”
Agatha cackled.
“You wouldn’t want me to keep my mouth shut anyway,” Agatha said to Rio who blushed.
Jen and Alice groaned.
“Can you not.”
“It’s every day,” they said at the same time.
“Anyway, Jen. You’re not surviving either,” Agatha told her.
“Yes, and I have the decency to admit that unlike one of us.”
Agatha flipped her off. She clapped her hands together. “Right, I’m going to the toilet.”
“Alright,” Rio said.
Alice raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going with her?”
“Nah, she’s still in timeout for a stunt she pulled earlier.”
Jen perked up at that. “What’d she do earlier?”
“None,” Agatha threw a breadstick at her. “Of your business.”
“Well now you have to tell me,” Jen told Rio.
Agatha heard her wife laugh as she walked away from the table.
Once she’d gotten to the toilet, she sat down (not having the energy to stoop because of how drunk she was) and emptied herself into the toilet bowl.
Her phone buzzed. Agatha clicked it on.
Hihi, Mrs & Mrs Smith. You are-
Agatha clicked her phone off and groaned. Seriously? So much for getting four uninterrupted days off.
Her phone buzzed once more, and Agatha was just about ready to throw it down the toilet. She turned it on again ready to see another message from Hihi.
It wasn’t Hihi.
Unknown number: Get rid of her or they’ll kill her.
Agatha stopped breathing.