Chapter 27
Agatha woke up with a start. Nightmare.
She and Rio were on one of their regular walks around Central Park, coffees in hand, Rio laughing at a joke Agatha had said. And then Rio was dead. A gunman, more specifically, Daniel Gomez, pulling out a gun and shooting her as he passed.
Agatha could barely see as her vision blurred. She was screaming for someone to help as Rio’s warm blood poured onto her hands and arms. Nobody came and Agatha was left to cradle a dying Rio as blood gurgled from her mouth.
Once Rio was gone, all Agatha could see were those beautiful brown eyes now empty, void of life behind them.
Agatha choked out a sob.
As if she’d heard an alarm sounding, Rio stirred at the noise, blinking her eyes open before they landed on her wife.
They’d decided to share a bed now. They had in Italy and their relationship was well established it only seemed right. Today they were in Agatha’s room, deciding they should alternate between the two.
“What’s wrong, mi amor?” Rio asked, her voice thick with sleep.
“Nothing,” Agatha replied, rubbing at her eyes to wipe at the tears but playing it off as a tired gesture.
“You’re sure?” Rio pressed.
“Yeah,” Agatha offered her a small smile.
She could tell Rio wasn’t convinced, but lucky her wife dropped it.
“Come here,” Rio told her, opening her arms.
Agatha snuggled into them willingly, letting the feeling of Rio holding her flood out any trace of the nightmare. Rio was alive and well and holding her and that’s all that mattered.
DING DONG!
Agatha almost jumped out of her skin.
She broke away from Rio, eyebrows furrowed. They weren’t expecting anyone. Jen and Alice were still in Portofino. Unless…
Fuck.
Was this someone coming to take Rio out?
“Let’s ignore it,” Agatha said, tightening her grip on Rio.
“What?” Rio laughed. She went to move but Agatha only strengthened her grip. “Aggs,” Rio half-heartedly smacked her on her back to get her to release her.
“Nobody should be disturbing anyone this early on a Saturday anyway.”
Rio huffed and Agatha knew she’d rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t want to have to do this, but you gave me no choice.”
“What-”
Agatha yelped when Rio tickled her stomach. She let go of the other woman immediately.
Rio cackled as she fled the room.
“Are you fucking serious?” Agatha shrieked as she chased Rio.
The elevator doors had just snapped shut once she’d made it into the corridor. She cursed under her breath. Why did she have to be ticklish? And why had she been so stupid to let Rio figure that out? Agatha’s mind began to spin as she impatiently clicked on the elevator button.
What if she went upstairs and Rio was dead? What if she went upstairs and Rio had been taken? She really needed to tell her wife about those text messages.
What felt like an eternity later, the elevator arrived. What felt like another eternity later, the doors opened on the ground floor and Agatha braced herself for what she might see.
It certainly wasn’t that.
“Mama!” Nicky screamed as he bolted down the corridor towards her.
Agatha’s eyebrows knitted together in complete and utter confusion. She wouldn’t say she wasn’t happy to see her son, she was always happy to see him…but what on earth was he doing here?
“Hi, baby,” she said as she lifted him and placed him on her hip. “What are you doing here, sweetheart?”
“You didn’t know?” Wanda’s irritating voice sounded from down the hall.
Agatha didn’t bother suppressing her eye roll. “Enlighten me.”
“Nicky wanted us to have a sleepover because he missed my birthday. We wanted it to be a surprise,” Rio’s beautiful voice answered instead.
“And you’re letting this happen because…” she was talking to Wanda.
“He deserves to spend some time with Rio considering he didn’t get to on her birthday.”
Agatha noted that her ex had said ‘spend time with Rio’ and not her, but she tried not to let it get under her skin. Agatha also had a sneaking suspicion that Wanda felt bad about the way her mother had spoken to Rio on the FaceTime call.
“I’m picking you up at three tomorrow, not any later and no that is not up for negotiation,” Wanda halted Nicky in his tracks before he could argue. “And don’t eat too many cookies.”
At that Nicky whined.
“I gotta go, come give Mommy a hug and a kiss.”
Agatha put Nicky down and he ran over to Wanda who was already stooping down to receive both. Nicky did just that before taking his Spider-Man rucksack from Wanda’s outstretched hand.
Nicky giggled before running over to the elevator.
“And where do you think you’re going, mister?” Agatha teased.
“To find my room to put this in.”
“Would you like some help?” Rio asked.
“No, Riro. I’m fine, I’m big,” Nicky answered.
“You sure are,” Rio smiled.
The elevator doors opened, and Nicky disappeared leaving Agatha with her ex and her wife.
Fucking great.
“We need to talk,” Wanda said, looking at Agatha.
“Er…” Rio stuttered. “I’ll leave you to it,” Rio said, backing away towards the kitchen.
Agatha grabbed her then, kissing her wife long and deeply. She heard a quiet groan from Wanda, and if Agatha’s lips hadn’t been occupied, she would’ve smiled.
Rio pulled away, glaring at her with a pointed look that told her she’d seen right through her little display of affection. Agatha only shrugged. To her surprise, Rio kissed her again before leaving for the kitchen.
“Talk,” Agatha said when her wife was out of sight.
“I just want to say I had no idea Mom was going to say that stuff to Rio.”
Agatha rolled her eyes.Mom. Because that’s how Wanda saw Evanora. As her mother. Agatha wasn’t sure what her mother liked so much about Wanda, but she’d treated her better than she ever had her. And the audacity for Wanda to call her mom?
Agatha was just about ready to stab her.
“Oh, you didn’t?” Agatha replied sarcastically.
She wondered what type of warped version Wanda had of Evanora in her mind for her to not see that coming.
“Why are you telling me this? My wife’s the one you should be apologising to.”
Agatha saw Wanda flinch at the word ‘wife’ and let her eyes roll into the back of her head once more. The audacity.
“I already have,” Wanda told her.
“Great,” Agatha nodded patronisingly. “You can get out now.”
Wanda frowned slightly. “Aggs.”
Agatha jerked her head back at that. The way Wanda had said it as if pleading with her. It was the same way she’d said it the last time she’d spoken it:
“Aggs,” Wanda pleaded. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“You can go fuck yourself.”
“Don’t be like this. Please.”
Agatha wiped angrily at her tears. “How the fuck else am I supposed to be?”
Wanda’s face dropped as she bit her lip. She didn’t have an answer.
Agatha scoffed. “Exactly.”
“Just…” Wanda started. “What did you want me to do? I would’ve lost everything! My livelihood, my money, my firm!”
“You would’ve had me!” Agatha shot back. “And Nicky! I would’ve helped you, I could have helped you if you’d come to me. You were drowning and you didn’t think your own girlfriend would’ve helped you swim?”
Wanda was crying now. She let the tears roll down her cheeks not even bothering to wipe them. “I didn’t want to put the burden on you.”
“Bullshit,” Agatha spat.
“Mom offered to help!”
Agatha groaned. “She’s not you’re fucking mother.”
“She is! My mother’s dead! Evanora is all I have left. She offered more like insisted on saving the firm and I let her! Is that so fucking bad?”
Agatha could’ve strangled her. “Yes! You know how badly she treated me, still does!” Agatha swiped underneath her eyes again. “And you’ve never defended me, not once.” Agatha laughed bitterly. “And I let it go all these years because I loved you, but just as I know the sky is blue, I know I no longer love you.”
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Agatha snapped.
Wanda sighed before turning on her heels and leaving the house without a word.
Agatha shook her head to clear it of the memory. She had too much on her plate already, thinking about what went down with her ex wasn’t something she had time for.
She walked into the kitchen to find Rio on her tiptoes reaching into one of the top cupboards. Agatha tried not to let herself linger on the way her shirt rose up revealing her abs and from this angle, she could see the bottom of her ass in her shorts. She couldn’t let her mind go there when Nicky was sure to return at any moment.
“What are you looking for?” Agatha asked, turning to look at their coffee maker which had suddenly become very interesting. Had it always been red?
“Flour. I thought we could make pancakes for breakfast,” Rio replied.
“I want pancakes!” Nicky yelled, running into the room.
“And where did you come from?” Agatha smiled because seriously where had he come from? Was Rio so distracting she didn’t even hear her own elevator ping.
Nicky giggled.
“What do we say when we want something?” Agatha asked.
“Please,” Nicky answered.
“And en Español?” Rio said.
“Por favor.”
“¡Perfecto! Vamos,” Rio replied as Nicky tugged at her shorts and pulled her towards the island.
***
An hour or so later, Rio, Nicky and Agatha were sat around the dining table eating their pancakes. Nicky sat next to Rio and Agatha was opposite him. They watched with careful eyes as Nicky picked up another pancake and dropped it onto his plate. He reached across the table for the strawberries and Rio grabbed his orange juice to save it from being knocked over again.
Nicky, of course, refused all help because he was big.
“I’m doing the whipped cream for you though,” Agatha told him.
“But Mama-”
Agatha tilted her head, and all arguments stopped.
As Agatha squeezed the whipped cream onto his pancakes she wondered if having Nicky here was a good idea. Was it safe? Probably not with a threat looming over Rio’s head but she couldn’t exactly get him to leave. Not without telling Rio and Wanda why, and she thought that was a conversation best to have when Nicky was not in the house.
Agatha just hoped whoever was after them wasn’t so heartless as to harm a five-year-old. She would easily lay down her life protecting Nicky, but she hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that.
“And how’s your friend? Are you able to speak to her now?” Rio asked as Nicky shovelled his food into his mouth.
“Mhm,” he nodded. “My Spanish is muy bien.”
Rio hummed, a smile on her lips. “That’s good.”
“I’m teaching her English too!”
“You are?” Agatha said as she took a sip of her apple juice.
“Yes!”
“What was her name again?” Rio asked. “Victoria?”
Nicky frowned. “No, Mami. Valentina.”
Agatha watched Rio freeze at the word. She smiled to herself, she doubted Nicky even realised he’d said it.
Rio glanced over at Agatha who shrugged.
Rio swallowed. “Erm…no that’s my fault…sorry.”
Nicky giggled, returning to his breakfast blissfully unaware that he’d made Rio’s head spin.
He’d made Agatha’s head spin too. Was that how he saw Rio now? As another mother? She’d never told him outright that Rio was her girlfriend, or wife, or whatever the fuck. Nicky was a smart kid; he’d figured that out on his own. But for him to call Rio that…
Agatha could see it now. The three of them, one big happy family. One that he deserved after the shitshow that was her and Wanda’s relationship.
The thought was swiftly shut down when Agatha remembered the threat that hung over Rio’s head.
“Aggs?” Rio’s voice was soft, but her brows were knitted in concern. Her eyes moved to Agatha’s clenched fits around her cutlery.
She hadn’t even noticed she was doing it.
“Fine,” she told Rio with a smile.
***
The plan was to take Nicky on a walk around Central Park and get food after. That plan had been scraped when hail stones the size of tennis balls came hurdling out of the sky. There was to be a storm.
Now Rio found herself playing a very intense game of tag in their basement. The game had really put into perspective just how big their house was. There was no shortage of rooms to run into. She’d be corned in the gym, hidden in the cinema room and almost slipped when running across the poolside.
She and Nicky had joined forces. Agatha had been It before she snuck up on Rio from her hiding place in the cinema room. Nicky declared that, that wasn’t fair and offered to help Rio take down his mother. The pair were closing in on her wife as Agatha kept taking steps towards the edge of the pool.
“How is this fair?” Agatha groaned. “We’re not supposed to be playing in teams.”
“You started it,” Rio countered. “You can’t sneak up on people.”
“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do! We’re playing tag!” Agatha shot back, taking another cautious step back as Nicky and Rio edged closer.
Nicky shook his head. “No Mama.”
Rio could see her wife switching tactics. That was confirmed when she said:
“Okay…let’s think about this…you both lov…care about me. You wouldn’t want me to suffer.” Agatha shook her head slowly. “You just wouldn’t.”
Rio and Nicky glanced at each other before continuing their advance.
“Are you both serious? It’s only tag, just a bit of fun!” Agatha whined.
Rio couldn’t help but laugh. Her wife was easily the strongest person she knew, and she was whining about potentially getting wet after cheating at a kid's game.
“This isn’t-” Agatha cut herself off with a yelp when her foot slipped off the edge of the pool.
Rio caught her by her arm as she hung off the platform.
“You’re welcome,” Rio told her as Nicky squealed in delight.
Agatha smirked. “I knew you couldn’t let me fall.”
Rio narrowed her eyes. “Oh, won’t I?”
“Don’t you dare-”
Rio let go of her wife and she fell into the water fully clothed. Nicky burst out laughing.
“Rio!” Agatha seethed as she flapped around in the water spraying water at them.
“Don’t underestimate me,” Rio cackled.
She saw her wife twitch to flip her off until she remembered her child there.
“Help me out at least,” Agatha said, swimming to the poolside, her hand outstretched for Rio to take.
Now, Rio knew her wife and she wouldn’t fall for it. “Nice try.”
Agatha narrowed her eyes. “Okay, Nicholas will you help me?”
Nicky swayed on his spot before deciding he would. He went to do just that when Rio sighed and declared that she’d do it. She didn’t want Nicky getting too close to the edge and he wouldn’t have been able to pull his mother up anyway.
“Here,” Rio said, holding out her hand.
“Too easy,” Agatha grinned before grabbing Rio’s hand and pulling her into the pool.
Rio fell in head first, almost hitting her head on the bottom of the pool because they weren’t in the deep end. Rio had to resist the urge to swear at Agatha when she resurfaced.
Agatha was the one cackling now until she turned to see Nicky backing away to do a run-up into the pool.
“No,” Agatha warned. “You don’t have your armbands on.”
Nicky turned to Rio who was encouraging him to jump into her arms.
Nicky giggled before running full speed.
“Don’t you-”
Agatha got cut off when Nicky splashed her as he jumped into the pool into Rio’s waiting arms. His face and head full of curls got soaked before he splashed and squealed in Rio’s arms.
“You are a terrible influence,” Agatha told Rio who held Nicky in her hip.
At that, Nicky and Rio both turned to each other. With their intentions aligned, they both proceeded to splash water at Agatha who promptly swam away from them.