CHAPTER 5

Agatha hid in her walk in closet. She tried to explain it away but every time she heard a sound she jumped. She briefly wondered if Rio might be robbing her, but she rolled her eyes at herself. She seemed to enjoy herself too much to be there for anything else. When things had gone quiet, she poked her head out of her closet door. Scanning the surrounding area of the bedroom. Rio’s things were gone, she felt a slight tightness in her chest. What the hell had she even done last night?

She threw off her towel towards the bathroom and it landed on the floor in the doorway. Like she was going to wear clothing in her own house? She disappeared down the stairs and moved to make some coffee. Her eyes doing a double take when there was indeed a note laying smack dab in the middle of her white kitchen island.

Agatha, I can’t wait to go home with you for the holidays, it’s about time I met the family. Kathy’s cookies are safe, just make sure I have a good time and we’ll call it even. I had fun last night, we should do that again sometime.

Agatha’s eyes bugged out as she read Rio’s attached business card. Rio Vidal partner of Vidal, Scratch and Wu-Gulliver. Attorney at Law.

Wholly fuck, she had just screwed a lawyer. She cringed, she really hoped this wasn’t going to bite her in the ass. In her line of work, she did plenty of things that were on just the wrong side of legal. She picked up the card as she went to input Rio’s info into her phone – she was going to need it if by some miracle this woman was going to come on this trip with her.

Her finger hovered over the text option, but she felt too exposed after last night, her fingers starting to feel uncomfortably sweaty. She locked her phone and set it on the kitchen island as she made for her office and her computer. She rolled her eyes as she saw the conversation between her and Rio, the fact that it had escalated so quickly was a bit unnerving – was Rio needing her for a case? She tried to review her recent campaigns in her head, nothing particularly bad came to mind. Just pay off a person here, buy out a catchphrase from under someone else there.

She clicked over to her professional account to start reviewing her clients digital ad numbers. Everything was going smoothly, she bumped them up another $50 and extended the date range for the campaign. Clients loved it when their company exceeded their expectations and sometimes Agatha’s team needed to front a bit of their company's own money to get the clients to the point of always coming back.

She saw a slack message come in from her boss, the CEO, wanting a quick review of the social media analytics numbers. She rolled her eyes, Dan never even knew what was going on with anything online, but he loved to spout the numbers as if he did. She flipped over to her project management system and after a quick review, and a smirk about what a brilliant job she had done, she hit send. 

She was about to look back on her conversation with Rio when her intern pinged her and she sighed. No not intern, they had hired Billy, on her recommendation no less. She hated his eager attitude, but she did love that after spending a year with her that he knew all the answers to any of Dan’s late night inquiries, and that she was able to reclaim her sleep.

Billy pinged her a legal question and she sighed, as much as this would be a great excuse to start another conversation wtih Rio, she knew this was a question best answered by her mentor. Lilia Calderu. The woman had been incessantly persistent about keeping in contact – since practically adopting Agatha on the university bench back in the day, when her world had fallen apart.

Lilia Calderu was a true academic at heart, and she remembered everything. The woman had degrees in English, Science, Business and Law just to round it off. She had even dabbled in medicine but found the whole thing a tad too direct and boring. She lived for weaving a tale together and divining meaning through carefully constructed phrases. 

Agatha figured she should also let Lilia know she wouldn’t be attending Christmas this year. She had tried to escape the yearly event since moving out, but the first year she tried faking sick Lilia had arrived at her door. Bringing plenty of items to practically bring the party to her, feigning that she hated her guests anyway and had had enough of her family.

Agatha had caved and let the woman drag her home, because she knew Lilia indeed did love her children and grandchildren, just that somehow she couldn’t let Agatha be alone on the holidays. 

Agatha picked up her phone and found Lilia’s number easily, she was the only person she talked to outside of work with any regularity, a missed call from the night before sat promptly in front of her in red. The phone only rang twice.

“Well, Aggie, you’ve finally decided to return my call. I had a feeling it would be this morning, but with your chart… you do tend to be a bit chaotic to read.”

Agatha rolled her eyes. Lilia also was a self proclaimed “witch” and dabbled in tarot and whatever crystals she thought had healing powers. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a mess, Lilia.”

“You’re a sagittarius, Agatha, perfectly human… if a bit infuriating.”

Agatha chuckled at that, standing and walking over to her window to settle in the sun for a moment. “And you’re a typical water sign. Queen of water pictures.” She could hear Lilia’s eyes narrow.

“It’s Queen of Cups. You know the cards. Cancers, Pisces and Scorpios are very intunned with the other…”

Agatha sighed. “Worlds. Emotions. Yes, I know, Lilia, you taught me well. I’ll read for you next time I come over.” She rapped her finger lightly on the glass as she cleared her throat. She fought the annoying tell tale signs of nausea that appeared every time she was about to disappoint her mentor. She tried to break the change in holiday plans to her slowly. “I… I can’t come for Christmas this year, but perhaps I’ll be home by New Years if you…” She moved to step away from the window when she felt an icy chill coming from the phone. She knew Lilia was going to be pissed. 

“Agatha. We are not doing this again. Despite what you may think, you are family, and everyone is excited to see you. Jamie has been so excited to finally see you since you didn’t make it to her cheerleading competition, you know how much that girl looks up to you...”

Agatha pressed her hand to her stomach, she had wanted to make it but work had run late that day, and she had convinced herself that the child only saw her as an aunt out of pity. She wondered for a brief moment if she had really upset the girl or if Lilia was simply trying to get her way through emotional manipulation – which she was good at.

Lilia sighed. “Agatha, she’s okay. She just missed you.”

Agatha snorted, she hated that Lilia could always read her mind. “Stop doing that, Lilia.”

Lilia’s smirk was obvious through the phone as she used a mocking tone. “Then stop thinking so loud, Aggie.”

Agatha pinched her nose. “Why do I still talk to you?”

Lilia’s voice rang out, cheery this time. “Because you love me, sweetheart. Now, what is this about not making it for Christmas? There isn’t a new… girl is there? Because we have plenty of space… and my walls are decently thick…”

Agatha made a gagging sound. “Ew. No… There's no girl. I… Lilia, don’t make me say what I am doing instead of spending Christmas with you, it’s,” She groaned. “there are… feelings. You know I don’t like those.”

Lilia softened her voice. “Sweetheart. I know you don’t like feelings, but we all have them. Feelings are a way of life. So tell me. What happened?”

Agatha sat on her desk, forgoing the warmth of the sun. “My father passed.” She let her fingernails attempt to dig into her desk. “He… left me money. A good deal of it, it would be stupid to pass it up. I could pay you back…”

Lilia tutted then was quiet for a time, and Agatha lifted her phone to see if the call had disconnected before she heard the other woman speak again.

“I can come with you.”

Agatha’s stomach dropped. “Lilia, there is no way you are missing Jamie’s Xmas concert, Sarah will be devastated and Jared just got you to finally smile at him and accept him into the family. What will he think if you take off with me for the week?”

Lilia grumbled. “Jared is on thin ice… I can’t believe Sarah married a man…”

Agatha chuckled. “It’s been years, Lilia, hold out hope… maybe he’s trans and doesn’t know it yet.”

Lilia continued to grumble as Agtha fought the smile on her face. “Plus, I’m not going alone, I have a … friend willing to tag along. It’s not a big deal.”

Lilia came through the line sounding satisfied. “Ah… so I did read the spread correctly this morning. She’s good for you.”

Agatha’s voice was hard. “I didn’t say it was a girl. And anyways, it’s just a friendly thing…”

Lilia laughed. “Agatha Harkness, you don’t have any friends but me.”

“You’re a treasure, Lilia.” The laughter down the line made her smile wider despite herself. “Anyways, I had a legal question… “

Lilia tutted. “Text it to me, I'll do some research and get back to you. Bring her around for New Years, won’t you dear? Then I can avoid Jared.”

Agatha shook her head. “Bye, Lilia.”

“I’ll see you later, Honey. Love you, dear.”

Agatha felt her chest warm. In the beginning she had never said it back, she had learned over her lifetime that people who told her they loved her never really meant it – but Lilia was different. And annoyingly persistent. “Love you. Bye.” She hung up quickly like she always did before Lilia could get a bit too sentimental with her, like she loved to do in person after a glass of wine.

Now that she had her adoptive mother dealt with, all that was left was preparing for battle with her biological mother. Evanora Harkness was a pillar of her small town community and someone to be feared, but Agatha wasn’t a child anymore, and she was ready for war.