Beth felt like she was walking to the gallows as she dragged her bone-tired body through the eerily empty corridors.

She had done this walk many a time in the last few days, walking between her room and the NICU, trying to visit her daughter as much as possible.

Today though, was different.

Pearl was officially one week old. Beth had been with her as the clock struck midnight signifying the start of her seventh day in the world. It had seemed so monumental, a whole week alive. Beth hadn't been there for the first 24 hours when the doctors didn't think she would make it, that Beth would wake up to a world without her daughter. But she had and Pearl kept defying the odds, whenever the doctors told Beth to prepare herself, it was like Pearl knew, she knew they were betting against her, and she was going to prove them wrong.

And she had.

The doctors were as confident as they could be that she was out of the woods, they're still unsure about the long-term effects of her premature birth but Beth's willing to take whatever miracle she gets.

They even thought Beth would be able to hold Pearl for the first time soon, possibly tomorrow the neonatal nurse had smiled almost as big as Beth when she delivered the news, jabbering on about the benefits of Kangaroo holds and such as Beth watched in awe as her girl sucked on a pacifier almost as big as her head, building up her eating muscles.

It wasn't anything like she had imagined, but her baby, her Pearl was a fighter.

Unlike her mother, Beth thought ruefully as she continued down the winding corridors getting closer to her destination. Trying to muster all the courage she had in her, to build back up the facade she'd built decades before, of the untouchable girl with the perfect life she'd always wished she could be.

It was kind of hard when she was still weak from the surgery, pale from the blood loss and wearing her most unflattering pair of pyjamas (and that was saying something!).

People probably assumed she was a ghost haunting the hospital, Beth thought ruefully.

But this journey was different. Passing her room door Beth continued towards the security doors, towards the waiting room, towards him.

Beth knew she couldn't put it off forever, no matter how much she hoped.

Rio knew about the baby.

Her baby.

Their baby.

Annie had let it slip not long after Beth had come around a second time, Rio had been at the soccer fields, he'd seen the car hit her, had seen her obviously fuller stomach as she lay unconscious. He'd come to the hospital, Annie said, following the ambulance, but he hadn't been allowed passed the security doors, so Rio being Rio he'd tried to blackmail Annie into getting him in, luckily for Beth, Annie had no say who got in and who didn't. She hadn't had the time or even thought of removing Dean as her next of kin, all decisions had to go through him and there was no way he'd let Rio in.

Beth had tried to ignore the information, hoping that if she buried her head in the sand, her problems would go away, Rio would go away.

Wishful thinking.

She was getting released in a few days and there would be no escaping him then. No steel doors, no security guards, no talking herself out of this mess she'd created.

The countdown was on. Every breath she took felt like sand in an hourglass, counting down.

The only way to stop it was to get ahead of it.

Coming to a stop Beth could see Rio sitting in the waiting room playing around on his phone.

It wasn't a new sight.

He'd been here every night that she had. Beth had caught sight of him the first time by accident.

Walking the halls trying to regain her strength when she had gotten turned around and ended up near the visitors waiting area, she thought she'd been delirious from all the pain meds she had been on. But even the depths of her mind couldn't have conjured such a perfect copy.

Beth had all but ran back to her room, tail tucked firmly between her legs.

Not tonight.

Tonight, she had to be brave.


RIO

Hospital WIFI was shit.

They probably had more important things to be worrying about, but you'd think they'd at least have a connection that didn't take an hour to load a fucking page!

Yeah, he was pissed.

Not at the WIFI. Well, the WIFI wasn't all he was pissed at.

Rio hated hospitals; the sickly smell of industrial disinfectant, and the pall of disease, suffering and death that always hung around them. He struggled to keep the sense of unease under control.

His daughter was a week old, and he still hadn't met her. What kind of bullshit was that? Elizabeth knew he was here, he knew she knew he was here. Little sis wasn't great at keeping her mouth shut.

The fact that he might not have known about his kid at all if her mother had her way cut in a different kind of way. It might have been less painful when she'd put three bullets in him and left him for dead.

Nah. Being at the soccer field had just been dumb luck but it wouldn't have been long before he went looking for her.

She's figured out how to make the money.

Rio didn't know if he was more pissed off or proud.

When he'd first got a whiff that someone was trying to shop funny money in his district, he'd been murderous. Figured he'd send a few of his guys to rough them up, get the information on their supplier before Rio put a bullet in their brain for the audacity.

Yeah, he was feeling dramatic. He'd let shit slide for too long and look where that got him, riddled with fucking holes.

Should have taken his own advice and got rid of his rotten egg. But what a pretty egg it was.

She intrigued him, the whole suburban mama facade Rio was willing to bet he was the only one to see behind, to see more. He liked the challenge of her.

He'd been bored before.

Didn't have time for that now, he snorted. Nah, with Elizabeth Boland came a whole host of problems. Shit that in normal circumstances he wouldn't let go, hell he'd killed people for making the type of mistakes she made.

Ever since that first day in her kitchen Mick had thought he was fucking crazy. Maybe he was right. He shoulda put a bullet in her then, saved himself a lot of shit.

She got him arrested and tried to kill him, yet she was still breathing.

It was easy to blame it on the pregnancy to start with, even he had his limits. Killing a woman who was pregnant with his baby was one. Until the 'miscarriage'.

Rio snorted, he should have sussed it out sooner, she got that money too damn quick but where Elizabeth Boland was concerned his judgement was clouded. He was man enough to admit that.

She left and took a piece of him with her. His daughter, a person he helped in the creation of, and the one who holds half of his heart, with Marcus holding the other half. She tried to take first smiles, first steps and a host of other memories with her. She tried to take someone who was his. Snatched his daughter right out from under him.

She did something she had no right to do. Without uttering a single word or even a suggestion. That was taken from him by her.

As soon as the poor sap being ruffed up muttered about three crazy bitches he'd known. Mick had to, by the exasperated look on his face, but Rio paid him no mind, already plotting.

All that went to shit when he pulled into that damn soccer field.

Rio's phone vibrating pulled him out of his musings. "Yo."

"Dags is having some problems on the Canada trip." Mick's gravelly tone announced.

"Of course, he is." Rio rolled his eyes upwards as if asking for some kind of miracle. Concerning the stuff he'd done in his lifetime, he knew it was no use, didn't stop his ma dragging his sorry ass to church every Sunday.

"What you want me to tell him?"

"I can't really be traipsing all the way to Canada right now." Rio sighed rubbing his eyes before taking in the nearly empty waiting room. "Fuck, tell him to offer another 5 percent, and if the fucker isn't happy after that to shoot him somewhere non-lethal."

"You got it, boss."

"Anything else?" Rio asked after a minute when Mick hadn't hung up.

"How's everything on your end?" Mick asked wearily, he wasn't one to butt into personal problems, but Rio had known him since they were both in 5th grade, Mick was practically his brother.

"Still the same."

Mick paused before speaking. "She can't hide forever, even if she wants to, that's your daughter man."

His daughter, hearing someone else say in twisted something in his chest. "Yeah, she is."

Both were silent for a beat. "So how you gonna ask me to be godfather? Cause I've watched some dope videos of people being asked and I wouldn't be against that shit, like a personalised cigar or something? Give us an excuse to crack out the Cubans."

Rio chocked out a laugh. He'd known Mick since before they could tie their shoe laces, he always had his back and could sense when he needed brought out of his own head.

"Don't think I get a say in that, she doesn't want me having anything to do with her." He huffed out a bitter laugh. "I don't think she'd even have told me if I hadn't seen her."

Mick exhales loudly. "That's messed up, man."

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. But I'm not letting her keep my kid from me."

"She's a smart lady, makes dumbass decisions but she's smart. She knows this can only go one way."

Rio scoffed. "I ain't putting nothing past her."

"Christopher Marques?" Rio's head whipped to the side at his given name.

13 or 34, didn't matter, you hear your full name rolled out you paid attention, he was half expecting his Abuela to round the corner and swat his ass with a wooden spoon.

Damn, she was a trip. 4ft 9inches and she never failed to put the fear of God into him.

"Yeah?" He asked the older looking nurse wearily wondering if he was getting kicked out this time. He knew it was only a matter of time considering the looks he got when security did their rounds.

Probably thought he was casing the joint for drugs or some shit.

Bitch please, his supply was better.

The nurse smiled back wildly at the confirmation that he was who she was looking for. Who was that happy at that time of night? Damn. "Mrs Boland has asked for you."

Huh?

Had he passed out in the uncomfortable hospital chairs? Seriously if you weren't needing a doctor before sitting in them you would after. He was too old to be sleeping in chair's, his back wouldn't forgive him for that.

"What?" Rio muttered, trying to work out what was happening.

The cheery demeanour from a moment ago was replaced in the face of his confusion as she looked down at the chart in her hands. "Elizabeth Boland?"

"I'll call you back later." Rio said before ending the call not waiting for a response. "Sorry I was on a work call."

The nurse still didn't seem as confident as before but seemed to accept his expectation. "Alright if you'll just follow me."

Rio got up wordlessly following the nurse through the steel doors he'd been unable to bribe his way through previously.

He figured she was taking him to Elizabeth's room but as they continued passed the closed room doors towards another set of security doors his heart started to beat faster.

Neonatal intensive care unit, the sign announced.

His daughter was in there.

He was gonna meet his daughter.

Shit.

He was gonna meet his daughter.

Time seemed to freeze and speed up all at once and Rio didn't know what to do.

"There's hand sanitiser just there." The nurse prompted as she swiped her key card opening the door.

Rio followed her on autopilot.

"You'll see them all around the ward to try and encourage visitors to always remember, any little bug brought in here could be really serious for most of these babies, so we need to keep germs to a minimum." The nurse prattled on as she kept walking.

Rio nodded along not really taking in any of the words she was saying, not when through the glass walls he could see tiny babies in their incubators.

God.

They were so small.

Was his daughter in there?

No. She couldn't be of the nurse was still leading him further into the unit.

"It can be pretty scary the first time here." The nurse spoke softly noticing Rio's preoccupation. "Lots of parents find it hard to start with, it's normal."

There was nothing normal about this, but Rio couldn't bring himself to voice the words.

"You'll get used to it."

The nurse laughed at his sceptical look. "Trust me, you're not the first shell shocked dad we've had, and you definitely won't be the last. Now we just need to get you a parent pass and you can come and go as you please. Visiting hours are 12-1 and 5-7, we encourage only immediate family visit at this time and anyone sick not to come, even if it's just a runny nose. Parents can visit any time, the only time we stop visiting is when we get a new little arrival, and that's only for around an hour till we get baby stable."

"Right." Rio nodded, parent pass, visiting hours, got it, he thought.

"And here we are." The nurse smiled as they came to a stop in front of a single door. The room had the same glass walls as the rest of the ward, but the curtains had been drawn to give the illusion of privacy.

The nurse never hesitated before throwing the door open, Rio took a breath and followed.


Beth held her breath as the glass door was pushed open. Cautiously lifting her gaze from the baby in front of her she's met with Rio's intense gaze. So many emotions brimming over that she can't name a single one.

"Thanks, Nicole." Beth's step-ford smile falls firmly into place as she turns her gaze to the friendly older nurse that had been on staff the last few nights.

"No problem dear, I'm just glad little miss P finally gets to meet her daddy, must have been hell for him stuck away on business all this time with this little darling making an early appearance." Nicole clucked unaffected by the tension in the room.

"Oh, you have no idea." Rios sardonic tone made Beth flinch.

Nicole didn't seem to notice. "I'll leave you three alone now, let you have some proper family time."

Beth wanted to beg her to stay, to be a buffer between whatever would happen next.

But seeing the look of complete reverence on Rio's face when he sees Pearl for the first-time changes something in Beth.

Something inside her breaks.

Some essential part that's kept her strong over the past few months, she feels a flood of feelings bursting in her chest.

The damn bricks she'd built around her heart start to crack.

Danger, Beth's head warns. It's all a façade.

This is the same man who kills people who get on his wrong side. Who'd killed Lucy. He's not a good man. Not a man she wanted her daughter to grow up idolizing. Which she will. Because if Rio, is good at one thing, it's being a father. She's seen it in the absolute hero-worship Marcus has for him.

But the way he stares at Pearl with pride and affection, the smile that tugs at the dimples in his cheek, it seems genuine. Real and she really wants to believe it. Needs to believe it so badly she aches.

"Hey Princesa," he croons softly touching the glass separating their beautiful baby from the world. "I know we don't know each other yet, but I'm your dad."

He was so absorbed by his daughter that Beth might as well not have been there.

Beth stayed quiet because she didn't want to ruin the moment., letting Rio take his fill of her, their daughter.

"I really fucking hate you, you know that?" he says, his short, sharp breaths ghosting across the room. "I fucking hate you for keeping her from me."

"You should. I would if I we're you."

"Got to tell you, this is the most messed up thing you've done to me Mami." Rio murmured, eyes still glued to the baby as if he blinked, she'd disappear. "And that's including the three bullets you put in me. Faking a miscarriage, that's low."

Beth flinched back like his words physically struck her. "I didn't plan it, it just kind of... Happened."

Rio laughed. "Right, right, cause of pregnancy hormones and shit yeah? Nah, you knew what you were doing. You didn't want me in her life."

"When you found out I was pregnant, you couldn't bear to look at me, and when you did, it was with scorn," Beth said. " And then what happened to Lucy, and I couldn't bear to look at you, knowing that if it wasn't for the baby that you seemed to hate so much it would have been me in the back of that car," Beth tried to justify her behaviour.

"That was business." Rio dismissed still not looking at her.

"It was personal to me!" Beth exploded causing his attention to shift to her.

"So, then you decided to fake a miscarriage and do a runner."

Beth paused shaken by the blunt reply and how quickly he had broken down her actions. "Yes."

Rio's laugh was anything but humerus. "Always knew you were cold ma but this, this is a whole other level."

"I just wanted to protect her," Beth whispered. It was the wrong thing to say, Rio turned on her eyes flashing furiously.

"From what!? From me!? That's my daughter," Rio spat out pointing towards the incubator. "That's my blood. And you, you were gonna keep her from me, hell you still trying to keep her from me."

"You're here aren't you. I'm trying to make it right, make it better." Beth argued.

"Yeah, 5 months too late."

"You hated me," Beth said clutching at straws. "It practically poured from you whenever we were in the same room, I didn't know how to make it work!"

"So, you did what was best for you and tried to steal from me, again."

"I, I was scared after Lucy. You killed her to punish me, and I just kept thinking about how innocent she was in all this, and she died because of me. I didn't want to ruin another innocent person's life, her life." Beth said looking down at her daughter, the only truly innocent person in all this.

"It was a messed up situation, hell it's still messed up," Rio laughed bitterly. "You tried to kill me and then I find out you got my baby in your belly? Yeah, that was a real head trip ma, I think I'm allowed to a minute to get my head around that."

"I know," Beth replies softly. "It wasn't just you, it's that life, our life. She deserves better."

"She deserves to know her dad."

"She does."

"And I want to know her, I will know her," Rio said with steel in his voice. "She's my kid, my daughter, I want to hold her, I want to be the one to chase the monsters from her closet at night, shit for her I'd even play Princess tea party, my boys would eat that shit up. I want to watch her grow."

"And you will, you're here now."

"And if it was up to you, I wouldn't be!" He stretched his arms out in front of him.

Beth struggled to fight back tears that had begun to form in the corners of her eyes. "At the time, I made the decision based on what I thought was best. Was that the right one? I honestly don't know. Yeah! I should've told you sooner, I never should have lied about the miscarriage, you should have known of her from the beginning, but I can't go back and change that, we need to move forward."

"Damn fuckin' right I should have!" He stood up, and started to pace like a caged animal, fury lashing of him in waves as his fists clenched at his sides. "She's my daughter, too. I should have been there for her birth, and her first breath, and I should have been there every goddamn day since she was born! Because of you, she could have died, and I'd have been none the wiser."

The dam broke, all the tears Beth had been holding back escaped out of her as she sobbed loudly. "This wasn't how it was supposed to be."

"This ain't exactly what I imagined when I found out three white bitches robbed me but she's here and we gotta make this work," Rio stated, seemingly unaffected by Beth's tears.

"I don't want you here out of some misguided sense of honour and obligation, I've done this by myself four times before, adding another one isn't going to be a hardship." Lies, lies, lies Beth screamed internally as she tried to pull herself together. She could hardly manage the kids that she had, adding in a Newborn, a sick Newborn was gonna be a whole new level of carnage.

"That what you think," Rio murmured his eyes drifting once again to the baby, Beth couldn't even blame him, they did make a cute kid. "That I'm only here out of some sort of obligation?"

"I," Beth floundered. "I don't know what I think. Whenever I'm around you I feel like I'm on the back foot."

The admission released something inside of Beth, it was both freeing and humiliating to admit her weakness. Rio was a predator. And Beth was very much prey.

Rio huffed out a laugh. "Really, cause seems to me it's the other way round. Never know what's coming next with you."

"Got to keep you on your toes." Beth quipped with a half-hearted smile, still feeling emotionally drained.

Rio barked out a laugh. "Oh, you definitely do that sweetheart."

They both lapsed into silence, comfortable just to watch their daughter sleep.

Beth was loathed to break the tentative silence but had to know. "What do we do now?"

He scans over her in his usual way, but instead of the usual heated feeling that arises in Beth, she feels... Cold. Beth wraps her arms around herself trying to protect herself from the weight of his stare.

"Now I gotta explain to my mom that I've had another kid out of wedlock with a woman she doesn't know about," Rio said gravely. "Should soften the blow that it's a girl but I'm still gonna catch hell for it."

Beth hadn't even considered if he had a family outside of Marcus. Her daughters family she supposed.

"And your father? Will he be a doting grandpa?" Beth asked curiously for any information he'd offer up.

Rio shook his head. "Nah, he died when I was young. Just my mom and two older sisters you gotta worry about."

"Great." Beth snorted, more than one Rio.

Rio huffed out a laugh like he knew what she was thinking. "She got a name?"

"Yeah, Pearl," Beth said tucking her hair behind her ear suddenly nervous about his reaction, it was ridiculous. She could call the child she'd carried for nearly 9 months whatever she wanted, but she still found herself seeking his approval. Stupid.

"Pearl." Rio tested out. Hearing him say their daughters name sent a current through Beth. The raspy voice testing out the name she never thought she would hear cross his lips.

"I thought about Olivia or Charlotte, I even called her Rebecca for a while, but nothing seemed right until Pearl, it fits her." Beth rushed to defend her choice. "Pearl's come from something bad, something irritating." Beth shot Rio a look.

"Yeah, yeah. Thought she might be your scarlet letter." Rio said referencing a book Beth had been forced to read in high school English. "How is Dean by the way? Didn't catch him in the waiting room passing out cigars."

If looks, could kill Beth would have finished off what the three bullets didn't.

"It's her name, it's been her name since before she came into this world and I'm not going to change it."

Silence descended once again but this time it was less fraught.

"Big name for someone so little," Rio stated.

"She can handle it"

Rio smiled softly. "Yeah, she can."

"You can choose the middle name?" Beth rushed out without thinking. "I mean if you want, you don't have to, there's a few I've been toying with but nothing concrete."

"What's the options?"

"Anything, well, within reason."

"What you been thinking about?"

Beth hesitated. "Well, Annie got annoyed that a Pearl is a gem so, she's decided I'm naming the baby after Ruby. I was going to throw Anna in as a middle name to appease her."

Rio stared at the baby silently. "That's my aubelas name."

Beth jolted. "Anna?"

"Yeah." Rio nodded. "Her names Mariana but everyone calls her Ana. That'll make my mom happy. Well as happy as she's gonna be when she finds out I've got another kid and still no wife."

"Religious?"

"Yeah, but that don't bother her, she wants to see me settled down. Wife, kids, house in the burbs."

"That's..." Beth tried to picture Rio living that kind of life, her life. "Nice?"

"Yeah, cause I'm a real regular Bill Cosby."

Beth snorted at the thought of Rio swanning around the suburbs, golfing with the other husbands like Dean used to. "Well, if Walter White can make it work, I've no doubt you can."

"Nah, I prefer to think of myself more like Tony Soprano."

The easy banter they fell into was undercut by the tension still thick in the air, but it was a start.

"You can tell your mom it isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Rio smirked at her and shook his head mockingly "Has everything in paradise gone wrong? What, hubby, have a problem with you having another man's kid? Is he still hung up on the shooting, cause man, he needs to move on? I have."

"Deans been great actually."

Rio cracked up laughing. "Yeah, I bet he's overjoyed at the idea of my kid living in his big fancy house."

Beth debated whether or not she should tell him about her new home life before concluding that he would find out regardless, like he always does. "Actually," Beth cleared her throat. "He doesn't need to live with 'your kid', we're divorced."

The shock was visible on Rio's face for milliseconds before he was able to mask it with his usual blank mask, just enough time for Beth to register the look before he shut it down.

"But what would the neighbours think?"

"Not my neighbours, not my problem." Beth answered truthfully. Sure, she'd heard the gossip at the kids events, especially when her bump became visible, but she couldn't find it in herself to care anymore.

"Car man kick you out?"

Beth knew that's where his mind would go. "We knew we were over, some part of me knew before fine and frugal but I didn't want to accept it. This just gave us the push to actually end it."

Rio was silent as he stared at their daughter.

"It's not all bad, I've got my own apartment, we split the kids pretty ; in fact, it's probably better than when I was married."

"Where you at?"

When Beth revealed the address of her new residence, Rio uttered a harsh remark. "Shit mama, ain't even my boys live in a place like that."

"It's not that bad." Beth defended. And Really it wasnt. OK, there was no home owners association like her and deans place and the landlord had been called about a leak in the girls bedroom on multiple occasions and still hadn't got round to fixing it but it wasn't as bad as he was making out.

"No, it's worse." Rio muttered tired with her bullshit, there was always something. "I'll find a place."

"What?"

"You can't think I'm gonna let my daughter be raised there?" He snorted. "My kid ain't living in no trap house."

"Excuse me!?"

"You heard."

Beth was livid. They couldn't even be civil for 10 minutes, how could they be in each others lives for the next 18 years. "There's nothing wrong with my apartment. I'm sorry if it doesn't live up to your standards but not all of us have cash to just throw away."

"Right, right," Rio nodded mockingly at her only stocking the fire she could feel in her belly. "So you and your girls ain't making funny money? My bad, must be three other dumb bitches from the burbs."

Beth felt the fire within her turn to ice and Rio knew it.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"How?" She croaked out.

He laughed, "Darling, nothing goes on in my territory that I don't know about. Way I see it is you got two choices, one, you tell me the newest recipes you been cooking up in that big ol' kitchen off yours, and we work out a deal that benefits us both or I need to... give you an incentive to see things my way."

"How?"

"You don't want it to go this way mama." Rio warned.

"How?" Beth repeated, more firmly this time.

Rio stood and crossed the room, putting as much distance between them as possible in the tiny room.

"You remember your friend Lucy?"

Beth blanched.

Rio snorted, "Nah, not like that. She's still missing, far as everyone's concerned. But that don't really sit right with me. Might be time to give that little boyfriend of hers closure."

"How?"

"Anonymous tip to the police." Rio shrugged.

Beth's mind was working overtime to try and work out his implication, how this would be an incentive to her.

"And tell them that I killed her?" Beth asked.

Rio laughed. "Nah, they're stupid but not that stupid, can't hand you to them on a silver plate or they might go digging deeper."

"So-"

"But-" Rio cut her off. "If they got the murder weapon with the killers prints on it with the body, well."

Beth's head spun. "But I didn't kill her, my prints aren't on the gun?"

"You're right." Beth deflated at the confirmation. "Little sis' are."

As Beth inhaled deeply, she found herself unable to speak, owing to the fact that her mouth had dried up at the implication that her sister's life was now in his hands. She felt like her breath bounced off the walls as it shook out between her lips since it was so quiet. "No."

"Fraid so." He confirmed.

"I'll, I'll tell them it was Mick, that I seen it."

"And you didn't come forward at the time? You'd just get yourself an adjacent cell as little sis for accessory to murder."

Beth stood up, trying to seem more confident than she was in that moment. "I'll tell them how I feared for my life, that I was being threatened by Micks boss to keep my mouth shut, That I had to think about my kids, and their safety."

"That's a good story." Rio praised as he walked toward her, his large, muscular physique imposing but not threatening. It took him all of five steps to cross the room and stop in front of her. He towered over Beth, inches taller and wider than she was, but she held his gaze in a move that was either brave or stupid. Or both

She couldn't back down. Wouldn't back down.

Rio effectively trapped Beth by flattening one hand against the wall next to her head and taking her chin in the other. As his thumb twitched, a little electric bolt flashed across her jaw, burning her skin. "But that's all it is, a story. We both know if I go down, I take you with me."

"The baby." Beth protested half heartedly eyes shooting to the infant.

"I'm sure you'd look forward to those monthly visits, watching her grow through a plexi glass screen."

"You need to leave," she murmured quietly, not looking him in the eyes.

He didn't say anything, but she could feel the heat of his eyes as he stared at her. Goose bumps erupted on Beth's upper arms, prickling over her skin as a result of his inspection.

"Tomorr—" Her voice broke halfway through, so she cleared her throat and utilised the force of the sound to summon the confidence to look him in the eyes. "Meet me at Paper Porcupine after closing tomorrow night, and I'll give you what you want."

He still didn't speak.

Not even as he took two steps back toward the door before he paused.

Not even as his hand twitched as his side, reaching out towards the crib in the middle of the room.

Not even as he walked right out the door. Taking all the air with him.

At the smooth closure of the door, Beth slipped against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting back on her heels. She lowered her head forward and buried her hands in her hair as she took a desperate long breath, allowing her heart to slow down.

Rio won, like he always would.