Chapter Text
When Mirabel met Ricardo, she could already see their lives together. Which was silly, she knew. They met when she was eighteen, and she had fallen for him instantly. With his long black hair and those eyes...such dark eyes that she'd never seen before. He was sweet and kind to her, he would bring her gifts and would whisper sweet nothings in her ear. He made her feel special. Her family was a different story altogether, sure they had come to accept her more after the whole misadventure with Casita. Though now, she feels as though they've become a little bit too...protective. She remembers Dolores coming to her, telling her that she would hear Ricardo being cruel to others and how he wasn't as nice as he pretended to be. Tio Bruno gave her a vision, her life with him wouldn't be pleasant, but if Mirabel learned anything from her adventure it was that Tio Bruno's visions weren't prophecies, and they could be changed. Antonio would tell her, the animals hated Ricardo and lived in fear of him. Each member of her family told her something but...she didn't believe them...after all when one is in love and looking at someone through rose tinted glasses all the red flags simply look like red flags.
The first time he laid a hand on her, had been at her birthday party.
She had simply been talking to her cousin-in-law Mariano and asking him a question when Ricardo had pulled her away, leading her to a different part of casita. Away from the crowd and prying eyes.
"What do you think you're doing?" He whispered, hissing in her ear.
"I was asking Mariano about-"
"I don't want you talking to him." He replied, which shocked her.
"He's my cousin's husband, why am I not allowed to-" She stops talking when he grips her shoulders in a vice grip. "Ricardo you're hurting me."
"You'll do as I say alright?!" He exclaimed, and she can hear murmurs as some people are staring. She remembers chuckling nervously, a false smile on her face trying to diffuse the situation. That however, only served to enrage him. "Don't laugh at me!"
"I wasn't laughing at you, I..look can we talk about-" He cuts her off again by gripping her tighter. She's sure that his fingers are digging into her flesh, because it sure feels like they are. His hold on her is tight, and she winces at just how much her arms are hurting.
"Is there a problem here?" Came Abuela's voice. He simply let her go, and walked off. Mirabel didn't say anything, she doesn't even remember what Abuela said, she simply remembers being in the kitchen with her mother setting a plate of food before her. There are bruises on her arms, and even a scratch on one of them from where one of his nails had dug into her skin.
"Mija, I'm worried perhaps it would be best if you didn't see that boy again." Said Julieta, as she took a bite and once she had the bruises and scratch were gone.
"Mama, it's fine he didn't mean to hurt me he was just...angry. I'll talk to him about it." She'd said with a smile on her face.
She wishes she'd listened.
Over time, things began to change and it was as though a switch had been flipped. He was angry with her, always angry. Nothing she did was good enough, and just as she had done with her family...she pretended it was normal. That he would eventually go back to being how he was before. She would defend him to her family, even as she saw the pain in her parents' eyes every time Mirabel came home with bruises. Even as Tio Bruno would remind her of the vision, even as Luisa and Isabela threatened to use their gifts against him, even as the rest of her family would look at her with a mixture of sadness and anger at what was being done to her. She still defended him, played off the fighting and shouting as simple arguments, the bruises were just because she was clumsy that was all. It started creating a rift in her family, and she started feeling as though she had to choose between them and him. Something she never wanted to do.
She remembers him asking Abuela and her parents for her hand in marriage...and the immediate 'no' he had been given.
"Every day, we see Mirabel coming home with bruises on her arms, tears on her face, and you expect us to say yes to your request? You will never marry my daughter." Her father said, anger in his voice. "She deserves someone better."
"Agustin." Said Abuela, raising her hand, and her father had stopped. Her grandmother stood tall, as she looked at Ricardo with that calm look on her face and yet Mirabel remembers seeing anger in those eyes as well. "Ricardo, I brought my family here to keep them safe. I will admit, I did not always do the best job of protecting Mirabel but I will not put her in harm's way. I refuse to give you my blessing, I refuse to allow my granddaughter to marry you, and I refuse to allow you to join this family."
"What if I join his?" Said Mirabel, to her family's shock.
"Mija, no. Please, we're trying to do what's best for you." Said Julieta, and Mirabel wishes she could go back in time and change that foolish child's mind. Except, at the time...she doesn't get it. She's in love and her family is simply trying to den her happiness with the man she loves.
"I'll be ok mom, I know what I'm doing." Said Mirabel, and her father placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Mirabel, please I know you are in love and you think that this man is the one...but he's not." Pleads her father for her to see reason.
"I'm going to marry him." Said Mirabel, and at the time she thinks she's doing the right thing...so brainwashed by her love of him and his manipulations that she can't see reason. She can't see that her family is indeed trying to protect her.
That night, Ricardo holds her, tells her they can elope. After all he loves her, he cares about her, he knows her family hasn't always treated her the best...and that's what their doing. Just as they did once before, treating her like a child and as though her opinions don't matter. She's his adored one, and he will do anything for her if it means she'll come away with him. So she does, she left casita...marrying him...and for a time it seemed as though the old Ricardo had returned. He was good to her...he was sweet to her...until he wasn't. The birth of their first daughter, she cries for a week straight and he yells at her. What kind of mother is she he says? What kind of mother can't even take care of their crying child? Eventually Annabel stops crying.
So here she is now, a mother, with three children. Seven year old Annabel, six year old Lorena, and three year old Sebastian...and a husband who hurts her.
She hasn't spoken to her family, not since that night she left. She misses them terribly. Sometimes she wonders if they even miss her, many nights she tells her children about them. About the magical and fantastical family Madrigal. About the gifts they possess. Her children ask if they have gifts, and Mirabel wonders if they do, after all two of them are past the age of a candle ceremony.
Tonight is special though, tonight is her son's birthday.
"Mom, mom I'm four." She hears a tiny whisper.
Mirabel giggles, wrapping her arms around Sebastian, and pulling him into a tight bear hug. He giggles and laughs as she plants kisses on his face.
"Mom!" He exclaims, as she nuzzles against him.
"You're so big now!" She replied, smiling at him. He giggles, smiling up at her and for a moment Mirabel thinks back to Antonio. He'd be about twenty-one now. The same age she was, when she left casita to marry her awful husband. Her son's smile fades and he looks concerned.
"Mom, what's wrong?" Asked Sebastian and she shakes her head smiling at him.
"Nothing, hey why don't we make some arroz con leche?" She asks, knowing it's her son's favorite.
"Yeah!" He exclaims, and she once again smiles. He leaps off the bed, Mirabel looks beside her to the empty bed. Her husband is gone, off to work presumably which is fine by her. She sits up, stretching before going to make breakfast for the kids. She lives far from Encanto in another village, and sometimes she sees the people from Encanto who she knew others who she doesn't. She doesn't ask about her family, no matter how much she misses them...it would hurt too much to. Besides her husband reminds her every day, when he taunts her. About how well their doing without her...about how their lives are better without her. She sips her coffee and looks out the window at some birds flying nearby before flying off.
The birds fly towards Antonio, who holds his hand out to them and they twitter and chirp.
"Huh, really? Yeah...ok thanks." He says with a smile, as they fly away.
"How is she Antonio?" Asked Julieta softly.
"She's just waking up this morning, it's Sebastian's birthday today...she's making him arroz con leche." Said Antonio smiling at his Tia Julieta.
"I used to make that for her every morning on her birthday, it's nice to know she does the same for her own children." Said Julieta with a sad smile.
They haven't spoken or written to Mirabel in years, not after she left...not after she wrote them a letter telling them how much she resented them and hated them, how she never wanted to see them again. Abuela said to give her time, that she would return to them soon. Except it's been so long now, and their starting to give up hope of her ever returning. They rely on the birds Antonio talks to and Dolores' hearing, for any news on her. They know she has three children, two little girls and a little boy. When she found out the news, Julieta made three blankets for each of them.
"I say we should go over there and bring her back." Said Luisa, beside her her husband gently pats her arm to calm her down.
"That will just make her resent her even more, Luisa. We must be patient, Mirabel and her children will come home I know it." Said Alma, but even she had doubts.
"I agree with Luisa though, I can't get married without my favorite cousin there...no offense." Said Antonio, turning to Luisa and Isabela who shrugged at his comment.
"Antonio, enough." Said his father, and Antonio sighed as he looked out the window. He was tired of waiting, tired of being patient...and if he needed to defy his family and rescue Mirabel and her kids himself then so be it.