While Rita was having a busy, productive day, Rick's day was heading in the opposite direction.
Lopez family members were undoubtedly dealing with some big issue, and Zoey was also busy. Rick took advantage of this to slip out to his own studio, where he secretly met with Samuel. Handing over a vial of his blood, Rick asked Samuel to get it tested, under the pretense that it belonged to a "suspicious colleague" who had been acting odd lately, avoiding everyone, and whose health seemed off.
By the time Rita returned from **Lania Kaia**, Rick had already received the test results and learned what the mysterious curse was.
It was… **AIDS**.
Sitting on the couch in the Wilson family mansion, Rick stared at the report. The moment he saw the result, he thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't revealed the blood sample was his. He feared that Samuel might have abandoned him if he had known.