𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲 [ 𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗮𝘂 ]

family tree .42

"they're all blowing up my phone," ricky told nini as he scrolled through all his notifications. they were sitting in the car. it was the next morning and they had one more house to go to, the last one, of course, wasn't nini's dad. 

the girl sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "maybe you should tell your parents and the montagues. they're worried sick about you, ricky," the girl tried to convince the boy but he only shook his head and dug his phone back into his pockets. 

"they'll be fine," was all ricky told her, "this is the house, right?" the boy asked nini as they sat in the parked car. they both glanced out the window to see a blue an beige family house. it had a white picket fence surrounding it and flowers blooming below the windows. 

"this is where the gps says the house is at so i guess so," nini whispered, eyeing the house. the girl let out a sigh as the both of them stepped out of the car and made their way up the front door. ricky held onto nini's hand as she rang the doorbell. he felt nini start to get nervous so he rubbed his thumb over her hand to calm her down. nini felt her body relax and finally felt herself breathing normally again.

soon enough, the door opened. a blonde lady was in front of the couple with a confused look on her face, "hi...can i help you?"

nini cleared her throat and stepped forward, "hi, i was wondering if a "dylan roberts" lived here by any chance?"

the lady raised an eyebrow and nodded her head, "and you are....?"

"i uh... am an old family friend," was all that nini said, "is he here by any chance?"

the lady bit the inside of her cheek, debating if she should tell the truth or not, "one second," she said before shutting the door. nini and ricky glanced at each other and nervously waited for someone to open the door again. what felt like hours, finally happened. the door opened up again revealing the same lady and an another middle aged man. 

"i heard you were looking for me?" the middle aged man asked nini. he was dressed up. he wore a blue button down shirt, black tie, black slacks. nini noticed the gold ring wrapped around his wedding finger. 

"hi ... nice to meet you," nini simply said and stuck out her hand for dylan to shake. the man gave nini a weird and confused look before taking her hand and shaking it.he let out an awkward chuckle as they leet go of each other. nini cleared her throat and forced a smile, "do you happen to know a dana salazar...?"

nini and ricky noticed how stiff dylan got. he looked back at his wife who was giving him a confused, yet intrigued look. the man hesitated but slowly nodded his head. ricky quickly looked at nini who looked like she just seen a ghost. 

"i'm ... nina..." she finally said in a quiet voice, "i'm your daughter ..." 

the whole world fell silent. nini gave dylan a small yet innocent smile as she waited for dylan to respond. dylan let out a sigh of frustration and backed away from his daughter, "listen .. i don't know what you want from me or why you're here but if you need money i could probably give you like... a few hundred bucks or something??"

nini got taken aback. she let out an amused chuckle as she tried to process what dylan just said to her. she shook her head, "i .. i uh don't need your money. that's not why i came here. i came here because you're my dad—"

"listen nina .. i'm not your dad."

nini shook her head, "but you technically are? you-you're my dad by blood? i mean that has to mean something to you, right? i .. wanted to have you in my life ..."

ricky hated this. he hated having to watch nini beg her father to love her. he hated seeing if any of her parents truly loved her. she was desperate. she wanted someone to love her, be their kid. but the girl was never gonna be able to fulfill that wish. 

"i .. i don't know what you want me to say .. " was all the man could manage to say. before nini was able to say anything back, they all heard a girl calling out of her parents from the inside of the house.

"mom! dad! are we gonna eat soon?" nini heard another girl say from inside the house. dylan looked up at nini. if there was ever a face of heartbreak, it would be nini's. the girl looked away from dylan's eyes. ricky saw as nini's eyes started to fill up with tears as she backed away from the front door.

"well ... i don't wanna keep your real daughter waiting," nini told dylan. he stayed still and silent, not really knowing how to act. nini shook her head and turned away.

"wait! wait! please! let me give you some money or something—"

nini quickly spun around. they were all on his driveway as tears fell down the girl's face. she looked angry, yet tired. "ugh! i don't need your money!" nini finally yelled out. she started to laugh. the kinda laugh that people let out when they're so mad and overwhelmed at the world, "do you like ... live under a rock or something??"

dylan scrunched his eyebrows together as nini rolled her eyes, "i-i'm sorry?? i don't understand."

she crossed her arms over her chest and gave the man a straight face, "you know what? why don't you just look up my name on google! nini. salazar. fucking. roberts," nini gritted through her teeth before she stormed away to the car. ricky exchanged a confused look with dylan before awkwardly following nini to the car. the boy started the car as fast as he could and drove away.

it was silent in the car, yet loud. the angry tension filled the car up even though nini and ricky haven't said one word to each other. the girl had her knees all the way up to her chest as she stared out the window. ricky glanced at the girl and saw how zoned out she was. he heard her little sniffles from hear and there. he didn't really know what to say.

"nini ... i'm so sorry it didn't turn out how you thought it would ..." ricky finally said to her. nini shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"it was a stupid dream ..."

"what was?" 

"me thinking that the dad that left me 18 years ago would suddenly want me now," nini quietly muttered. ricky felt bad. he glanced over at nini again to see that the girl was still looking out the window. ricky heard nini start to sob, "why ... why doesn't anybody want me?"

ricky shook his head. he pulled over on the freeway and parked hisar on the shoulder so that he could talk to the girl. once he finally parked, he looked over at nini who was sobbing as hard as she could. the boy took off his seatbelt and leaned towards nini to pull her into a hug, "neens, don't say that. a lot of people care and love you, especially me."

the girl groaned and shook her head, "you don't get it, ricky. i ... i want a family. i want parents that actually love and take care of their child instead of seeing them as bank accounts or accidents. parents who actually talk to their kids and teach hem how to ride a bike or tie a shoe."

"neens—"

"just drive, ricky," the girl told him as she rested her head against the window, "i'm tired."