ᴇᴍᴇʀᴀʟᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴋ.

IV

January 5th, 2023
1:17 PM

London's nail dragged along the keyboard on Nick's desk, letting out a low sigh at the picture of him with some of the EP staff in the far right corner along with a smaller portrait of himself.

As she walked around to the back of his desk, London paused at a file cabinet off to the side, one of the drawers at the bottom cracked open. She crouched down to the drawer and slid it open, digging through the contents inside until a flimsy white photograph slipped out of the side of a manila folder.

She didn't seem to notice it at first until she was getting ready to close the drawer, and she'd seen a blur of black going across the back of the photograph which prompted her to reach for it.

London looked up at the door to see if anyone was walking past or approaching before looking back down at the photo.

It appeared to be Nick in the photo – younger with little to no facial hair and a little girl sleeping on his chest. The girl looked to be no older than three, and she bore a resemblance to Nick in terms of eye, nose, and lip shape, though her hair was noticeably curlier than his.

London then flipped the photograph around to read the black print scribbled across the back – "Lo Siento."

"Mmm..." She hummed, taking out her phone to FaceTime Tony as she stared at the photo longer, her call answered by the boy pulling a water bottle away from his lips.

"Yo." He greeted London.

"Hey, where are you right now?"

"The gym – I'm finna leave, though. Why?"

"Nothing," London stood up. "I just...found something in one of Nick's file cabinets, figured I'd ask you about it first..."

"Aight, well, what is it?" Tony propped his phone up somewhere before reaching for a towel out of the camera view.

London sat the photograph down on the desk. "Did he uhh...ever say anything about a kid?"

Tony frowned. "Like him havin' his own kid?"

London hummed, nodding her head. "That or thinking about it..."

"From what I remember, nah..." Tony wiped his face down with his towel. "He never said nothin'. What you find?"

"This." London flipped her camera around to show the photo, and she watched Tony's eyes squint as he held his phone closer to his face, soon letting out a low hum.

She then flipped the photo over so he could read the writing on the back, his eyes widening for a second. "Woah..."

"Yeah..." London flipped the camera back. "And you're sure you've never heard him mention anything about a kid?"

"Swear on it, L." Tony held up his hand. "You really think that's him, though? I mean, bro in the pic do look a lil' young..."

"Tony, why would Nick have a picture of some random nigga and his kid sitting in his office?" London pondered to the boy with a small frown on her face.

Tony shrugged. "Could be his cousin. He was an only child, so I doubt it's his brother..."

"Oh my God, no, bro," London stifled a laugh. "This is for sure Nick in this picture, and this little girl has too many of his features for her not to be his kid."