ᴇᴍᴇʀᴀʟᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴋ.

VI

EP, Las Vegas, Nevada
11:40 PM

Mari sat alone in the fourth-floor conference room, fiddling with the cuffs of her sleeves and gazing around the large space, taking in the modernity and lavishness of the new location she was in, but not really thinking much of it.

She was told to wait there by London until she came back to talk to her, which had to be about fifteen minutes earlier. When the time on her watch read twenty-to-midnight, Mari sighed and stood from her seat, cracking the door to the conference room open in search of anyone, really.

Then she let out another sigh of relief when she saw London returning to the room with Tony and Rodrigo, a large brown envelope tucked underneath London's arm. "Sorry about that. Had to pick up this from the mail room." London apologized, holding up the envelope.

"What is that?" Mari stared at the envelope.

"I'll say in a second, but before that, there's something we gotta tell you, and it's about your dad..." London told Mari.

"And it's definitely somethin' you gon' wanna sit down for," Tony warned her as he took a seat in between London and Rodrigo. Mari stalled for a moment but took her previous seat adjacent to the three.

"Alright, so as far as my knowledge goes, you and your dad didn't have the...best relationship, no?" London asked for clarification, to which Mari responded with a head nod. "How did things get so bad between you two? Not every parent kicks their kid outta the house at such a young age..."

"Well, that's because I was a...can I curse?"

Rodrigo snickered. "Let loose."

"A shitty kid." Mari finished her sentence, her eyes focused on the table. "I was an asshole when I was younger. Sneaking out, drinking and smoking, sleeping around with boys – anything you'd think a teen rebel would do, I did it, and he just...put up with all of it. I still don't know how..."

"Got any reasons for that?" Rodrigo asked.

"Anger issues, childhood trauma, undiagnosed depression, PTSD...and then sprinkle growing up without a mom on top of that."

Tony hissed. "Talk about a lotta baggage..."

"Isn't it?" Mari tilted her head a slight bit. "But that's just how things were with me. I didn't have any outlets either...or at least any healthy ones, so I turned to what I could do and what I could get my hands on, which were all the things I just said."

"A rebelling teen is a normal issue. I know; I was one too," London started. "But how did that lead to Nick kicking you out? There are other ways to deal with that issue..."

"But that's the thing – I took it too far," Mari spoke a little quieter than before. "I obviously wasn't doing well in school – this was something we always argued about, and it all came to a point where I was just tired of it, so...I...dropped out without telling him."

"There it is." London hummed, sitting back further in her seat. "I knew there had to be a bigger reason...How'd he find out?"

"My school called him, of course." Mari sighed. "It wasn't even a whole week later; it only took them like four days to make that call..."

"He was pissed, wasn't he?" London raised an eyebrow.

"Livid," Mari emphasized. "I had seen him angry before, but nothing compared to that day, on my life..."

"And I'm guessin' that's where the whole fallout came from?" Tony assumed.

Mari hummed with another head nod. "That combined with everything else I put him through. It all came to a boiling point, you know?"

"Yeah, I get you..."

"So it was just that argument that led to him booting you?" Rodrigo quirked an eyebrow.

"Well...no..." Mari seemed to have shrunk into her chair. "Like I said, we were both at our boiling point...One thing led to another, I told him I hated him and that he...was a deadbeat..." She paused as she felt her voice begin to crack. "He said I ruined his life, I was a mistake, and that he wished he never would've had me. That's when I..." She sniffled. "I swung at him...I really didn't mean to, but all I saw was red..."

London's gaze at Mari softened when she noticed a tear fall from her cheek and onto the table and, waited as she wiped her eyes and nose to continue speaking.

"After that, he told me he wasn't my father anymore, and he had some people come and move my stuff out of his house that same day. He pretty much exiled me to Boulder City, blocked me from contacting him again, and that's where I've been since I was fourteen."

"And how old are you now?" London asked.

"Nineteen," Mari answered. "I turn twenty in February."

"...Phew, wow, okay, uhh-..." Rodrigo blinked, absorbing all the information they were given and shooting his eyebrows up in astonishment. "That just made what we need to tell you like a hundred times harder..."

"Right..." Tony hissed lowly in agreement.

"What does that mean?" Mari's eyebrows slowly furrowed, and London had her lips pressed tightly into a line as she thought of the proper way to break the news of her father's passing.

"You know what? There really ain't an easy way to say this shit, so I'ma just give it to you straight. You got thick skin, right?"

"F-For the most part, yes..." Mari nodded, blatant confusion plain as day on her face.

London let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "Nick is dead. His funeral was a few days ago, and this is supposed to be his autopsy report." She pointed to the envelope sitting in between her and Mari. "I haven't opened it yet because I wanted you to be in front of me when I did."

She could tell that Mari was still processing what she told her based on the spaced-out look she had on her face, but when it finally hit her, she hung her head low, soon letting it drop into her hands in a failed attempt to muffle her cries.

"I can't think of anything else to say other than I'm sorry, man..." London placed her hand on Mari's back. "I know your relationship with him was fucked up, but at the end of the day, he was still your dad. Losing a parent is hard enough, but to lose them and not have the chance to work things out with them is just-..."

"I did this shit to myself..." Mari sobbed out. "I put that man through so much Hell and not once did I ever tell him I was sorry! Now I can't do shit about it..."

"Hey, at least you admitted to your wrongdoin's," Tony told her. "That's the most you can do now, and not a lot of niggas have the balls to even do that after someone they've done wrong by dies, so I salute you for that."

"For real..." Rodrigo chimed in.

The three sat in silence for a few minutes while Mari calmed down from her crying fit. She wiped her eyes a final time before looking back up at London.

"You can open it now..." She referred to the envelope. "I'm ready."

"Of course." London nodded, pulling the envelope towards her to rip the top open and she reached inside to pull out the singular sheet of paper tucked away.

~~~~