Boxing with Love|| BWWM

~Chapter 31~

Angela-Rose and Luke sat closely together on the worn out sofa, their gazes fixed on Riley, who seemed lost in thought. Her eight-year old son, Max, peeped from the hallway, curious about the tension in the air.

The silence in the room hung heavy, like a dark cloud that threatened to suffocate them all. Each second ticked by with a hammering intensity, amplifying the tension in the room.

Luke observed his half-sister closely, taking in her long, thin red hair, tattoos, and piercings. She looked younger than her twenty-five years, as if she had never fully grown up. The weight of the news they had delivered seemed to weigh heavily on her, causing her mind to race with emotions and thoughts.

Angela-Rose broke the silence, her voice soft yet firm. "I know this came as a shock to you. If you need some time, Luke and I can leave and come back when you're ready". 

Riley stared across from them with an unwavering look, before getting up from the sofa swiftly.

"Do you guys want something to drink?" she asked, before walking into the kitchen as they both looked at each other, not expecting that to be the first thing to come out of her mouth. "Believe it or not this isn't the first time I'm gonna be drinking with celebrities, before I found out I was pregnant with Max in High School, my friends and I went to party with this famous rock band who were doing a show in our town".

She returned a brief moment later with a bottle of neat whiskey and three glasses in their hands.

"Uh no thank you, we're good" Luke declines as she placed the glasses in-front of them.

"Oh c'mon, I thought you guys were supposed to be cool, you can't make me drink alone," she protested, but her sentence was cut short as she noticed Max peeping from the hallway. "Max, go back to your room, right now!" she hissed, placing her hand on her hip. 

Max rolled his eyes at her. He held his gaze on Luke for a long while, before turning around to walk away.

Riley sighed, her shoulders slumping. "I'm sorry about that. Max can be a handful sometimes," she apologized, pouring herself a glass of whiskey.

Luke turned to glance at Angela then back at her, before sighing to himself. "I know you're trying to deflect and process all this, I get it, I wasn't expecting this too" he spoke quietly.

Riley stared down at the two of them and went to quickly down her glass of whiskey before taking a deep breath. "I'm just finding it hard to believe that I have a half brother who's the most famous pro boxer in the world and my mom didn't fucking tell me about him".

"Your mom doesn't know that I'm her son" he sighed again, this time with a hint of frustration.

"Then how the fuck do you know that she's your mom?!" she hissed, going to pour herself another glass of whiskey. "I mean no offence but maybe you've got the wrong woman here... Elizabeth Dunne is a boring Forty-Eight year old grandmother who's worked at the same boring diner for twenty-five years. Her life is dull and simple, always has been and she's never had any secrets to hide especially from me so I doubt that she secretly had a child before me that she didn't tell me about".

Once she finished her sentence she quickly breathed in and out as silence lingered in the room once again.

"Your mom had Luke when she was Nineteen years old and now she's forty-eight, her age checks out" Angela-Rose spoke up as Riley quickly looked at her.

"That doesn't mean anything" she scoffed briefly.

"Elizabeth abandoned me in a dumpster when I was a baby twenty-nine years ago in 1991 and I'm just here to find out why" Luke uttered as Riley gazed at him speechless and lost for words.