Chapter 111: An Honest Truth
Immediately walking out of the house, Emily was in a rather foul mood. For numerous reasons, she had decided that she could no longer stay at the party, all of which had to do with Alex. The young woman was quite literally speed walking towards the car in a furious state. This caused quite a bit of confusion for her boyfriend, Chad. Who called out to her in a rather panicked voice.
“Babe, wait up! What’s wrong? Why are you so frustrated?”
The young woman turned around and glared at her boyfriend before spitting out her thoughts in a not so pleasant manner.
“I should have never accepted the invite to tonight’s party!”
Believing that perhaps the woman was offended by the sheer level of violence that had gone on during the last fight, Chad rubbed the back of his neck and apologized to Emily.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know the fight would be so bloody. Usually they aren’t that violent.”
However, this did nothing but piss the young woman off more while she scoffed and rolled her eyes before demanding to be driven home.
“Just take me home!”
“Emily, listen, I’m really sorry. I promise I won’t take you to another fight night if you don’t want to watch such a violent and bloody sport….”
Finally, Emily had spoken again, and when she did so, it shocked her boyfriend.
“You think I care about something like that? Chad, I know it has been a few years, but have you really forgotten? That was Alex! You know, the little boy who used to live next door to me when we were kids? The one who had an enormous crush on me, and followed me around like a puppy!”
It took a few moments for the gears to grind through Chad’s mind. After all, it had been five years since he had thought about Alex. And he never really cared much for the boy to begin with. But when the lights finally turned on in his brain, he reacted with shock.
“Wait, a minute… Alex? You don’t mean Shannon’s nephew, do you? The kid I used to bully when we were younger?”
The moment Chad mentioned Shannon’s name, Emily became extremely pissed at him. She was quick to stare at the man with the gaze that only a woman scorned could muster. While her voice raised to an almost banshee like shriek.
“The old hag with the fucking cow udders who you would constantly stare at!?! Why the fuck are you mentioning her!?!?”
In a moment that was perhaps not his brightest, Chad awkwardly scratched his cheek while embarrassed, before admitting the truth to his girlfriend.
“Well… I mean, she was my first crush….”
An absolutely livid expression formed on Emily’s otherwise pretty face as she immediately screamed at her boyfriend at the top of her lungs.
“Stop the car! Right fucking now!”
Chad did as he was told, and pulled over to the curb, where Emily immediately unbuckled her seat belt, and stormed out the door of his muscle car. Knowing that he had completely fucked up, Chad rolled down the window and called out to his girl.
“Babe? Wait! Where are you going? I’m sorry! Don’t be like that!”
However, Emily simply ignored the man and walked through the streets of Las Vegas at night all the way back to her home. Luckily for her, she ended up returning to her room safe and sound, albeit while furious at her boyfriend. This would, of course, cause the system to send a message to Alex that would inform him of just who his rival was in this volume.
[Emily dislikes Chad’s attraction to Shannon!]
[-5 Affection from Emily to Chad!]
[Emily’s Affection to Chad: 80/100]
—
The day after Alex’s UFC debut, his aunt Shannon was listening to a podcast while working. Her job was rather stressful, but it was one she had been involved with since she first graduated high school. She was a senior manager over a team of experts at a call center for one of the largest cell phone companies in the United States, and because of this, she made a solid six figures.
The pod cast she was listening to was the Jack Logan Experience, and Jack Logan was talking about Alex’s fight the night before. After all, he was the one to interview the man after he brutally TKOd Vitor Borges in the first round.
“I’m telling you, man, this kid just took out the fucking boogeyman of the division. You know what Dan fucking told me after the fight? When Vitor’s opponent pulled out due to an acl tear, he couldn’t get anybody to fight him, especially not on a week’s notice, so he called up this kid who signed with the UFC like two fucking weeks ago, and offers him the fight, the kid accepted it, and beat the ever living shit out of Vitor, it was insane!”
His guest obviously didn’t know much about the sport of MMA, or the current rankings in the world’s largest promotion, and thus he quickly asked about it.
“So wait? Who is this Vitor guy, and why is this kid’s win so impressive?”
Jack immediately responded rather passionately as he informed his guest, and viewers, about just who Vitor was, and why Alex’s win was so impressive.
“Okay, so Vitor was an up-and-coming prospect who everybody thought would be the next big thing in the Light Heavyweight division. He is an absolute savage, having KOd, or TKOd, all nine of his opponents in his professional career. I’m talking about highlight reel finishes here! He’s the type of guy who even some ranked opponents were avoiding.
Though Vitor wasn’t ranked yet, he was only one fight away from challenging a ranked opponent. So Dan decided to feed this kid from Korea to him, a guy nobody’s ever heard about outside of some hardcore fans of the sport.
And this kid, Alex Smith, just annihilated Vitor. I mean, to be fair, both men were cut up pretty bad by the end of the sport. But despite this, every time Alex got hit, it was like he didn’t even feel it. Not only that, but he’d hit himself where Vitor just struck him, as if challenging Vitor to go fucking harder!
At one point, Vitor literally turned his back to Alex and fled across the cage. This is a guy whose nickname is the “boogeyman” and Alex just fucking flatlined him a minute into the first round. It was crazy man. I mean, they call this kid the berserker, but what they really should be calling him is Baba Yaga because he just killed the fucking boogeyman!
Oh, and get this! When I interviewed the kid and asked him who he wanted to be his next opponent. He just simply said and I quote ‘I’m just here for the violence!’ Like honestly, what kind of savage says that? I honestly think this kid has a promising career in the sport, but if he wants to go to the top, he’s got to stop taking hits just to show off. That’s my two cents…”
Shannon was absolutely stunned after hearing that her nephew Alex had done such a thing. This definitely wasn’t the sweet and kind boy she had known when he was younger. And thus she got on the internet and searched for the fight, where she was shocked by what she had seen. Alex was a completely different person than who he was five years ago. And because of this, she wanted to speak with the boy.
—
When Alex returned to his mother’s penthouse that evening, he was surprised to find that nobody was home. Or well, he should say there was only one person waiting for him, but she did not live in this penthouse. Thus, Alex tossed his gym bag onto the floor and entered the kitchen to grab a beer, where only after opening it and taking a sip did he respond to his aunt’s presence.
“What are you doing here?”
There was a callous tone in Alex’s voice as he said this, as if he didn’t really care and was simply entertaining the woman. This caused her to take a few moments to sort her thoughts before finally speaking.
While she was doing this, Alex observed the woman. Though she was already forty years old, her beauty had not diminished in the slightest. In fact, Alex would argue that Shannon was more beautiful now than she was five years ago.
Her body was extremely voluptuous, with her breasts and ass being perhaps even bigger than Diana’s. Speaking of which, she looked quite similar to Diana. After all, she was the woman’s older sister. But there was one really distinctive difference between her and Alex’s mother.
Her hair was neither blonde, nor short and curly. Instead, it was a deep auburn, with perhaps a little more red mixed in, and was both long and wavy. Her eyes were also a bit of a softer blue than Diana’s. Nevertheless, one could easily tell that the two women were sisters.
However, the woman’s next words genuinely shocked Alex, despite the fact that he did not let it show on his face.
“I wanted to apologize… We got off on the wrong foot the other night. I shouldn’t of treated you like a child. I’m sorry…. It’s just that your sudden change of character shocked me.”
Alex scoffed when he heard this and put his beer down before walking towards his aunt with a stoic expression on his face. His tone was completely cold, as if he could not even care any less about the woman’s apology.
“So that’s why you’re here? You wanted to apologize? Well, that’s a first. If my memory serves correctly, the only person you have ever apologized to was Chad….”
Shannon looked at Alex with confusion in her soft blue eyes before asking Alex in a rather irritable tone what her next-door neighbor had to do with her apology.
“I’m sorry, but what exactly does Chad have to do with this?”
In response to this question, Alex rolled his eyes before answering the woman with a truth that stunned her.
“Oh please, Shannon. Throughout my entire childhood, all you ever gave a damn about was Chad and Emily while I… I was just sort of there…. I was your own nephew, your family, and you treated me like I didn’t exist.
Besides… This change in my behavior may seem sudden to you, but to me it is the exact opposite. I had to live five years on my own without a mother after Diana left me. Do you seriously think that John had the capacity to raise a child on his own?
I was left to look after myself during my teenage years because the old man was working all the damn time. And you know what I learned during those years? The old me was pathetic… And so I adapted. Nobody cared who I was before I became the man that I am today. So I guess, in a way, I should thank you and Diana for teaching me a valuable lesson about the cruelty of this world.
Now, if that’s all you wanted to say, then you can leave now. You are forgiven. After all, I don’t care enough about the past to dwell on it. But don’t expect me to call you aunt from now on. As far as I’m concerned, the only member of your family who still holds any meaning to me is Uncle Roy. The rest of you are just strangers.”
Shannon was absolutely shocked by this statement, and even begun to feel an immense sense of guilt. She had never realized it until Alex pointed it out. But she had indeed showed favoritism towards Chad, who grew up as her next-door neighbor, and who would often help her around her house. However, she still attempted to justify her actions, and get Alex to realize that she still cared for him.
“Alex… Listen, I’m sorry about what happened all those years ago. But you have to understand-”
Despite Shannon’s efforts, Alex did not let her continue to speak, and instead he cast her a stern gaze while shutting her down.
“Be honest Shannon, if Diana hadn’t told you that my personality had changed, would you ever have given a single fuck about me returning to this shithole of a city? Would you be here right now apologizing to me?”
This absolutely shut the woman up, just like Alex had intended, and caused her to look away with both a painful and guilty expression on her face. However, it was Alex’s next words that actually caused the mature beauty to break down in cry.
“Why are you really here? What do you want from me? Is it the money I just won from my fight? Fine, take it! Sixty grand doesn’t mean much to me, anyway.”
After saying this, Alex walked into his room and returned with a duffel bag full of cash, which he tossed on the floor in front of Shannon. She had never thought about stealing his winnings, and actually became incredibly offended that Alex would even suggest that she had such aims. And thus, Shannon broke down into tears and fled from the scene. While Alex returned to his beer.
And despite the fact that Shannon was crying throughout her journey home, Alex had given her many things to think about and to reflect upon. She would slowly start to realize that she was indeed a horrible aunt to her nephew. Which was something that she would soon seek to repent for.