Rian

“Mama, I’m hungry.” Josephine blinked her eyes awake, staring at her son Rian, who was the spitting image of his father.

“All right, let us get something to eat, my little lion,” Josephine softly says, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Rian followed his sweet, gentle mother toward their small kitchen in the boathouse on family land in upstate New York.

He was tall for his age, towering over his petite mother, and all he could think of was what his birth father was like.

He wanted to find him himself to make his mama happy again. She always told him stories about his father and how much he looked like him.

The only thing she regrets is not telling his father that she was pregnant.

“Here, Mama, let me help.” Rian moved to help his mother, noticing how tired she was from having to work two jobs to support them and keep him in school.

Josepine gently smiles at her sweet boy, taking over the cooking.

She gently coughs into her hands, seeing the exact specs of blood from the sickness of her cancer, even when she knows it from being poisoned.

Rian stops what he was doing with breakfast and runs over to help his mother lie back down.

“Mama, I am sorry, I should have just made myself some food. Here, let me get your medicine,” Rian stumbled over his words, shaking from the feeling that his mother was not going to make it, seeing how it’s been a few months since she was misdiagnosed.

“Rian, my sweet child. I am sorry, I can’t do what all other mothers can do for their children.” Rian sat on his knees, wiping his face of the tears that were falling.

“Here, take this.” Rian held the Celtic knot locket in his small hands. “This was from your father, and I want you to have it. I need ye to be strong, my sweet lion. I ken, your aunt has been trying to get rid of me for some time now. Be strong, my lad, and find your father. His name is Alejandro Andrea De Rege. He is the most powerful man in the crime world, the head of the De Rege crime family.” Rian nodded, sobbing, when he watched his mother close her eyes, knowing that whatever his aunt had done to her over the years had brought her down, making it look like she had died.

Hours later, Rian watched from the sidelines, seeing his mother being carried away to the hospital by the ambulance.

He made a promise to himself that he would find his birth father and take down the Maxwells once and for all for hurting his mother and not helping with her care when she was first diagnosed.

“Don’t worry, lad, everything will work itself out.”

Rian coldly stared at his great-uncle, watching his evil aunt, who was almost identical to his dead mother.

Rian shrugged his hand off of him and went back to the boat house, thinking about what to do with himself, seeing that he had to find his father somehow and get the hell away from this hell.

The first thing he did was open his mother’s laptop and work on hacking into the mainframe of the FBI to see about finding his birth father.

For six long years, Rian has gotten himself into illegal underground fighting, street racing and hacking to find his father while controlling his anger.

“Rian! Bro! You are not gonna believe who you’re up against tonight?”

Rian eyed his only true friend, whom he had met in the junior year of high school, and now they were in their senior year.

“What now,” Rian coldly says, not caring who the fucker could be, seeing as he has yet to lose a fight.

“Someone by the name of the Reaper, and he seems like he’s from Russia,” Jordan says, shrugging his shoulders and taking his seat next to his silent, cold-hearted friend.

Rian shrugged, not caring, as he was built differently, with a large, muscular body that required many hours of training and working out to keep himself in shape, complementing his fashion style.

His dark hair fell into his eyes, and he had shaved sides.

He keeps his face clean, shaved, no beard in sight, not even a goatee.

School ended, and he left on his motorbike with his school bag slung over his shoulder, heading towards the local graveyard to spend time with his mother and tell her about his day, as well as how close he was to finding his father.

He parked his bike, taking his helmet off and headed towards his mother’s grave that he had fixed after working long hours at his job at the local library.

“Hey, mama. I miss you, and I hope you know I will find you and take Jessica down for hurting you and keeping you from me and Papa.” Rian looked up to the grey skies, waiting for the rain to start. I passed my exams and came second with the highest scores.” Rian wiped his eyes, feeling the tears running down his face. “I am so close, Mama. I am so fucking close to finding Papa, and I hope he will want to take in his sixteen-year-old son and help me find you. Anyways, I have to go, I have another fight tonight, and I promise to be careful, love you, Mama.” Rian stood up and pressed a kiss to the top of his mother’s fake headstone, leaving to get ready for his fight against some Russian.

Rian arrived a few hours later, heading straight down to the pit where the illegal fights happen in the warehouse district of Manhattan near the pier.

Rian got ready for his fight, unaware that his father was nearby and watching the upcoming match.