The Ties That Bind

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

     After the article about Aletha VanPelt abandoning her flesh-and-blood son at an orphanage, then going on to raise another woman's children as her own, social media was having a heyday. It could have been worse though and would have been had everyone known the truth. That it wasn't a new-born that was abandoned, but rather it was a five-year-old. And that Kasden was abandoned just a few months before she married and took on the role of mother to the two VanPelt boys. Not years in between as the column had suggested.

     Virginia Barnes, Aletha's mother, had become a real thorn in Kasden's side. She certainly knew how to get her way - even though Kasden had clearly stated that he wanted nothing to do with his mother or her family she was constantly coming into the bakery; insisting that he come to the Barnes home for his grandfather's birthday, and to meet the rest of the family.

     The woman was determined, but Kasden felt that her attention was insincere. How much of this was because of the negative press the family received, and how much was caused by a real desire to get to know her grandson? Kasden didn't know, but he had the feeling that had the article never been written, he'd have never heard from his maternal grandmother.

     Carol had initially tried to ban the woman from the bakery, but the old woman had threatened to create a ton of bad PR about the business banning a caring grandmother from seeing her long-lost grandson; Carol had had no choice but to back down. 

     "I'm sorry, Kasden." She apologized. "If she were to do what she threatened, it could ruin my business."

     "Don't worry, Carol. I understand, and it's not your fault." The boy commiserated with his boss. He did understand, and he thought his grandmother was the type of person who would carry through with her threat. He didn't know her well at all, but she had an aura that said: 'don't mess with me if you know what's good for you'. Kasden couldn't fault his boss for putting her business first.

     Whenever the woman showed up, which was nearly every shift Kasden worked, he did his best to ignore her, though that was more-or-less impossible. She was a customer, after all, and she was constantly requesting this or that from the young man. 

     More often than not, she would arrive with Aletha. Though they would come in together, the younger woman rarely said more than a few words to him, and when she did, she at least put on a smile and made an attempt to be pleasant. She couldn't afford to have another scene like the one that brought all this karma down on her head in the first place.

     Virginia badgered him daily, urging him to attend the upcoming seventieth birthday party of his grandfather, another person whom he had never met. She even went so far as to make the following declaration: "You will do as I say, young man." 

     Kasden felt an ominous shiver run down his back at her words. 

     "Regardless of how inexcusable my daughter's action was, you are still a Barnes; you are a part of the Barnes family, and you will be treated as such - and you will learn to act as such. I assure you my dear, the one thing you can be certain of is that I always get my way."

---

    "Ugh," Kasden groaned as he leaned back in his seat, stretching his shoulders, during group study with his friends. Looking across the table to Lennox, he said: "Your grandmother keeps insisting that I attend your grandfather's birthday party next week."

     "They're actually your grandparents, you know." Lennox replied. "In fact, they're more your grandparents than ours since we're just step grandkids. She always gets her way though, you know that, right? You may as well give in because if you don't, you'll never hear the end of it. You should just come; we'll be there, and you can hang with us, so it won't be that bad."