Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
Kynsleigh
The entire drive to my adoptive parents' house was a jarring whirlwind of emotions. I wasn’t exactly nervous, more like, emotionally nauseous.
After an entire year of silence, blocked calls, and unresolved hurt, I had randomly decided to pull up and pay them a visit with not so much as a “hey, can we talk” text… just me, my thoughts, and unresolved trauma riding shotgun.
Part of me told myself I was going for closure, another part hoped maybe enough time had passed for everybody to calm down.
Maybe we could finally talk things out without anger screaming louder than love… maybe they’d softened… maybe becoming a mother would somehow make them understand me more, or maybe I just missed my family… even after everything.
Mysun slept peacefully in his car seat beside me, completely unaware that his mama was internally spiraling while trying to convince herself that it was a good idea.
Von glanced at me from the driver’s seat for what had to be the fifth time in ten minutes.
“You sure you wanna do this?” he asked, his tone heavy with the weight of his worry.
I fixated on the rows of houses gliding past outside the tinted window, trying to ground myself in the present.
“Yes.” I exhaled slowly. “I just need closure.”
Von hummed a low note under his breath, an unspoken skepticism lingering in the air, as if he were already bracing himself for the worst.
“Kyn,” he said after a moment, his voice slightly more serious, “people who genuinely care about you have the resources to find you… especially your adoptive parents. Rich people don’t lose people unless they choose to.
But,” he added, glancing at me momentarily, “if this is what you feel you need to do, you know I got your back.”
A small smile tugged at my mouth.
Von pointed toward the windshield, his eyes sharp with a mix of humor and seriousness. “Now if they pop off, just know I will too!”
As the car rolled into the expansive circular driveway, the crunch of gravel under the tires echoed like a countdown in my mind.
The massive house still appeared to be the kind of place where a little girl should have felt safe, cherished, and loved.
That’s the dangerous thing about pretty homes… sometimes they hide ugly things well.
Von parked but didn’t immediately cut the engine.
He glanced at me, a serious expression on his face. “You still wanna do this?”
I turned my gaze toward the house, taking in the familiar yet distant silhouette against the dull evening sky.
After a moment of hesitation, I nodded. “Yeah.”
The second I stepped outside, a biting gust of cold wind hit me, wrapping around my skin like icy fingers.
“Jesus,” I murmured under my breath, the word barely escaping my lips.
I quickly reached back inside for Mysun, carefully unbuckling him from the car seat. I wanted to shield him from the cold as best as I could. As I lifted him, the chill in the air gently brushed against his cheeks, causing him to stir and blink drowsily.
“Aww,” I cooed softly, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead before gently wrapping him more securely in his thick, cream-colored blanket.
By then, Von had rounded the rear of the SUV.
“You’re shaking,” he noticed, his voice low and filled with concern.
“I’m cold,” I corrected, trying to downplay the tremor in my limbs.
“Mm-hmm,” he replied in a doubtful tone.
“I am.”
“That ain’t all it is,” Von said, refusing to leave well enough alone.
Unfortunately, he was right, though.
My hands felt stiff while adjusting Mysun’s little knit hat over his curls.
A mix of anxiety, anger, sadness, even curiosity flowed through me. I wanted my “parents” to be happy to see me, and that hope made me feel foolish and angry at myself for wanting something so trivial.
When Von pressed the doorbell, my heart immediately started pounding harder. The sound echoed inside, then floated away into silence. Moments later, I could hear footsteps approaching, each step amplifying my nervousness until finally, the door swung open.
There stood my adoptive father, Quincy, his posture stiff and eyes wide with surprise, frozen in place as if time had stopped between us.
For a second, neither of us spoke.
“Kyns…” he said at last, his voice a mixture of disbelief and something that felt almost tender.
His tone knocked the air out of me, rendering me breathless as a rush of emotions flooded through me. It wasn’t anger or coldness that I heard; it was simply... stunned.
He peered down at Mysun briefly before coming back to my face.
I could tell instantly he missed me deeply.
I recognized it in the way his shoulders tensed, the way his grip tightened around the edge of the door, and the way his mouth parted as if he had an avalanche of feelings and thoughts ready to spill out but found himself at a loss for words.
Just then, another voice floated from deeper inside the house, breaking the moment. “Honey, who’s—”
Footsteps approached rapidly, and soon my adoptive mother, Elaine appeared.
The second her eyes landed on me a transformation swept over her face.
It was a striking contrast to my Quincy’s reaction, nothing resembling shock or happiness painted on her features.
Instead, her demeanor shifted to one of blatant disgust.
“Kynsleigh?” she repeated sharply, like my name tasted bitter in her mouth.
Quincy immediately looked uncomfortable. “Elaine—”
“No! Absolutely not!” she interrupted forcefully, stepping forward with an intensity that silenced him.
Elaine’s eyes narrowed as they dropped to Mysun, bundled protectively against my chest, and hardened further.
“You have some nerve showing up here!” she seethed, her voice laced with venom as she glared at me.
The vicious cold of the wind whipped around us, capturing the bitterness of the moment, but despite the chill, my body felt uncomfortably hot... painfully hot.
“We did everything for you!” she continued, her words sharp and accusatory, nearly choking on her own contempt.
“Everything! You went to the best schools, wore the finest clothes, had endless opportunities that some children would kill for. We brought you into this home—our home—and tried to mold you into something respectable, only for you to end up pregnant with a bastard baby! And now you’re here for what exactly? ”
Her scornful eyes narrowed, and her voice dripped with derision, as if my very existence was a stain on her meticulously curated life.
“You are a disgrace to this family! Running off God knows where, getting pregnant by God knows who—”
Before I could even process the full weight of her words, I felt Von shift beside me, his presence a sudden force that electrified the air.
“Who in the entire fuck do you think you’re talking to like that?” He pointed directly at me. “Because it damn sure ain’t this one! Try that disrespect on somebody whose support system ain’t standing right here in your face!”
Elaine’s expression shifted from fury to recognition as she finally focused on him.
“It’s you again,” she said, annoyance dripping from every word. “You know, I never liked you. Although I’m sure you already knew that. So, what? You’re her protector now?”
Von stepped farther onto the porch and placed one hand against his chest.
“Was that supposed to hurt me?” he asked, genuinely offended by how weak the insult was. “Ma’am, I have survived better-dressed people with stronger opinions. You not liking me has never interrupted my appetite, disturbed my sleep, or delayed a single bill payment.”
Elaine’s lips tightened.
“And for the record, I never liked yo’ ass either,” he admitted.
“I tolerated y’all because Kyns loved y’all.
There is a difference. So, disrespectfully, go stand in line with the rest of the muthafuckas who can’t stand me.
Take a number, bring a folding chair, and pack a lunch because the wait is long. ”
I pressed my lips together.
“And yes, I’m protecting her,” Von added, his voice sharpening. “Clearly somebody needs to, since y’all spent years dressing emotional neglect up in expensive clothes and calling it parenting.”
Elaine gasped softly, her indignation visibly shaken.
Von gestured expansively around the massive house, its grandeur almost mocking in the face of our real emotions.
“All this money, all these rooms, all this fake perfection… yet somehow y’all still couldn’t find space for unconditional love. That’s crazy as hell to me.”
Von dragged his gaze over Elaine slowly, every inch of it dripping with disdain.
“And you,” he pointed at her, “got the nerve to stand here wrapped in designer clothes, acting like some classy, respectable woman. Whole time, you go around here looking down on everybody like money scrubbed the evil out of you. Bitch, you ain’t classy.
You’re just cruel with good credit and expensive perfume. ”
“Watch your language, young man,” Quincy warned, stepping forward. “That is my wife, and you will show her some respect.”
Von let out a dry, humorless laugh that held no respect for Quincy’s authority.
“Respect? Sir, your wife just called an innocent baby a bastard five seconds ago, and you’re worried about my vocabulary?
No. Let’s focus. She insulted a baby who can’t even hold his own head up yet, but somehow I’m the emergency because I’m calling y’all out on your bullshit?
Not to mention, both of y’all are treating Kyns like she’s some random girl from the streets instead of somebody y’all raised! Yeah… we’re way past respectful.”
Quincy’s jaw tightened. “That still doesn’t give you the right to speak to her this way.”
“And being married to her doesn’t make what she said less disgusting,” Von shot back. “A wedding ring is not a muzzle for everybody else, and it damn sure ain’t immunity from getting checked.”
Elaine clutched the front of her coat. “How dare you come onto our property and speak to us like this?! If you don’t leave we will call the police for harassment!”