Chapter Two (Part Two)

The beating from the night before had been his breaking point. From now on, if he was insulted by somebody then he wouldn't simply take it sitting down. If Brent or any of his other meathead cousins tried to jump him around the house like they usually did, then he would fight back with all he had.

He threw on some clothes and then headed upstairs, no longer caring what his relatives might think of his behavior. Mindful of his battered appearance, he made his way toward the dining hall, the smallest amongst those that filled the many buildings on the Collins Estate. He had always been forced to eat alone in his room like some sap from a sad story, but today he'd be eating with the dogs.

There were about twenty people dispersed throughout the room, which housed a dozen expensive tables that could each seat a large family. A couple of aunts and uncles that he wasn't familiar with sat here and there, but it was mostly his cousins that were hanging out in the room. Those present snacked on pricey treats or picked at laden platters of meats and cheeses, in many cases paired with well-known wines.

Standing at the threshold to the dining hall in an inconspicuous manner, Kaiden glanced at an old grandfather clock that must have cost a decade's worth of rent at his old apartment. Nine at night? He had been unconscious for eleven hours.

He saw Brent sitting with his sister at a corner table, but the other boy didn't notice him. He had just brought over a plate heaping with fried chicken and mashed potatoes, made by the chefs in the adjacent kitchens.

Just as the hulking boy was about to take his first bite, he smashed his utensils down onto the table and stood up, facing the door on the opposite end of the room with his back to Kaiden.

"Fuck, there's no way I can hold this in. I'm gonna go drop a deuce, don't let any of the help throw away my plate."

"Yuck. Fine."

"I mean it. I just blazed and I'm not trying to wait another half hour to feast."

No sooner had Brent left the room than Kaiden strolled over and dropped into his seat, where he helped himself to the gravy-covered meal.

"Kaiden? I thought you were headed to the hospital."

"That you're surprised and not relieved says worlds about you."

She frowned, but didn't bite back. "Why do you still cause problems with my brother? You know how he is."

"What, a stupid Neanderthal person?"

Penelope gave a huff that blew a few loose strands of hair to the side. "If you were a bit more approachable then the rest of our cousins might be nicer to you."

"I get worked like a slave and beaten every day for no reason. I didn't ask to come here." He placed his utensils down and spat in the remainder of Brent's meal, standing up with a dismissive expression. "I didn't ask for my mom to die."

Penelope had no response. She never did.

He left the table before Brent returned, ignoring a few jeers from some ninth-grade cousins that promised to tell the bigger boy what he'd just done, the loudest voice coming from an eternal suck-up to Brent named Danny. Kaiden flipped him off and left the hall.

Without wasting a minute, he made his way to the second floor and strolled into Penelope's room, which he knew had low-riding windows compared to the others on that floor. Once inside, he turned around, locked the door, and then gathered up her bed sheets into a nice bundle. He walked over to the nearest window, opened it up and proceeded to rip out the screen. A rush of cold air bit into him as he stared out at the cloudless night. The ground was covered by a solid thirty centimeters of snow, heavy and moist for it was freshly fallen.

"Hmm," he said to himself. "I'll probably only need the fitted." With such a famous and influential family, there were body guards all over the property. His grandfather's house—mansion, really—had nine entrances, and all of them had a body guard. It wasn't the same in the other homes, and Kaiden was now positive that his presence was the reason why.

Once he'd fashioned a makeshift rope and tied it around the corner of Penelope's four-poster bed, he paused to grab five of the ten bills that sat atop her cosmetic-covered dresser, and then hurriedly hoisted himself out of the window.

Uhg, he shivered, I've got to hurry. He didn't have any winter clothes, or even a light jacket, so he was exposing himself to the harsh Canadian winter while wearing nothing but two long-sleeved shirts, a pair of old jeans, two pairs of socks and some ordinary sneakers.

After he'd made it down without any trouble, he considered the long strip of white that dangled out of the window and wondered if it had even been necessary. The ground was only about four metres from Penelope's windowsill, and the snowdrift that had gathered there was high enough to cushion his fall.

He shook such useless thoughts from his head as he scrambled free of the knee-deep snow, the cold clinging to his shins as he slogged through the blanketed lawn of his grandpa's manor house. He rushed up to a gorgeous cobbled road that was freshly plowed and salted, which he followed for half a kilometre until he finally arrived at the family head's compound.

Several luxury cars had driven past him on his way there, the road lined by rectangular hedges, with several Hellenistic fountains in view, beautiful despite their inactivity.

"Fuck, I f—forgot," he muttered to himself, his body shaking from the cold as he faced a long stretch of chain-link fence.

The entrance was guarded by a lazy-looking old man that was watching some reality show on a small flat-screen TV, inside of the small booth that stood beside the automated gate.

Kaiden waved at the man to get his attention. "Excuse me, sir?"  

"Hmm?" A grey eyebrow rose up as the guard looked over with an irritated mumble. He slid a nearby window open, though just a sliver. "Did you need something, kid?"

"Ah, y—yeah. I heard the family head was h—home and I was h—hoping to talk to him."

The old guard let out a snort-like laugh. "So you're here to see Alexander Collins, eh? And who exactly are you?"

"I'm his g—great nephew."

"You know the rules, kid. Even the branch heads need to make an appointment to talk to him. Now hurry back home before you catch a cold."

"Even his brothers?"

What the hell was wrong with the Collins family? Even though Kaiden's father had been the man's favourite nephew, he somehow doubted that such sentiments would mean much if he were to bring it up to this random security guard.

The man waved him off and hit the play button on his remote, but Kaiden couldn't afford to be brushed off.

"I r—really need to see him. P—please, just a—ask him. If he says n—no then I'll l—leave, okay?" Kaiden had seen enough winters to know what negative ten degrees Celsius felt like, so he knew that there wasn't much time before frostbite set in. "P—please, sir."

The man rolled his eyes, paused his show and then made to get out of the booth.
"Listen, I asked you nicely, but it's my job to—" He put on a wrinkled frown as he spotted something within the compound. "Speak of the devil." He opened the door and walked up to Kaiden, whom he gave an earnest look. "Kid, you need to leave. Now. If the family head sees that I can't even get rid of a youngster like you then I could lose my job!"

A group of people had just left the main mansion of the family head's compound, the four of them slipping into a luxurious black limousine that soon began to head toward the gate.

"S—sorry, but I'm not g—going anywhere."

The vehicle pulled up in the coming moments, at which point the old guard had to return to his seat and hit whatever button it was that opened up the gate.

As the car slowly crept by, Kaiden ran up and waved at them to stop. When they didn't, he started to bang on the windows. He heard the sound of disgruntled voices, right before the driver pulled to a stop. One of the windows rolled down to reveal a handsome face, dark eyes angled down in disapproval. Although he was sixty-four-years-old, Alexander Collins looked as if he were in his early fifties. His brown hair retained all of its fullness and colour, his eyes bright and full of vigour. Whatever words he was about to say died before they left his lips, as he looked Kaiden up and down with a perceptive gaze.

"Michael's son? Why are waiting out here in the cold?"