JOYBOY (Now on Webnovel and Meganovel)

Chapter 69: A Mother's Love

Chapter 69: A Mother's Love

 Kinervale Heights, The Elder Kennison Estate, Grandview Ave, Baltiney, New York...

        Stern dark brown eyes had been fixated upon the seemingly endless view of the city skyline as a lone woman of thin build and elegantly severe presence stood glaring out of the enormous red velvet draped windows lined the front of her luxurious and rather aged estate home. Her name had been Mildred Anne Kennison, and she was the mother of two sons, her eldest Ryker Ephron Kennison had been her pride and joy the most hard-working and diligent family man she had ever known. She'd been especially proud of the family he'd made with his young wife Sera, with their two boys Kevin and Carter. Her youngest son, Robert Franklin Kennison had still been quite young and not yet of the mind to have a family of his own but she held out a good deal of hope for him.

Mildred continued to stare out the window of her elegant and spacious estate's main house pondering the ghostly implications of the past and the troubling aspects of the present when it came to her eldest son, Ryker now calling himself Ken in the wake of the horrific accident that had nearly taken his life so soon after the tragic loss of his wife and children five years prior.

Her marriage to Coleman Kennison hadn't been perfect, far from it in the wake of his discovered infidelity and subsequent love child Jeffery being born from his late mistress. They had gotten back together and salvaged what remained of their life together once the mistress had died in childbirth but Jeffery remained a constant reminder of the pain her husband had caused his family. Bobby had been born after the fact a surprise to everyone and a delightful addition to the family.

Ryker had been the only man in the Kennison family Mildred could count on in those trying days, never once faltering in his responsibilities and a striking representation of what a man should be as he grew. It had not escaped her notice that he'd been a perfectionist, never once willing to give himself any slack when it came to getting things done and doing them the right way.

Mildred had never been more proud of her son than she had the day she found out he'd driven the rescue efforts to save those passengers on the infamously ill-fated flight 126 and his subsequent efforts to take on the airline on behalf of the victims of the negligent company due to how they had designed their aircraft to cut corners. He donated all his money to the families and even contributed to paying off their medical bills and assisting with funeral plans.

He'd gone back to work after that, turning his company into the multibillion-dollar powerhouse that it had been presently, still, she and no one else had seen the dark cloud that followed Ryker in the wake of his family being killed in the crash and he seemed content just working as he'd always had. Five years had passed since the fateful crash and everything seemed to be slowly working back to a semblance of normalcy when the horrible news of Ryker having been nearly killed in a one-car crash had turned Mildred's world upside down once again.

All those years no one had seen any signs that he'd been that broken, but Ryker made everyone see what they wanted to see given his jovial manner and kind disposition. Mildred had never forgiven herself for never seeing the signs that her eldest son had been slowly drowning in darkness despite the many airs he put on to appear otherwise.

The day they had gotten the call, Coleman had rushed out and didn't tell her much of anything, she had found out that Ryker had a blood alcohol level beyond any normal limit and had been drinking for quite sometime before the accident. No one had known that he'd become an alcoholic in the five years since the death of his wife and children, he'd simply gone on as he always had even before the tragedy, no one questioned when he continued with his life as if nothing had entirely happened laying them to rest and still doing his part for the community and family alike.

She had not understood why he had not come to her, said something anything about how much pain he had truly been in. Not at first, he had simply gone on and everyone had been fooled into believing that he'd been alright. In the past, Mildred had taken pride in the fact that her elder son had been such a perfectionist and often bragged about that aspect of him to her friends and other family members but she had forgotten from her own experiences that being the perfectionist was merely a cover for something else, striving for the impossible always came back to bite anyone that tried it and she found out all too late this painful lesson when she'd been staring at the comatose body of her elder son following the accident.

He had broken almost every bone in his body and did damage to his head in such a way that the doctors had not been sure he'd make it through the first night without having to be declared brain dead. Mildred refused to accept anything other than a full recovery from her son and those attending to him. The option to pull the plug was taken off the table and she made it clear that if they approached her with it she wouldn't rest until the hospital itself had not remained standing should anything happen to her firstborn son, Coleman had even been put on notice.

Mildred had not left her son's side the entire time aside from forced moments of personal care and always made sure to occupy the rather uncomfortable chair beside his hospital bed. When he had finally opened his eyes, she thought the lingering nightmare had been finally over but when he had no recollection of anyone or even himself, she'd known all too well that they were in for an uphill battle. She'd made up her mind to see to Ryker's best interests as she had when he'd been a child no matter how much he protested against it.

His later developed unsavory habits had not been ideal, but it was better than having to bury her eldest son, a means of assisting in his true recovery, she had him committed to a sanatarium due to his self-destructive behavior once he recovered physically. His continued drinking, the drug use he had believed she'd been unaware of, and the risky sexual ventures had been far too much for her to reconcile with her charming responsible, and hardworking elder son Ryker, instead, he'd been replaced with a volatile vulgar brute of a teenager in a man's body and he'd never even acted that way once when he'd been that age.

Mildred had made up her mind that she'd fight tooth and nail to get her son back no matter what he thought of her in the end, his self-destructive path wasn't one to just take lightly, his accident had shown her that and it was all the fuel she needed to assert herself and take control over the situation, she'd have her son back and no one would be left if they decided to stand in her way.

After all, she'd been his mother and mothers knew best.