Heart to heart talk

Naina latched onto Curtis' arm all the way home trying to engage him in a conversation. But alas, it turned into a one-sided conversation as Curtis listened while his sister did all the talking.

Upon entering the massive and beautiful Walter mansion, Curtis saw the lonely figure of their mother hanging around.

"Mom!" Naina called out to her.

Hearing her daughter call, she instinctively turned to her. All of a sudden, she froze. She didn't expect to see Curtis by her. Immediately, her eyes reddened.

"Curtis?! Oh My God!!! My baby is home!!" Thelma cried in joy and pulled her dear son into an embrace.

"Mom..." Curtis touched his nose in embarrassment.

Thelma was the wife of Old Master Walter's late son who died in a plane crash along with their eldest son, Derek. Old Master Walter did not think much of his son's death but Derek's death left a sour taste in his mouth.

From a young age, he personally raised Derek to be his successor. He immensely liked Derek for he was just like him; cold-blooded and heartless. The hard to please Old Master Walter was satisfied with him, and was planning to hand over the to him the position of the head of the Walter family, only for him to die at an unexpected age of 25.

After days of mourning and lamenting, Old Master Walter decided that since he couldn't wake up the dead, he would focus on nurturing a new heir. But who?

The carefree 18 year old Curtis was taken in. After four years of inability to turn Curtis into the kind of leader he wanted, he made a tough decision and threw him to a military base of the Walter family abroad for six years.

Old Master Walter stood by the side, watching the reunion between mother and son. When he felt it was getting too much, he cleared his throat and said, "Curtis, follow me to my room and let's talk."

"Mhm," Curtis responded and went with him to his room.

In the room...

"Grandpa," said Curtis, keeping a straight face.

"Curtis, now you are back, I expect you to start exhibiting signs of a ruler, a powerful one at that. I know very well you don't want to be thrown into that hellhole one more time so you better live as expected of you."

He paused for a while then continued, "And most importantly, stop indulging that sister of yours. Or else the next time I am informed of you showing any signs of weakness towards her, you might never know where that worthless sister of yours might disappear to."

It was quite obvious Old Master Walter favoured boys over girls. In his view women were useless creatures whose only importance was to bear children, especially males.

Gritting his teeth, Curtis responded, "Yes grandpa," and walked out of the room, rage burning in his heart.

"Hey," Old Master Walter called out slowly and Curtis paused in his tracks.

"One last thing. Don't fall in love. Love is meant for only weak people," he finally concluded.