Presenting a short excerpt as a preview of the sequel, currently in progress...

"Now, let's move on to Mr. Kingly. You mentioned that you didn't want to work with Mr. Kingly and refused to meet him when Kyvan went to the trouble to arrange a meeting with him. Do you happen to know the name of the company that he kimheads?"

"No, but I know I don't like him. He didn't even try to view me like a businessman and treated me like a child during our first meeting." Kyren crossed his arms now, glad to be focusing on anything other than the mistake that he had accidentally made.

"Kingly had every reason to treat you like a child, and you gave him absolutely no reasons to think otherwise." Louise declared, turning to shoot a glare to her husband now. "Brandon, when you brought Kyren to meet Kingly, did you tell him that Kingly is your cousin's husband?"

"Yeah." Brandon answered, swallowing hard because he didn't really want to let his wife know that during the introductions, Kyren had been playing around and had not made the most stellar of impression in front of Kingly.

"Then did Kyren know that Kingly's business is a subsidiary under the Greaves-Crawford conglomerate?"

"I... have mentioned it." Brandon's words were guilty now, and Louise had long learnt over the past fifteen years that Brandon was a man who faced up to his mistakes confidently and without trying to hide, but when it came to the mistakes and infractions that his children had done, he was as guilty as a convicted man.

"Then do you" Louise turned back to her son who was beginning to pass the line of being shocked and just looked sickly now, "Do you remember that Kingly is the Head of the Trading Association, which meant that if you had just listened to Kylar and met the man, you would also have learnt that while he had reservations about you being in charge of anything, he was still ready to lend help to family members and connect with the tender manager in Princeton, who is also a part of the Trading Association?"

"H-How was I supposed to know all of that?" Kyren was clearly grasping at the straws for his defence, but Louise as a mother was already unforgiving. Louise as a businessperson was merciless.

"This is the agreement you signed when I allowed you to take over managing Greaves-Crawford Supplies. Every single detail about your own family's businesses was here." Louise introduced, and then finally slid the folder across the table. Kyren's trembling fingers drew out the papers within to show handwritings scribbled all over the pages, making notes and highlighting important points. She flipped a few pages for further evidence before dropping it on top of the previous file. "I assume you had Kyvan helping you make the notes this time?"

"I... Um..."

"When I was your age, Kyren, I had to scrape to get my connections because my uncle did not want to the world to know that Louise Crawford was well-educated in business. I had to have my butler appear during the annual meetings while I was in school, and he had to pretend that he was the one managing everything because I knew that they could not take well to a 15-year-old girl running the business. Oscar refused to allow me to borrow my family name and power, and I had to fight and strategize and plan my every step. That small business I used to hold is now known as the Greaves-Crawford Holdings. What about you, Kyren? Your butlers gave you everything you needed, and what did you do with the effort?"

"It's only because of your butler... if I had him of course I would make it big too..." Keyron did not think it was possible, but the muttered words from his young master that was probably meant as a tiny grumble, which unfortunately turned out to be rather loud considering the tense silence of the room –made the temperature of the room drop by ten full degrees.

"Do you want to repeat your words again, Kyren?"

Keyron did not even have to shift his line of sight to guess that his master was pleading with his son visually to be wise and back down. Unfortunately, the fifteen-year-old young master of the Greaves-Crawford Household was too rebellious to care.

"I said, you only managed to make your company so big because of your butler!" Kyren raised his voice, righteous anger bursting forth. "You're always against me for being over-reliant on my butlers, but you were extremely reliant on your butler as well! You had to rely on him so much that he died for you!"

"Kyren!" Brandon called strictly, reacting quickly to the flinch that his wife showed at her son's ruthless words. Keyron noted, however, that it was far too late for his master to actually try holding the young master back. "Choose your words carefully to your mother!"

"I'm not wrong, Dad. I grew up with stories learning about how Keyron's brother gave up his life valiantly for Mum, but doesn't that also tell me how reliant she was on him when he was alive? Is it somehow wrong for me to not want to be in the same situation as her because I don't want to be faced with a situation where I can't survive without my butlers like you? I made a small mistake this time, and it wasn't even really my fault! If you like Kylar and Kyvan and what they've done so far, then have them for sons instead of me! You got yourself a Kyrano, Mum, but maybe you should realise that I don't!" Kyren was clearly on a roll and enjoying his own outburst, but there was absolutely only one person in the entire room who felt relief at letting the words come out.

If anything, the words spoken –the name spoken –seemed to turn all three adults left in the room into stone.

Kyren had been taught stories about Kyrano back when he had been young and innocent and had asked Keyron of what his Head Butler knew about his mother when she was younger. The twin brother of Keyron who had passed on had been like a legend; a hero especially for Louise Crawford, and Kyren had known right from the very start that the man named Kyrano Reyes held a very special place in his mother's heart that could never be changed. Even Kyren's name had been a combination of Keyron and Kyrano's name; that spoke volumes of exactly how much Kyrano meant to her. And now, Kyren had shamelessly stabbed a knife into his mother's wound and twisted it multiple times.

The silence that answered Kyren's outburst was terrifying in its own rights. It was a silence that was no longer one of brewing anger; it was a silence that Keyron had not witnessed in at least twenty years. It was a danger in the air that had not come from Louise ever since she picked herself up from the ruins of her family's reputation and started rebuilding the pieces with Brandon's help. It was the silence of the mistress of the Greaves-Crawford Household thinking back and thinking fondly about a man she once loved.

"I lived striving to be a mistress worthy of owning a butler like Kyrano." Louise's words were quiet, but the sharpness at which it pierced through the tense silence could have made ears bleed. "If Kyrano was alive and could meet you as you are now, I will be utterly ashamed to tell him that you are a son I brought up. A butler's strength is his mistress's and master's strength, and Kylar and Kyvan are useless because of you."

"How can you say that-" Kyren's rising protest was cut off with a look from his mother that Keyron was partially glad that he could not see while standing respectfully behind his master's chair.

"For too long you have grown up attached to the name Greaves-Crawford. You take what you have for granted, and you push the blame to your capable butlers for your mistakes. You disregard the effort they have put in, and you ruin the resources that your father and I have carefully placed in your hands." Louise announced coldly. "Your father and I planned to have you move into one of his cousin's house to learn how to earn your achievements in life, but I now see that that is not good enough a punishment for you."

"Louise... what are you thinking..." Brandon whispered desperately, having been through enough business negotiations with his wife alongside him to know that she was about to bring something new to the table that he would never have thought of. Sometimes the bomb dropped would be a very fresh solution to their debate.

At times like these, Brandon knew that he would absolutely not like the result.

"I want you out of this Mansion by the end of today. Do not come back to see me and do not take a single step within this premise until you have shown me that you know how to appreciate everything that you have been given." The words spoken were cold and flat, unforgiving eyes shooting through a 15-year-old boy who had finally realised that he had done something he could not take back even if he begged or cried.

"Louise, we should talk about this." Brandon put in quickly, jumping up with a plea. "I know Kyren has gone too far bringing Kyrano into the picture, but you can't kick him out! He's only fifteen!"

"No." Louise's words were final and her expression was like a carved stone with lasers for eyes. "Kyren clearly needs to be a taught a lesson that none of us in this room is capable enough to give."

Then, turning to Keyron, Louise's seriousness did not fade.

"If there is anybody inside this mansion and the Household, including you, Keyron, who tries to aid him while he is outside, feel very free to join him in exile. I do not hesitate to cut any single one of you," Louise spun to shoot her husband an obvious glare, "from the Household if you lend help to him."

"You can't do this to me, Mum! The Princeton tender was just a small mistake! I admit it was my fault, okay! I'm sorry I didn't treat Kylar and Kyvan well. Please don't kick me out just because of this!" The tears that burst forth in repentance had come too late, and too insincerely for Louise to even consider changing her mind.

"From this day forth, Kyren, you are no longer a Greaves-Crawford family member." Louise stood up and looked down at her son past the tip of her nose. "Get out."