As soon as Conrad woke up, he was faced with many obstacles. He wasn't in the right state of mind—half here, half somewhere else—but he had to gather himself and answer all the people waiting outside: family, friends, relatives, and the police.
Firstly, the police asked him what had happened. Conrad said that he didn't know anything about what had happened there. He had just come home and was greeted with this massacre. The police didn't fully believe him, but seeing the condition he was in, they decided to give him more time and told him they would question him again later.
Then came the relatives and family friends. Conrad told them that he wasn't in the right state of mind to deal with anyone at the moment and asked them to come back tomorrow.
But now came the fourth type of people.
The companies.
His father had taken huge loans to give his family this kind of luxurious life, and unfortunately, the company's stock value had crashed badly. Basically, Conrad had inherited nothing but debt.
Those company representatives knew that his entire family had just passed away.
Yet they were still so ruthless.
They demanded their money without showing even the slightest bit of sympathy.
After they finally left, the family lawyer sat down with Conrad and explained the entire situation.
He told Conrad that the only option left was to give away everything and reconstruct his life from the very bottom—to reach this level again and eventually surpass the luxurious life his father had built for him.
He explained it to Conrad just the way Krishna explained Arjuna in the Mahabharata.
"It is situations like these that either break a man or make him. Through all this hardship and despair, there will be a man who comes out on top—a man who enters a new world as a greater version of his past self."
Conrad understood what he meant from all of this, but he was still drowning in agony from everything that had happened.
At that very moment, he became determined to walk on the righteous path and change everything about the man he used to be.
He would become the exact opposite of his former self.
And most importantly...
He would find out who had done this to his family.
No matter what it took.
Now all that was left was signing the papers.
One by one.
He gave away everything.
The big mansion.
The underground basketball court.
The outdoor swimming pool.
The indoor theatre.
Everything.
But most importantly...
The memories of his family.
The art of letting go.
The art of moving on, no matter what.
Starting from zero.
Even if it was only 0.0000000001% every single day...
It was still better than 0%.
Any day.
With tears in his eyes, Conrad walked out of the house for the final time.
But they weren't visible to anyone outside.
Because they weren't tears from his eyes.
They were the tears of his heart.
And with that...
Conrad Butcher set out on his journey.
A journey that started from absolutely nothing.