Insouciant (The Billionaire With A Choice)

Backstory

Backstory

Halfway through the journal, I fall asleep and I wake up at the door opening which startles me.

Cedric comes in.

He scratches the back of his head. "Didn't mean to scare you. I just thought you might... uh." He gives me a glass.

Chocolate milk.

I look at him, and he's blushing, which confuses me.

I drink the milk.

I softly chuckle. "You put five tablespoons of Nesquik syrup in half a litre of milk. The serving size for 500 millimetres of milk would equal two tablespoons of syrup. But thank you."

He looks at me in shock.

"What?" I question him, and he just walks away.

He sits in the corner on a bed with his thoughts.

I look at Nathaniel. He flips his board.

Don't be fooled. Cedric can't be a cocky jerk all the time. He's not good around a woman... especially the ones that he doesn't just spend a night with... I told him it was too much syrup. We can trade if you want?"

I try his. I pick up the board and write down Hershey?

He nods.

Hershey chocolate is good, but the Nesquik makes me feel like a kid because of those commercials I saw as one.

Soon enough. All three of us are in the closet. The silence was driving us mad.

"I haven't thanked you guys. You didn't have to help me-"

"Miss Baylor, you don't have to-"

I cut him off, "you make me feel old. You are a year older than me. You guys can call me by my name."

They both shake their heads. "I like calling you Baylor because it gets on your nerves." And full of himself, Cedric is back.

"I don't think I can call you anything other than Miss Baylor," Niel says.

"I find it strange I call you Niel, and you speak to me like I'm your teacher."

"You see, calling me Mr. Steels sounds absolutely horrific. But-"

I come clean, "you guys do know Baylor isn't even my last name?"

I laugh at their expression. "My full name is Saffron Baylor Sage Nash. The Sage part is a family thing, not a legal thing."

They both frown and voice their opinion at the same time. "I don't like associating you with them."

Cedric expands, "you may have similar features. But they are not you. You put a face on. I saw it the night you came by and saw something... I'm really sorry about that. You are strong. You just forget to tell yourself to hold on. You aren't alone. And we need to figure out how to get out of this place because Henry is insane, and we only have enough food and clothes to last a month."

"Where's your dad?" I ask them.

"Uh... being scared out his mind?"

I roll my eyes. "I told him he didn't know what he was getting himself into. Why is he so obsessed with merging our companies through marriage?"

Cedric looks at Nathaniel.

So I feel like something is up.

"You wanna tell her or..."

Nathaniel speaks up, "we were seven. My dad met with Ryder. They talked. I didn't know what about. But for three days, he brought all of us home. For the first time, all ten of the Steels boys were in the same room with their parents. They gave us a written, psychological, and physical test. I know dad wanted Dillion or who you'd call Steels number six to score the highest overall. He thought four and up were too old and no longer moldable even though they were only 12. Dad was fine with six through nine winning. What he didn't expect was for me to score highest overall and have the top scores in the written and psychological tests. Cedric was second and the top scorer in the physical test. Our brothers resented us. More of me because I look different from all of them. So does Cedric, but at least he has the structure and hair colour. Anyways from that point, I went through different training here. A guy who always wore a mask showed up from time to time to witness my training. He taught me Italian. Other days French. You see the lines on my arms. They are electrical burns. Every time I did something wrong I was zapped with an electric fly swatter. Their goal was to break me. And you know how that turned out."