Insouciant (The Billionaire With A Choice)

Court: Cedric

Court: Cedric

Cedric is sworn in.

He is immediately asked to state his relation with Kenzo, Nathaniel and myself.

"Kenzo Steels is my father. Nathaniel is my younger brother. Saffron is my friend."

Funny thing... he really did try to get back together... this morning. We don't need to go into detail. Just know I called him a lunatic for trying today of all days.

"Cedric describe your relationship with Kenzo Steels."

"There is nothing to explain. He may be my biological father, but I have no relationship with that man."

"Why is that?"

"He only ever cared about himself."

"Explain."

"The man is not married but has ten sons who all have the same mother that no one has heard of till earlier this year. He always wanted to be on top and he made sure to see to it at the expense of his family."

Preston proceeds with pulling up Ruri's contract.

"Everyone this document is a contract Kenzo had created for the mother of his children. You'll see in paragraph eight specifying her duties and roles. It states that she will be living with Kenzo forever... she will cook, clean. Take care of all children from birth to five years old before they are sent off to an institution... all children including grandchildren and I'll get to that in a moment. It seems like she is a maid. Yet, she is not allowed to communicate to outside parties. She is not allowed to communicate with her children when they return home as she cares for Kenzo hand and foot. May I remind you they are not married. There is footage of her trying to leave and she gets tazed by guards."

The video plays.

"Now back to the grandchildren. Kenzo had given some of his business partners ultimatums; bankruptcy or their company by martial relations. Eight out of his ten sons were set up with a daughter from a business family. Their children are born. Taken away from them to be raised by The son's mother to be shipped away to the institution. Let the process start over again. You'll see in the following paragraph that she is to distance herself from the kids before they are sent off to the institution to prevent attachment issues. So these kids really had to fend for themselves. Without any parental figures in their lives. We are fortunate to know that Kenzo's grandchildren have been reunited with their parents. But we are unfortunate to know that building that connection from scratch will be difficult."

There is some silence before questions go back to Cedric.

"Describe what it was like growing up."

"I was taken care of by my mother. Nathaniel and I are the same age only nine months apart. We grew together. It was bliss. Kenzo wasn't around much. If he was he was scolding our childish antics. He didn't understand we were children. At the age of five we were shipped off to the institution to learn that we have eight older brothers. We found out that pairs of them are the same age. Meaning our mom was practically pregnant five years straight."

"And will you share your experience at this institution or what some may refer to as a school?"

"It was no school. It was a prison. An assimilation camp. Light is sucked out of you. Knowledge is put into you. Math, science and business. Your body had to be a certain way. You had curfew. I saw mates beaten. Put in cages. People died. Can you imagine? Kids 5-16 not making it out alive. I learned quickly that being quiet got you far. I wasn't liked. I was smart and I knew it. My older brothers hated it."

"Why?"

"One day. All the Steels boys were taken home. The first time we were all in the same room, we were tested. A psychological test. A knowledge test. Testing iq. And a fitness test. I had scored overall for this fitness test. Nathaniel had tested overall for iq. They didn't like that their younger siblings were deemed as better. They were t-fed that we thought we were better. So they turned against us."