Never Judge

Five years later

Cedric looked up from his laptop as he watched the children run around the huge backyard of his Mountain View Mansion.

"Mommy, are we visiting daddy today?" A little boy with neatly cut brown hair and cute almond shaped eyes asked as he looked up at his mother.

Katerina smiled at her as she picked the little boy up, he was the splitting image of his father at the same age. There was no denying that he was Eric Chan's son.

"Not today honey." Katerina hugged the little boy tightly.

"Do you want us to tag along, Kat?" Adrianna asked as she joined them followed by the twins and Yoyo who was being a very responsible older brother.

Yoyo was now eleven and the twins five, all three were quite a handful and Cedric even wanted to have one last child.

"If you aren't busy, I mean, Eric's fans are quite sweet. It's been five years and they still have these events. But they are always so eager to get a hold of little Eric that I worry for him." Katerina held her son protectively as she remembered the last time they encountered some of his late father's fans.

Adrianna looked to Cedric for permission, he nodded, agreeing to come along.

He would never deny Adrianna of something she wanted as long as it didn't put anyone in danger.

"Yoyo, do you want to stay or Uncle Dave and Auntie Mae can take you to watch from the crowd?" Cedric asked his son, who, for a moment, was silent as he considered his options.

Cedric maintained some of the traditions when it came to raising his eldest son.

Yoyo was never seen in public, he was sent to school in a separate, but equally protected car from his brother.

Cedric and Adrianna would privately meet with some of his teachers who knew his real identity, but to the others Dave and Mae were his parents.

Yoyo was set to move schools soon. Cedric planned to pull him out from his posh private school and move him to a public one.

He wouldn't have to live alone as Cedric had, but he wouldn't be given the huge allowance his siblings enjoyed.

"I'll go with Uncle Dave. Auntie Mae was complaining about being too sick earlier, I doubt she can come." Yoyo told his father as he tugged on his siblings' sleeves. "Come on, we need to change."

The two little children smiled and followed their older brother.

Cedric was amused at how much the twins looked up to Yoyo, they were all very young, but he could already see the admiration they had for him.

"I want to come too!" little Eric jumped out of his mother's arms and ran after the twins.

Soon the other children followed as well, leaving their parents laughing in the backyard as several nannies chased after their charges.

"I guess we'll all join you then." Ian told Katerina as he pulled his pregnant wife towards him.

Nicole was pregnant with their fourth child and had been cursing at Ian for getting her pregnant again. She had made him swear to have something done so that she wouldn't have to keep popping children out.

"Are all the kids gone?" Veronica asked with a cheeky grin, making Cedric eye her curiously. Veronica Abad was not one for expressions such as these.

"You're hiding something." Katerina pointed out as she glanced at Veronica's husband, Miguel, who was laughing next to her.

"Don't mind her." Miguel shook his head as seemed to be amused with how his wife was behaving.

"Out with it." Cedric said, his tone a little bit forceful, but still friendly.

"Cedric, so serious." Veronica said as she rolled her eyes and hugged her husband tightly.

"You're alone if you annoyed him." Miguel grumbled as he kept an arm around his wife.

"Well, what is it?" Cedric asked impatiently.

"We're pregnant!" Veronica excitedly announced, making everyone's jaw drop.

Veronica and Miguel had been told a few years back that they would have trouble conceiving, but they both wanted another child. They had considered adopting, but not one of the children they met mixed well with Dominic, their eldest.

Dominic had always insisted that his little brother or sister would come from his mother's tummy. Even when he was older he still insisted that he didn't want his parents to adopt.

Dominic was now thirteen years old and was sent to a special school for genius children. It seemed that Miguel's influence had rubbed off on the child.

"Congratulations!" Katerina was the first one to recover from the shock.

She quickly ran over and hugged Veronica, excitedly telling her about how she was so happy her friends were finally able to conceive.

Soon, everyone was congratulating the happy couple. They knew the struggle the pair had gone through from ending up together to having a child.

"Are you alright?" Ayanna asked Katerina as she cradled her second child, a daughter who had been born three months ago.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" Katerina gave her friend a confused look. She didn't understand what was going on, why Ayanna was asking if she was alright.

"Everyone is having more and more kids, and well it's the anniversary of when we announced Eric's death." Ayanna blushed as she realized that it really didn't bother Katerina.

"I'm fine." Katerina said with a genuine smile.

To everyone's surprise, a tear rolled down Katerina's eyes as she looked that her friends.

"Okay, now what's wrong?" Nicole asked as she placed a hand on her waist.

Katerina blinked the tears away and shook her head.

"I just wish he were here. I wish he could be celebrating his new nephew or niece with us." As Katerina spoke, she began to cry more. "He would have been so happy."

"He will always be with us, Kat." Cedric said as he came up and hugged the woman who was like a sister to him.

He felt all the losses too.

His mother had been killed because someone went after his family. Eric, whom he considered to be his older brother, also passed away because evil people were after their families.

But now, all was well and everyone was safe.

"He is happy, wherever he is, Kat." Cedric told Katerina as she smiled at him and nodded.

"He made things safer for the kids." Alexi told his sister as he joined in on the conversation. "They will know of his sacrifice and how amazing he was, of how much he loved. Eric will never be forgotten."