Never Judge



"He just. . ." Emilio said in shock as they sat in Ray's office.

Everyone was stunned by what the man had done just to keep Colin's location a secret.

"Has this ever happened, dad?" Al looked down at his hands and he was shaking. He had never seen a man take his own life. 

Trevor's death had been so bloody that only Ian and Ray didn't seem bothered about what had happened. 

"A few times, we've seen and done worse, but it's never easy." Ray sighed and shook his head. 

Ray observed his son and noticed how visibly bothered the young man was. Al could also sense how witnessing what had happened somewhat traumatized him. 

"What does this mean for the investigation?" Hendrick asked as he wiped some stray blood from his face.

Hendrick had done his best to clean up, but he still missed some splatter and was only noticing them now.

"We will need to figure out another way to find Colin." Ray admitted, disappointed that they were back at the beginning. 

"Do you think he ever discovered that we had infiltrated his ranks?" Al asked his father as he looked up from where he was seated.

Ray nodded and sighed. 

"Most likely." Ray told his son. "They will probably investigate backgrounds more to ensure that whoever joins them is reliable." 

"So my daughter, she can't return yet?" Peter asked as he looked at Al.

"She can return, Peter, no one ever stopped her from returning." Ray told his new friend.

"We all know that my daughter will only probably return if your son fetches her." Peter said as he glanced at Al.

"I don't think that would be a smart move." Cedric Reyes said as he suddenly entered Ray's office. 

"What are you doing here dad?" Emilio asked as he sat upright. 

Al could tell that his cousin had told his father he had gone somewhere that was not the Underworld Headquarters.

"We will talk when you get home." Cedric said as he glared at his son.

He quickly regained his composure and turned to his brother in law with a sad look on his face.

"I know you wanted to delay Al's identity from leaking, but. . ." Cedric hesitated, but in the end, he handed a tablet to Ray.

Al quickly walked up behind his father to get a better look of what his uncle was showing Ray.

He didn't expect that it would actually be a social media feed that his uncle was showing his father. 

There were multiple photos of Al coming from school, taking the bus, then eventually getting on one of their cars. 

From the angle the photos were taken you could even see the nameplate on his uniform, Al Reyes.

There were even photos of some of his school documents confirming that his registered name was Al Reyes. 

Al couldn't help but wonder why people were emphasizing his name, that was until he saw the caption on the post.

Heir to the Lawrence Fortune or Illegitimate Reyes Child, that was the caption. 

It made sense now to Al why they needed to show the name he was using.

The public knew that the name of Ray's eldest child was Aldrich Lawrence, but they had not seen Al in years. 

They had no idea that he was affectionately called Al at home, nor had they seen any photos of him. So there was no way of confirming if Al was indeed Aldrich Lawrence or an illegitimate cousin.

"Can't Uncle Ram suppress this?" Al asked as he looked at his Uncle Cedric.

"Unfortunately, he can't." Cedric sighed as Ray continued to scroll through the posts.

"It's gone viral." Ray said in a pained voice. "Even if we could take them all down, people have already seen it, they will get suspicious." 

Cedric nodded as Ray tapped on the comments, reading what people had to say.

'See, I don't believe that a man like Cedric Reyes could be faithful! It might have taken decades, but he f***ed another woman that kid is the result!'

'If that's actually Aldrich Lawrence he looks really good. I hope he's single, cause I am too.'

Al blushed as he saw the last comment. No one other than his family had ever called him good looking or praised his appearance.

'That's probably an illegitimate son, why would they send Aldrich Lawrence to a public school like that and allow him to take the bus?'

'I know that school! That's the same school Eric Chan's son was rumored to have gone. If it's the same one, then I'm sure that young man is actually the heir to the Lawrence fortune. You are all idiots for saying he is illegitimate.'

"Damn, they even know what school Eric went to." Al hissed.

"Erci's father had borderline crazy fans." Cedric told his nephew.

"Borderline? From what I heard from mom they were fanatics!" Emilio exclaimed, joining in on the conversation. "They still celebrate his death anniversary and birthday. From what I hear they leave gifts and flowers at the entrance of the building where he used to live."

"Fine, they are obsessed, and since Eric looks so much like his father and seems to have inherited the best from both parents, they try to know as much as possible about him." Cedric shrugged.

"I guess I can't go back to school now." Al said with a frown.

"Unfortunately we've run out of time." Ray surrendered. "I had hoped that you would have a few more years, Al."

"Will you make a statement about this one, or will the Reyes Group do it?" Cedric asked Ray as he looked at Ray with a frown. 

"Together, we make the announcement together. My son is a member of both the Lawrence and Reyes families, so it only stands to reason that we make the announcement as one family." Ray declared.

"I'll have it arranged." Ian said as he slipped back into his dutiful assistant role. 

Al knew his uncle wouldn't let anyone else handle this press conference, this was just as big as the one they had to hold when Emilio's identity became public.