Never Judge

Cedric was anxious the moment they entered his office. He knew it wasn't something that directly affected him, but he knew that his news could either shatter people's hearts or give them false hope.

He wished that he could continue investigating the matter without everyone else having to know, but keeping secrets always had a price.

Luckily, his friends arrived one after the other, so Cedric didn't have to wait long.

"Why is Yoyo here?" Katerina asked as she looked at the little boy. "Shouldn't he be in school?"

"I thought he could use a day off of school." Cedric said with a smile as he patted his son on the head.

Yoyo had been sitting on Cedric's lap, showing his father how well he could draw and write.

"I wish I could have a day off of work." Alexi grumbled as he sat next to his sister.

"You barely go to work." Katerina hissed as she looked at her brother. "You're always traveling and going to places."

"You know that's all work Katerina." Alexi answered back. "It's not like I want to go around to charities and projects, if I had my way I would just stay at home and -"

"Don't continue your sentence." Adrianna told Alexi as she stared at the politician. "My son is in this room. He is too young to hear about your perverted desires."

"Daddy, what are perverted desires?" Yoyo asked Cedric as he looked up from what he was doing.

Cedric couldn't help but laugh at his son's question, and it seemed everyone else found it to be quite amusing as they all burst into laughter.

"It's nothing, Yoyo, I'll explain when you are older." Cedric said as he shook his head as he resisted the urge to laugh even louder.

"Okay daddy!" Yoyo said in a happy tone as he returned his attention to the image he was drawing.

"So who are we still waiting for?" Ray asked as he looked around the room, his expression looked grim. It seemed that so far there had been no progress into his end of the investigation.

"Just Veronica and Miguel." Ian said as he continued to study the documents in front of him.

Between working for Cedric and working at Lim Industries, he needed to use almost all of his free time so that he could dedicate his after work hours to his son and to Nicole.

"They should be here soon." Nicole said with a nod as she rested her head on Ian's shoulder. "Veronica texted me that they were already in the parking lot a few minutes ago."

"Good, good." Cedric said with a smile as his mind wandered.

As if on cue, Veronica and Miguel entered the office, escorted by Dave.

"Oh, great, you let Yoyo skip school, Dominic will complain about this for sure." Miguel groaned as he walked over and patted Yoyo on the head.

"Where is Tristan?" Veronica asked as she looked at Nicole.

"We didn't know Yoyo would be here either." Nicole said with a frown. "We left Tristan with Ian's sisters at the office."

"You should have told us Cedric." Miguel said as he and his wife found seats in Cedric's office.

"I think the boys not being here is for the best." Cedric said with a frown as he waved Yoyo's nanny over.

"Please take Yoyo to the lounge behind that door. We will be quick." Cedric asked her, to which the nanny nodded.

"I have to go again, daddy?" Yoyo asked as he looked up at Cedric with a frown.

It was quite rare for Cedric to send the little boy away, even when he was at work. Yoyo would normally just sit quietly on the side even when Cedric had meetings.

"I'm sorry, Yoyo." Cedric said as he gently placed a kiss on his son's head. "I promise this will be quick."

"Okay, daddy." Yoyo replied as he nodded hesitantly.

Cedric placed the little boy gently down on the floor. Yoyo quickly walked ahead of the nanny into Cedric's lounge.

Cedric let out a sigh and closed his eyes when his son was finally gone.

"You never send him away, like ever." Ian told Cedric as he eyed his friend suspiciously. "This must be serious."

"It is." Cedric said with a nod. "And I don't think most of you will like the news I have. I'm not even sure how I should feel about what we learned."

"Just say it Cedric." Miguel said as he shook his head. "Stop making this meeting longer."

Cedric shook his head, Miguel had no idea what he was asking for.

"I need to tell you the story from the beginning, I'll make it quick and skip some of the details." Cedric informed his friends who listened intently.

"At first I didn't think this would involve all of us, but as the truth came out, well, things changed." Cedric said. "Adrianna's friend, Julia, left the country a few months back to look for a certain ex-boyfriend of hers, and while she was there she was kidnapped by the famed Esteves Group."

"The European Mafia?" Alexi asked as he gave Cedric a confused look.

Cedric simply nodded, confirming Alexi's question.

"When Julia was finally allowed to contact someone from the outside world, Julia called Adrianna asking for her help to get her out." Cedric told them with a frown.

He looked around the room and found that everyone was still listening quite intently to him. He glanced at Ram as he tried to figure out what was running through the man's mind, but his expression remained blank, making Cedric worry.

"According to Julia she was kidnapped because of her ex-boyfriend, the Esteves Group wanted to find him so they took her to lure him in." Cedric explained.

"That's odd." Eric commented as he leaned against the wall. "Why would they take someone's ex-girlfriend? I doubt her ex could care less."

"That's exactly what we all thought." Cedric said with a nod. "We doubted her words and pushed her to say something, anything about this ex of hers and it took us a while to find out the truth."

"That person isn't her ex." Ram suddenly said, making everyone in the room turn their attention to him.

"What?" Veronica asked her brother. "What do you mean Ram?"

"That person is the real reason why we broke up." Ram revealed, shocking everyone. "I didn't want to be in a relationship with someone that was married.. I was lucky to have found out sooner rather than later."