Never Judge

"News?" Cedric asked Leon as the head of his security walked into his office.

It had been twenty four hours since the employees and their families had been saved by Cedric's and Ray's combined forces.

"Nothing." Leon walked silently into the room as he handed Cedric a report on where they had sent the employees and their families.

Cedric looked through the files and nodded in approval. He wanted these people to live a peaceful and good life, no one deserved to go through the pain they had to endure. This was the least he could offer them for suffering in the crossfire.

As Cedric was about to dismiss Leon, his phone began to ring.

It was a number he recognized but never saved in his contacts. He lifted his hand and signaled for Leon to stay.

The man stood next to Cedric, ready to attend to whatever his needs were.

"Which Esteves sibling am I speaking to?" Cedric asked as he stood up and walked towards the window.

Leon remained standing behind him, not making a sound.

"It's Angelina." The woman's voice said at the other end of the line. "You've delayed the turn over of your prisoner for too long, Mr. Reyes. Makes me wonder if you want Lucius Ting to see justice."

"Trust me, Miss Esteves, you will have Lucius Ting soon." Cedric was calm, his reaction bothered Leon.

Normally Leon would be able to tell if Cedric was faking it, but this time Cedric didn't even flinch when he assured Angelina Esteves that he would send Lucius Ting to them.

"Good." Angelina responded. "And Mr. Reyes, he has to be alive, I don't care if he is barely alive, but he should be breathing. We still have some things to discuss with him."

"I will give you a call soon." Cedric told her as he dropped the call and shook his head.

"Things need to move faster." Cedric hissed as he let the calm aura around him drop. "Have my driver prepare the car, I need to visit Ian." He ordered Leon, who bowed and left the room.

Nicole had been discharged by the hospital and was now recuperating at the old Lim mansion in the old city.

Ian's family had been pampering her, Tristan, and the new born baby Philip. Of course both the Lim and Chan families were happy to welcome another baby boy.

Despite having more progressive views now, the elders still found the birth of another son as a sign of good fortune.

When Cedric arrived at the old Lim Mansion, Ian was waiting for him at the door, with baby Philip in his arms.

"You should put that little one down once in a while." Cedric teased as he took the bundle from Ian and carried Philip.

"Don't you have two new ones too? Why do you have to take mine?" Ian grumbled as he led Cedric into the house where they were greeted by Ian's mother.

"Cedric! Give the child to me, it's not good for him to be around such a tense atmosphere at such a young age." She said as she took Philip from Cedric's arms, not allowing the man to complain or say a word.

"We aren't tense." Cedric tried his best to defend himself from Mrs. Lim's words only for her to laugh and shake her head as she walked away with Philip.

"You won't win against my mom." Ian chuckled as they walked deeper into the mansion. "If Philip isn't with Nicole, he is with my mother or father. Even my sisters keep fighting mom since she won't let them hold him."

"Your mom is just excited to see Philip grow up, she missed a big part of that when it came to Tristan." Cedric said as he smiled at his friend knowing that Ian and Nicole had a rough start when it came to their families.

"Let's speak in here." Ian said as he opened the door to a library. "It's my office here at home. It's not the same as in my own place, but I'm happy with it."

Cedric nodded as he entered the room. It was quite large but still had a homey feel to it. Cedric looked around to find that Ian had already set up multiple screens in the otherwise century old looking room.

"This was grandpa's library. I decided to move here in the hopes that I could find out more about the Rajas." Ian explained as he settled behind the large desk placed at the center.

Cedric sat down across from him as he nodded at his friend.

"Did you find anything yet?" Cedric asked, curious to hear if the elder Lim had left some useful bits of information for his grandson to find.

"Nothing useful just yet." Ian shook his head as he took out an elaborately designed box and placed it on the table.

"What's this?" Cedric asked as he picked it up and reached out to study it.

"It has the Raja's symbol on it and it's locked. I think it's important." Ian explained. "I'll try looking for the key, but anyway, what did you come to ask me? I'm sure it's both urgent and important, otherwise you would have either called or waited for me to visit."

"Angelina Esteves called." Cedric said with  a sigh as he handed the box back to Ian.

"I thought they were willing to wait for you to settle the matter with the Rajas?" Ian asked, confused as to why the Esteves family was once more asking Cedric to hand Lucius over.

"I think Lucius has another ally in the country, one that is working against both us and the Esteves family. That's why they are so eager to have him handed over." Cedric had asked everyone to use any and all resources to gather the names and information on all of Lucius' known associates.

So far, they had come up empty handed, but Cedric felt something was off when he was reading the information. Like he was missing something but couldn't tell what exactly.

"Have the Rajas contacted you since the rescue mission?" Cedric asked his friend.

"Yes, right before you arrived." Ian said with a grin that made him look cold and deceiving, a look that Cedric had seen only a handful of times.