Never Judge

"Was the Hannah he was talking about, that Hannah?" Jose Sebastian asked Emilio.

Emilio just nodded.

​​

"Oh Hannah G. you're still haunting us till this day." Jose Sebastian sighed.

"Who is Hannah G.?" Ayanna asked.

"Someone from your father's past. It was a very long time ago." Priscilla Reyes told her daughter, she too clearly knew who Emilio and Jose were referring to.

"I guess the kids need to know. It will help." Jose Sebastian told his friend.

Emilio sighed and rubbed his temples it seemed that just the mention of the name already gave him a headache.

"Hannah G. was a classmate in high school and University. I was doing my poverty training when we met, and I fell for her. I fell for her hard." Emilio said with a sigh.

Priscilla sat next to her husband and held his hand. She smiled and nodded for him to continue.

"Her name sounds like she could be a singer." Nicole giggled.

"Nicole! Stop being so inappropriate." Miguel scolded his sister. "Uncle, please continue."

"At first she rejected me. It was only natural. I was a poor boy, I had no family, and no one expected me to succeed in the future. But I kept trying to woo her, and as they say perseverance can melt even the coldest hearts. Eventually Hannah agreed to be my girlfriend, we were in our last year of high school at that time." Emilio said recounting the events that had transpired way before any of the children were born.

"Anyway, she wanted to go to the best university in the country. Back then her family was not poor, they were actually quite rich but there was only one school in the province we were at, so everyone studied in the same place. I of course wanted to go to the same school as her, I was a foolish boy, I didn't care about my inheritance anymore or my position as the Reyes Heir. All I wanted was to be wherever Hannah G. was at." Emilio said as Jose Sebastian tried to stop himself at laughing at his friend's irresponsible thoughts in the past.

"We both got into that school. I took the same course as her, which was a business course. During our first year we were inseparable, we went everywhere together, did everything together, spent every waking moment together. We even lived together at some point." As Emilio said this he could see his children's confused and embarrassed faces.

"All of you are grown ups now! Don't pretend you don't know or think these things." Jose Sebastian said, laughing at their reactions.

"We don't need to hear it from you guys dad!" Katerina said, rolling her eyes.

"Katerina Amalia Sebastian! Don't you dare roll your eyes at your father!" Katerina's mom, Rebecka Torres-Sebastian, warned her daughter who just laughed.

"Stop derailing the story!" Ram complained.

Emilio laughed at them and continued what he was saying.

"I really loved Hannah G. at the time, Priscilla knows that." Emilio said, smiling at his wife.

"During our second year in university we met a young man named Carlos Galan. He was smart, nice, and a member for the university's football team. He was every girl's dream. Carlos had almost all of his classes with us, so we became quite close. After a few months Hannah told me that her parents wanted her to move back home, I believed her. Soon enough we saw less and less of each other. Hannah told me it was because of her parents wanted to spend more time with her, or that she was joining a new org in the university, or that the new org had a lot of demands from it's new members, well you get the idea. I trusted her so much that I believed every single word that came out of her mouth. Towards the end of our second year Hannah broke up with me. When I asked her why, she told me that she had fallen out of love and that it would never happen between us because her parents would never approve of a poor kid like me." Emilio explained with downcast eyes.

"Sounds familiar." Cedric teased Adrianna as he hugged her tightly on the bed.

"Behave Cedric!" Adrianna said, pretending to elbow him on the chest.

"We broke up and I moved on. A year later, I found out from a common friend that even before she moved out she was already sleeping around with Carlos Galan, and that people had seen them together at the movies or going into a motel. When she eventually moved out she didn't move back home, she moved in with Carlos Galan. The thing about Carlos is that everyone knew that he was the illegitimate son of Martin De Dios, he was the fourth son of a rich businessman and had managed to make his own business flourish. Martin De Dios had no legitimate children, so eventually he legitimized Carlos and left all his fortune for Carlos to inherit. When I found out that Hannah and Carlos had been cheating, I swore that the first person I would come after when I took my place would be them." Emilio said.

"And you went after them?" Cedric asked.

Emilio nodded.

"I did, eventually. When I turned twenty eight the first thing I did was to make the De Dios family lose everything. I also found a way to separate Carlos and Hannah. You can thank your uncle Jose for that." Emilio said pointing at Jose Sebastian who sat regally on a couch.

"I was more like Alexi and Ray when we were young." Jose Sebastian shrugged. No one expected the now president of a country to have played a part in separating a couple.

"I didn't know that Hannah was pregnant at the time. They weren't married either. When the De Dios family lost everything Hannah left Carlos, she was a gold digger from the very start and only stuck with me because I followed her everywhere and she loved the attention." Emilo explained.

"What do you know about this child Carlos was talking about?" Cedric asked his father.

"I honestly don't know what happened to Hannah after that. I just got rid of them. If it weren't for your mom I would have gone down a war path destroying everyone who ever looked down on me." Emilio explained.

"As it is there are so many people that want to see us fall, I never imagined someone would actually dare to act like this." Ayanna sighed.

"At least there is one consolation." Miguel said with a grin.

Everyone looked at him with a puzzled look.

"Really? I'm the only one that sees it?" He asked.

"They don't know who Cedric actually is, if he knew that Cedric was the Reyes Heir he would have said Cedric's name. On top of that he called Adrianna by an insulting term, if he knew who Cedric was he would have said that Adrianna was the wife. So we can conclude that Carlos only figured out who Cedric was based on the car he used frequently." Natalia sighed.

"Thank you. I'm so glad there is another MENSA member in the room!" Miguel said with a wink.

"Are you saying we're all stupid?" Veronica said ready to throw her phone at Miguel.

"Ram save me from your sister!" Miguel said hiding behind Ram.

"Nope. You dug your own grave! Deal with it!" Ram said, pushing Miguel away.

Everyone broke into laughter.

Cedric smiled at the somewhat complete family in his room. These people were more than just friends to him, they were his family. They all cared for him and loved him no matter what.

"What are you thinking about?" Adrianna asked as she hugged her husband.

"If I weren't at the hospital right now this would be the perfect day. Plus a few people." Cedric told his wife as he stroked her hair.

"We'll make it to that perfect day." Adrianna said with a smile as she kissed her husband on the lips.