Never Judge

When Cedric finally got home he was surprised to see his mom lounging in the living room.

"Are you drunk?" Priscilla Reyes asked her son.

"Mom! You're home!" Cedric said excitedly like a little child as he ran up and hugged his mom.

"Wow, you must have drank a lot. You haven't been this excited to see me since I went to New York for Fashion Week with your aunts, and you were only ten back then!" Priscilla Reyes commented with a laugh. "Ugh, Cedric you reek of alcohol."

"Ram invited us out." Cedric said as he let go of his mom and sat on the chair. 

"What? It's not even dinner time and you boys were already drinking? Should I call your aunties? Do you have a drinking problem now?" Priscilla asked her son, who just laughed at her questions.

"No drinking problems mom, just problems. Don't worry they are solved now." Cedric said as he shook his hand in the air. "You look tired mom, were there problems at Clarin Industries? You never stay more than a day, but this time you were gone for almost a week." Cedric said, as he looked at his mom's tired eyes.

"Yeah. We had some employee issues. I had to stay a bit." Priscilla said with a smile.

"Great mom! I'll go up and take a bath, I'm pretty sure Miguel spilled some alcohol on me." Cedric said as he smelled his shirt and went up for a bath.

Cedric smiled as he climbed up, it was good to have his mom back at home. He could now focus more on the plans he had set in motion and worry less about his parents' suspicious actions.

A week later, Cedric was sitting in his office at Mor Co., he had the half siblings of his bullies called over. Their test was done and they had all passed with flying colors. 

Ayanna had decided to join Cedric in congratulating her friends. She was currently scrolling through some files on her phone while eating some chips as she sat cross legged on the floor.

 "People would be shocked to see you like this." Cedric said with a laugh as he placed away his documents.

"Well people should stop thinking I'm so lady-like even when I'm relaxing." Ayanna said, rolling her eyes.

"Get ready, our guests should arrive soon." Cedric said as he fixed his hair and took out his disguise.

Ayanna nodded and fixed herself. She moved to sit on the couch and took out her laptop to do some work.

After a few minutes Camilla knocked and announced that their guests had arrived. Cedric placed on his face mask and glasses and signaled for them to be let in.

"Sir." They all respectfully greeted as they entered.

"Sit guys." Ayanna said cheerfully. 

They all looked to Cedric for instructions, he simply nodded, signaling them to do as his sister asked.

"You all passed the test." Cedric announced in a happier tone.

He could see all five of them smiling.

"You've shown me your loyalty and that you could all be trusted. To be honest, this disguise is very uncomfortable. I don't like going around in a very public manner and I prefer having a private life." Cedric said as he walked from behind his desk to the front. He sighed and leaned on the desk. "Since I know I can trust you then I should show you who I really am."

As Cedric removed his mask he heard a gasp, it was Krista Von.

"You know my brother Cedric, Krista?" Ayanna asked. She was surprised as well that Krista recognized Cedric.

"You were the man my brother almost punched at Constellations!" Krista said, as she covered her mouth in shock.

"Yes. Thank you for helping me back there." Cedric said with a nod. "And that wasn't the first time your brother picked on me." Cedric said with a grin.

"What do you mean?" Krista asked.

"All five of you have way more in common than you thought." Cedric said as he settled himself on a couch. "You all know that back in university your brothers belonged to the same group of friends. As a matter of fact, all five of them are still pretty close now."

They all nodded, acknowledging that they knew about this.

"That group of friends were my main tormentors in university." As Cedric said this a dark look crossed his face. "We are lucky that having mistresses is quite a common thing for the rich. You all just so happened to be born at around the same time, and your fathers seemed to take a fancy towards actresses, models, and singers that worked for Lights Entertainment."

Everyone was silent, they were all clearly thinking about the coincidences that caused this moment to happen. If anything had gone differently they wouldn't be sitting in this room with Cedric or Ayanna, they would have probably fallen with the half brothers and their father's companies would have disappeared at Cedric's command.

"If you weren't Ayanna's friends I wouldn't have saved you from the consequences, but my sister vouched for you. Her word is what saved you and your fathers and their companies, but rest assured, your brothers will not be so lucky." Cedric explained to them.

"I know that all of you don't see eye to eye with them. Krista, I saw how your brother attempted to touch you at Constellations. Is that all he has done?" Cedric asked.

Krista hesitated for a bit. She was unsure if she could say it out loud. Ayanna, who was seated next to her, held her hand and nodded. Ayanna was the person she had come crying to when it had happened, she trusted that Ayanna hadn't told her brother, it was just that the Reyes Heir had the resources to find out.

"Sir, I mean, Cedric, no it wasn't. It's far from the worst." As Krista said this, Cedric could see that she was on the verge of tears. It was not his intention to hurt her or make her cry.

"You don't need to tell us." Cedric said in a calmer tone.

"But I want to. I want you to know why I am willing to do whatever it takes to see him fall." Krista's sadness shifted to anger.

Cedric simply nodded, telling her to go on.

"I was newly promoted and we were celebrating. Not me and my brother, me and my officemates. We didn't know that Dennis went there that night too, when he saw us he questioned why we had so much free time to party. As he said this he didn't take his eyes off me." 

As Krista said this she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We apologized to him, he then spoke to my boss and said something. After that, he left and we continued to drink, as time went on I didn't realize that my drink was spiked and people began to leave. They left me with him. He touched me in places he shouldn't, whether or not he was my brother I didn't like him, he was and is disgusting. He started telling me that I wanted him too. I kept saying no, but eventually the drugs and alcohol kicked in and he took me to a hotel room. I tried to kick and scream but he refused to let me go. He forced himself on me, and he didn't even use protection. It was my first time, so aside from not wanting it, it hurt so much." As the last words left Krista's lips she burst out crying. One of her friends, Paolo Juan, held her in his arms as she cried.