Never Judge

Cedric called Ian to his office as soon as they arrived back. 

"Ian, talk to her." Cedric said with a sigh.

"With all due respect sir, I'm needed here." Ian said refusing to do as Cedric asked.

"Drop the sir. I'm talking to you about a very personal issue." Cedric scolded. "There is nothing left to do Ian. We've already handled the press and the police, the investigation is going smoothly, and we've already assured the employees. Go to your girlfriend."

"Cedric, you placed me in charge of the Mor Co. Tech Hub, I have to see the next steps through." Ian explained.

"Ian, by my estimates we won't be able to continue construction or developments until this case is solved, that will take another month at least. We have time." Cedric said more sternly.

"Ian, do as my brother says." Ayanna said, joining the conversation. "Nicole needs you. She doesn't even know about what is happening." Ayanna said with a sigh.

"You girls threw me out." Ian argued.

"And we were wrong. Nicole needs you now more than ever. Go to her." Ayanna urged.

"I can give you a few days off." Cedric told his assistant.

"That's too much, Cedric." Ian said with a frown.

"I can't have my right hand man distracted. No matter what you say or how professional you are, you cannot push an issue like this away." Cedric warned."Besides, Camilla is there."

From the look on Ian's face Cedric knew that Ian would give into what he asked. Ian simply turned and left Cedric's office.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ayanna asked.

"That means he'll do as we asked." Cedric said as he sat behind his desk and rested his eyes.

"Brother, there is something I need to talk to you about." Ayanna said hesitantly. 

Cedric wasn't in the mood, but Ayanna seemed afraid so he nodded and let her speak.

"I've analyzed peoples' opinion on what happened at the Tech Hub, and I think, if this case doesn't get solved in the next two months Ray and I will need to move our wedding back." Ayanna said as she fidgeted. 

"We'll talk about this when we get to that point." Cedric said with a sigh. "I don't want you and Ray to think that your wedding needs to be aligned with other people's opinions. This wedding is about the two of you. It doesn't matter if you have a big one or a small one, what matters is that it's between you and Ray."

Cedric and Ayanna went home that night clearly exhausted. When Adrianna saw her husband in the state that he was she became worried.

"Maybe you should ask dad to help you out." Adrianna suggested. She had heard from their mother-in-law that Emilio Reyes had offered to help their son and Cedric rejected. 

"It's nothing I can't handle dear." Cedric said as he pulled her into his arms.

"I was worried about you today." Adrianna said as she looked up from his embrace. "I was worried they would try to target you again." Adrianna hugged Cedric tightly.

"No one can take me away from you and little Emilio." Cedric said as he kissed his wife passionately. 

"I thought you were tired." Adrianna said with a giggle as Cedric picked her up bridal style and placed her on the bed.

His answer came in the form of a kiss, it was hungry, passionate, and needy. He needed his wife, he needed to feel her, to kiss her, to hold her. His day had been long, it began with Ayanna needing another opinion on food and ended up with a bombing and a suicide.

With every kiss he planted he felt like he was being energized, exciting him. After today he needed this, he needed his wife.

Two days later Nicole, accompanied by Miguel, showed up at Mor Co. Ian had already returned to work today and according to him he and Nicole had agreed to work things out. When he had broken the news to her about the events at the Tech Hub the woman broke down in tears. 

Ayanna excitedly hugged her friend as they entered Cedric's office. Ever since the incident she had been spending her work hours here rather than at her office at R Tower. When Cedric told her that she should be at her office in R Tower she shrugged and said that if there were any problems in the Reyes Group there were more than enough Reyeses there to handle it. So Cedric gave in and let his sister stay. 

"Are there any developments?" A more confident Nicole asked.

"Capt. Damien Park called me earlier today. They finally found the man's family. His wife admitted that there were people after them, she said it was because of their debt. Both she and her husband had dropped out at the 4th grade and had very little education, as a result they struggled to find work. Her husband's father was a gambler and a drunkard, when he died last year all of his debts fell on them, on top of that their son got sick and they had to borrow money in order to pay for hospital fees." Cedric explained as he recalled the details. 

"How is their son now?" Miguel asked. 

"I knew you would ask this, the son has a rare disease, he's barely surviving. I've already asked Capt. Damien to send you the details." Cedric told Miguel.

"Have him send the boy and the mother to Saints. I'll run them through some tests." Miguel had decided to offer any help needed to the man's family. The man may have chosen his fate but his family did not. They were victims too.

"They sent the man's profile to a psychologist and they found evidence of depression, it is possible that he really had plans of taking his life." Cedric continued to tell Miguel and Nicole about the report. 

"Sir, you need to see this." Ian said as he entered with a tablet in hand.

Cedric nodded and took the tablet, he scrolled through the article on the screen, his expression did not change. He handed it over to Nicole and Miguel for them to take a look. 

While Nicole and Miguel were reading through the article Ram called Cedric.

"Have you seen it? I swear I can't control this one." Ram said over the phone.

"Wait, let me put you on speaker." Cedric said as he placed his phone on the desk. "I'm here with Ayanna, Miguel, and Nicole."

"The article was released by a news outlet that we've been competing against for years. I don't know how they got that information." Ram explained.

"Bastards." Miguel cursed. "But this isn't true, the man was not deranged and what are they saying about it being poetry that he committed suicide on the Psych Center." 

"I'll have a counter article released, Cedric can you give me capt. Damien's contact, I'll have a reporter interview him for the details." Ram was always the best at mitigating issues like this.

"Make sure it doesn't harm your company." Cedric warned, he knew his friends had the tendency to do too much.

"Trust me on this bro." Ram said dropping the call.