Never Judge

Adrianna was not sure on what to expect from her family. She was slapped by Aunt Janine, which resulted in the whole Hernandez clan being banned from the Nationalia. For most members of the Hernandez family, just stepping foot into the Nationalia was a dream, and now it would be impossible because of Janine and Adrianna.

She knew though that her family would be ecstatic that the Reyes Heir had come to save her, he even picked her up in his arms and sent her home. Adrianna felt extremely lucky that her husband never misunderstood what had happened. Cedric never blamed her nor did he accuse her of leading another man on. He believed her when she told him that she was innocent. ​​

It seemed Adrianna and Cedric had arrived quite early in the Hernandez House. Adrianna took advantage of the peace to check on her grandfather.

Knowing that the older Hernandez did not like Cedric she left him in the hallway to wait for her.

As she entered her grandfather's home office she saw him reclined on the couch reading a book.

"Hi grandpa." Adrianna greeted.

"Ah! Adrianna, you're early today." Grandpa Hernandez said with a big smile. Adrianna noticed that he was looking to see if someone else had come in with her.

"I left Cedric to wait for me outside grandpa. It's just me." Adrianna smiled.

"Good, good. Come take a seat next to grandpa." The old man called over.

When Adrianna had comfortably sat next to her grandfather he held her hand and asked what she knew he would.

"Adrianna, do you really feel nothing for the Reyes Heir?"

"Grandpa, I really don't like him." Adrianna shook her head.

"But he was so heroic in saving you in Nationalia last time. According to your Aunt Janine he scooped you in his arms and held you tight. It's practically a love story written in the stars!" Grandpa Hernandez exclaimed.

"Grandpa I think you watch too much TV now. Nothing is going on between me and the Reyes Heir." Adrianna said.

"I can always hope." Grandpa Hernandez sighed.

Meanwhile outside Cedric got a call from Ray Laurence. Ray had been using his underground and social connections to figure out who had been making and spreading rumors about Adrianna and the Reyes Heir.

"You have something for me?" Cedric asked over the phone.

"Why does your wife have such a rotten family!" Ray complained.

"Cause she is too nice to them. I'm assuming you know who is behind all of this?" Cedric asked.

"Yup. So there are several things going on at that same time. The press is genuinely interested in who you really are, so many reporters had already planned to camp outside Mor Co., but most of them wanted to do it peacefully." Ray explained.

"Yeah, we didn't have everyone banned, just those that instigated the whole mess." Cedric explained. Cedric was angry at the reporters, but he was still fair, he knew most of them were just doing their jobs and he had only targeted the instigators.

"The rumors about the Reyes Heir, aka you, liking Adrianna has been a rumor online for at least a month now. It actually died down a bit, until someone released a photo of you saving her at the Nationalia." Ray paused waiting for Cedric's reply.

"There weren't a lot of people at the Nationalia that would release a photo without my permission." Cedric said.

"I had people trace the account, illegally with my hackers of course, and I found out that it was actually her aunt Celine that posted the photo in a forum that only uses usernames rather than real names. Then we found a couple of accounts hyping it up, all of which can be traced to the Hernandez family." Ray explained.

"How about the cheating allegations?" Cedric was not surprised that members of the Hernandez family were actually involved.

"It was John Hernandez. I found out that he has been spreading the cheating rumors in certain socialite circles. On top of that, he also paid some of the paparazzi that day to harass you, the one that approached you was one. I also found out that he actually paid Chris Garin to get the reporters to notice you so that the allegations and rumors can be brought up." Ray said over the phone.

"Have they stopped?" Cedric asked in a serious tone.

"From what we can see? Nope. They are adding more wood to the fire. It looks like they have more troll accounts pushing that Adrianna should leave her husband that only uses her and accept the advances of the Reyes Heir. This is so funny Ced! They want her to leave you for you." Ray couldn't help but laugh at his friend's predicament.

"I'm glad you find this funny. Do you have the files on John and Fredrik?" Cedric asked.

"Yeah." Came Ray's response.

"I'll send Ian over to give Ram and Alexi a copy." Cedric told his friend before dropping the call.

He quickly gave Ian instructions on what to do.

When Cedric returned to the hallway where Adrianna had left him, he saw his wife with a puzzled look. She looked really pretty in her black office suit and high heels, she looked like she was a woman out to conquer the world.

"Is something wrong Adri?" Cedric asked as he hugged her from behind.

"No. I was just wondering where you were." Adrianna mumbled as Cedric kissed her cheek.

"Hey! Behave!" Adrianna scolded.

"Alright, alright." Cedric raised his hands in surrender.

"The others should be in the dining hall now. Come on, let's join them." Adrianna interlocked her fingers with Cedric's and pulled him towards the direction of the dining hall.

As Adrianna had expected everyone except her grandfather was already there.

One of Adrianna's older cousins, Margaret Hernandez, approached her and Cedric.

"Hey Adri, I heard about what Aunt Janine did to you at Nationalia. Serves her right that she was banned for life!" Margaret Hernandez was the eldest child of grandpa Hernandez's second eldest son, Matthew Hernandez. Like her cousins she too worked at Island's Inc. in the finance department.

"Thanks Margaret. I'm glad someone in this family thinks Aunt Janine was wrong." Adrianna said with a smile.

"I still think you should consider the Reyes Heir though, sorry Cedric, you're nice and all but Adrianna deserves much better." Margaret was always nice to Adrianna, but she never fully supported her decision to marry Cedric. Margaret also never sugar coated her opinions so she would often sound inconsiderate and mean, Cedric however knew at least Margaret had Adrianna's best interests in mind.

"I'm not leaving Cedric." Adrianna said as she wrapped her arms around Cedric's waist in a protective manner. She suddenly jumped when something felt different.

"Have you been working out?" Adrianna asked looking up at her husband.

"Ughhh, yeah. There is an executive's gym in the office that we are allowed to use. The boss asks us to work out in the morning when we arrive." Cedric said, scratching his head. The truth was every morning, if he didn't have meetings he trained a bit with Leon in order to improve his self defense skills.

"See Margaret! My husband is even better than before. Let's take our seats, grandpa should be coming down at any moment now." Adrianna said.

When the family was finally complete things went as usual with Fredrik reporting on the status of the company. Most members of the Hernandez family listened intently at this part as the company's performance would reflect both on their stock price and their profits. Those that were against Fredrik on the other hand used this time to question if he should remain as president of Island's Inc.

Despite the fact that Fredrik had managed to take the role of CEO from his younger brothers and sisters, many of his cousins and uncles thought that Fredrik should not have been made President. Even more were the people who were opposed to his grooming his eldest son John Hernandez to eventually take his place. In a family like the Hernandez's no one knew who they could really trust.