Never Judge

Cedric was in a meeting when Ayanna began calling him non-stop. He ignored her calls, but it seemed Ayanna had something important to say so she didn't stop calling until Cedric finally picked up her call after his meeting.

"I have a job to do, you know." Cedric scolded his sister. ​​

"Ced I just arrived!" Ayanna excitedly announced.

"Isn't it the middle of your term?" Cedric asked.

"It is, but I said I had to take a couple of days off to do something. I won't fail, you know." Ayanna laughed at her brother's worry.

"Please tell me you didn't empty out one of Ray's flights." Cedric sighed.

"Nope. Veronica was on the way home from Italy, so she passed by me. Although Ray did offer to get me on the first flight home, I had to decline since Veronica was gonna pick me up." Ayanna made it sound like getting on the plane was just like getting on a taxi.

"So why are you home?" Cedric asked, taking a seat behind his desk.

"I'm gonna be on shoot with my sister-in-law!" Ayanna giggled.

"Is this the 30 under 30 thing for Abad TV?" Cedric asked, recalling Adrianna's shoot the next day.

"Yup, but not everyone gets to be part of the shoot. Only the top ten. Can I take Adrianna shopping for the shoot?" Ayanna asked.

"If she agrees, I don't see why not." Cedric said.

"Big brother, will you pay for it?" Ayanna asked sweetly on the other end.

"Do I have a choice?" Cedric asked.

"Of course not. I have a lunch meeting with Adrianna for Elisia Malls, we can go shopping after that." Ayanna said, dropping the call.

When Ayanna arrived at R Tower she was informed that Adrianna was already waiting at the lobby of Elisia Corp.'s floor. She passed by to invite Adrianna and her team to join her for lunch at Nouveau.

Ayanna sat at the head of the table and wore a straight face rather than her usual smile when she was around Adrianna. She wore a black business suit and flats. Despite not wearing high heels and not being exceptionally tall, she was only 162cm tall, Ayanna's presence felt like there was a giant in the room.

The Island's Inc. team consisted of a marketing manager, a sales director, the head of design, Adrianna, and her assistant. Everyone except Adrianna was nervous, they had heard horror stories of whole teams leaving in shame after presenting an unimpressive idea to Ayanna. At such a young age Ayanna had already made waves in Elisia Corp. and in the various Clarin businesses owned by her mother.

"We can begin." Ayanna said.

The team went through their presentation and proposal just as they had practiced. Prior to meeting with Ayanna they had practiced presenting the proposal for almost three days, getting every detail perfect and preparing a list of questions Ayanna might ask. When they were done they waited for Ayanna to ask questions about their proposal.

"James, can we work with this?" Ayanna asked the VP for Elisia Malls.

"Yes, Miss Ayanna." James, the VP for Elisia Malls confirmed.

"Call up Lights Entertainment, I want some celebrity endorsements and TV time for this. I'll tell Ram or Anna when I see them. They should give us what we need." Ayanna instructed.

Everyone was shocked. Ayanna Reyes never fully agreed with a project proposal, this was what made it difficult to deal with Elisia Corp. they always got more out of a deal and everyone agreed since securing a partnership with them opened many doors.

"You may all go. I'd like to speak to Adrianna alone." Ayanna said. At that everyone left the private room.

Ayanna suddenly transformed into the sweet girl Adrianna had seen before. She smiled at Adrianna and spoke.

"You're part of the 30 under 30 feature too later right?" Ayanna asked.

Adrianna simply nodded.

"Great. Let's go shopping after this. I just need to pass by my brother to get his card." Ayanna said.

’I still have work in the office." Adrianna said in an attempt to refuse.

"It'll be a quick trip, then I can drop you off at Island's Inc. We'll just see each other tonight at the shoot." Ayanna smiled sweetly.

"Alright, I guess." Adrianna agreed reluctantly.

When Adrianna and Ayanna left together the employees of Island's Inc. were left in awe of their female boss. Not only was she brilliant, but she had equally brilliant friends as well.

When Ayanna dropped by Cedric's office she left Adrianna in the car to wait for her.

Cedric already knew she was on her way up and had already placed his card on the table.

"My brother is the best!" Ayanna said as she took the card.

"Make sure she looks respectable." Cedric instructed.

"Are you worried I'll over dress her?" Ayanna laughed.

"You know what I mean." Cedric knew that Ayanna wanted to dress his wife in such a way that he would be the envy of all men.

"Fine, a boring business suit like mine then. Will I see you when you pick her up?" Ayanna asked.

"I'll pick her up, but just as Cedric not as your over the top brother." Cedric said.

"One, you are never over the top, two, that's the same person, dum dum." Ayanna left laughing.

What Ayanna had promised to be a quick trip to the mall turned out to be a full on girl's day out with the sisters. Since Cedric was very over protective with regards to the rumors about his wife, Ayanna had arranged for specific wings of Pris Mall to be closed to give them privacy. All the employees were also asked to sign non-disclosure agreements for that day as well.

Adrianna was shocked to see the whole luxury section of Pris Mall empty of customers.

"Is it a bad day today?" Adrianna asked the girls.

"Nope. Ayanna went over the top and closed off the whole section." Veronica said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! It's better than people following us trying to take photos. Look I can run and no one cares!" Nicole said as she ran and slid along the empty hallways.

"That's so mature Nicole." Katerina said sarcastically.

"I really hate these press events. I have lots of work to do in the lab. Plus I'm still tired from my trip to Dubai." Natalia complained. Natalia Sebastian had arrived from Dubai on the same flight as Miguel Chan the night before. Their seminar had finished the night before and they had been having a mixer with other scientists when Miguel got a call for an important operation back at home. He decided to drag Natalia along, and Natalia couldn't complain.

"If Miguel hadn't dragged you along you would be late for the shoot!" Katerina scolded her younger sister. Despite being twenty three Natalia already had two PHDs under her belt. She skipped several years in school and was a member of MENSA. She had gone to various countries to take her degrees and PHDs.

"Adrianna, let's shop for your outfit later!" Ayanna said as she pulled Adrianna to one of the high end luxury brand shops.

"I was just going to wear what I'm wearing now." Adrianna was wearing a white dress with a black blazer on top.

"No, no, no, no. That's not good enough." Nicole said, shaking her head. "You have the infamous Veronica here and you won't maximize her? Tsk, tsk, tsk."

"Hey Nicole, I'm an interior designer not a fashion designer!" Veronica scolded Nicole.

"You still have a better eye for it than us!" Nicole said, sticking out her tongue.

"I swear if the board members of Saints Hotel saw you now, they would insist that Migel should be named heir instead of you." Katerina teased Nicole.