Never Judge

It only took Ray and Ayanna five minutes to get their wedding license, as soon as they were done Cedric saw them happily exiting the building, waving a piece of paper at him.

Cedric smiled under his disguise. 

​​

"Now we\'re really brothers." Ray teased Cedric. "You won\'t be able to get rid of me that easily anymore."

"Ray, you\'ve always been my brother." Cedric said.

"Cedric! Stop being so emotional!" Ayanna said as she began to tear up.

"Oh honey, no, no, no don\'t cry. I hate it when you cry." Ray said as he took out a handkerchief and gently dabbed it on Ayanna\'s tears.

"Come on, let\'s get to the reception. Your guests are waiting." Cedric pointed out.

The newly married couple nodded as they got into Ray\'s car. 

The old Reyes house was quite far from the city so it took the couple and Cedric quite a while to arrive in the compound. The whole property was as large as the Mountain View community that Cedric had built his mansion in. The security at the old Reyes house was even tighter than at Mountain View.

The reception would be held at one of the gardens in the property, since they were a small and informal group there was no need for outside servers or chefs. The maids served the food and the Reyes family\'s longtime cooks prepared the food at Priscilla Reyes\' direction.

Cedric arrived before Ayanna and Ray. He was greeted by his wife who held little Emilio in her arms. 

"I promise, I\'ll give you an even grander wedding." Cedric said as he kissed her passionately while making sure not to wake the baby in his wife\'s arms.

"I\'m confused. I thought it was Ray and Ayanna getting married today." Alexi teased, as he approached his friend.

"What\'s wrong with kissing my wife?" Cedric asked with a laugh. "Jealous?"

"Hey Jen, why don\'t you help me?" Alexi winked at the nurse that stood behind Adrianna. As part of their agreement, Adrianna had to keep Nurse Jen around to make sure that she was in good health. It was actually the last month that Nurse Jen would be with them, after this she would either be going back to the Kashmere hospital or she would be reassigned to the one of the two other Saints hospitals that Miguel operated out of. 

Nurse Jen ignored Alexi making Cedric laugh. 

"You should learn about professionalism from Nurse Jen." Cedric teased. "Come on, stop flirting Alexi, the happy couple should be arriving soon." 

"Cedric!" Ian waved as he sat at a table with his family. 

Cedric nodded and walked over with his wife and son.

"Cedric, these are my siblings and parents. My dad Richardo Lim, my mom Constance Lim, and my two sisters, Karina and Sam." Ian said as he introduced his sisters and his parents.

"It\'s an honor to finally meet you." Cedric said with a smile.

"Rick!" Cedric\'s father, Emilio, greeted happily.

"Emils!" Ian\'s father said as they shook each other\'s hands.

"It\'s been long, too long." Emilio Reyes said, shaking his head. "I\'m disappointed in you Rick, you didn\'t contact me when you were having a hard time. I only found out what you went through because of your son."

"I didn\'t know who to trust." Rick Lim said with a shrug. 

"We will talk about this more later. My daughter and son-in-law just arrived." Emilio Reyes told his friend as he spotted Ayanna and Ray come into the garden.

"Ian, do you have your tablet?" Cedric asked Ian as his father walked away.

"Yes. What do you need?" Ian asked.

"The photos of the house. But the empty ones." As Cedric said this Ian nodded and took something out of his bag.

After Ayanna and Ray went around to greet all of their guests, Cedric asked his father if he could show him something. Emilio Reyes nodded and followed his son to the side, Ian went with them.

"Dad, we\'ve been studying everything that our enemies could use against us and a certain property caught our attention." Cedric told Emilio Reyes.

"Which one?" Emilio asked.

Ian handed Cedric the tablet and Cedric showed the image to his father.

"This one dad. It\'s a simple house in a barely developed area in the outskirts of the Capital." Cedric explained.

"I know this property. It\'s in my name. What\'s so suspicious about it? It\'s just a normal house." Emilio Reyes told his son.

"Dad, this property is only 300 sq/m." Cedric pointed out.

"So?" Emilio Reyes asked.

"It stands out because our smallest property is at least 2,000 sq/m. It looks really suspicious, dad. What is this place?" Cedric asked. A part of him was worried, would his dad lie or tell the truth? If he told the truth, would it hurt Cedric and the rest of the family? As much as possible Cedric didn\'t want to confront his dad, but he needed to know the truth.

"It was a small place I bought when I was in poverty training." Emilio Reyes said with a shrug. "I didn\'t have the time to have it disposed of, and it holds a lot of memories for me." His dad explained.

"So we keep it?" Cedric asked.

"Of course! It was my first purchase!" Emilio Reyes said in a raised voice.

"Okay dad, relax." Cedric was surprised by his father\'s reaction, it was very uncharacteristic of him to lose his temper on such a small thing.

"I\'ll go back to the guests." Emilio said as he placed a hand on Cedric\'s shoulder before going back.

"Ian, when was the property purchased?" Cedric asked.

"Ten years ago sir." Ian explained to Cedric.

"The house itself looks like it was renovated in the past year. My dad is hiding something." Cedric said. "Have you figured out who is living there?" 

"All we know is that a woman lives there, she usually arrives before your father starts visiting every night." As Ian said this Cedric balled his hand into a fist. It was clear that his dad was visiting a woman whenever his mom was away.

"Find out more about her." Cedric ordered as he walked back to the party.