Never Judge

As much as Cedric wanted to spend more time with his family on Kashmere, he had to fly back to the capital.

With the added variable of Angelina, Cedric couldn't sit idly by while his people worked.

Despite Angelina telling him that she had taken over the Esteves family, Cedric wanted to be sure. It could be a trap to set Lucius Ting free.

As Cedric landed back in the capital, he was greeted by Mae who quickly came rushing to his side, holding out her phone.

"It's your cousin, Mr. Ace." Mae said as she handed Cedric the phone.

"Ace?" Cedric asked as he pressed the phone to his ear.

"Sorry it took me a while Ced." Ace apologized as Cedric walked over to the waiting car.

There would be no time to rest for him. From the airport he would be taken directly to R Tower where he had a meeting set to expand the Reyes Group.

Later that night he would also have dinner with the Mafia and Gang leaders as they had updates for him and Ray.

"What did you find out?" Cedric asked Ace as he got into his car and was driven to his office.

"Angelina is the eldest child of the former head of the Esteves family." Ace explained. "Traditionally women do not become the leaders, but it seems that she was actually put in charge from the very beginning."

Cedric was stunned by the news.

This whole time he believed  that he was speaking to the head of the Esteves family, but he was wrong.

"Then who the hell have I been speaking to? Did you find out?" Cedric asked Ace.

"I did." Ace said as he suppressed a laugh. "It seemed that Angelina was worried that you wouldn't respect her if you found out that the family head was a woman."

"Well that's stupid." Cedric frowned as he shook his head. "Did they not look us up?"

"I'm sure they did, but they couldn't leave things to chance. There was still the possibility that the reports were wrong." Ace explained to Cedric.

"So Angelina won't release Lucius the moment they have him?" Cedric asked his cousin.

"No, the thing is she is the one that has more reason to chase Lucius Ting." Ace told Cedric. "We did more digging into her background and she let us. It seems that she wants you to believe her."

Cedric remained silent as he momentarily considered if this could all be a trap.

"What did you find out?" Cedric asked his cousin.

"Angelina had a friend that was once Lucius Ting's mistress." Ace explained.

"So Dominic has a half sibling out there?" Cedric asked, slightly worried about the other child.

"No, unfortunately, when Lucius Ting found out that she was pregnant, he killed her. He said he couldn't risk her ruining his relationship with his wife." Ace told Cedric, much to the other man's shock.

"And Julia never found out about this?" Cedric asked. "And how was he able to escape the Esteves family after that?"

"This all happened right before Lucius Ting escaped." Ace explained.

"What do you mean?" Cedric asked.

"Lucius Ting had everything planned. He played his final betrayal of the Esteves Family, went to his mistress and killed her." Ace told Cedric. "Unfortunately for him this act managed to give Julia more time to run away. By the time he got back to his house Julia was gone and the Esteves family was close on his heels."

"So he escaped but wasn't exactly able to cover his tracks?" Cedric asked Ace.

"Yes, and at great detriment to himself." Ace confirmed. "Had he not gone back to kill his mistress, he probably would have caught Julia and Dominic leaving. Killing his mistress also meant that the Esteves family would chase him down."

"So he dug his own grave with that one." Cedric said as he thought of how Lucius Ting had managed to make his own problems bigger than they actually were.

It pushed Cedric to further confirm that Lucius Ting was not as smart as they had given him credit for.

Over-thinking had even allowed Lucius Ting more time to get into contact with the Rajas.

"It's good to know that Angelina is on our side with this." Cedric said as he carefully considered his next steps.

"What should I do? I know you're planning something." Ace said as if reading Cedric's mind. He couldn't help but smile at his younger cousin. He was so much like their uncle Jake.

"For now, I want you to show the Esteves family that we are their allies, cooperate with them." Cedric instructed. "I will hand Lucius Ting over to them, but I need to deal with the Rajas. I want to get rid of them once and for all. I don't want them haunting our children in the future."

"Woah, cousin, I'm still single. No kids for me." Ace laughed.

"Nothing is written in stone, Ace." Cedric said, shaking his head. "Who knows, you might meet the woman of your dreams."

"Till that day cousin, I'll be single. I'll give you an update later." Ace told Cedric as he dropped the call.

Cedric looked out of his window and smiled.

They were now stuck in one of the capital's notorious traffic jams.

It took them a while to reach R Tower and Cedric was able to rest for a little bit.

The moment people in the building realized that Cedric Reyes was back, many vice presidents quickly flocked to Cedric. He had been gone for too long and they all needed his approval on something.

"Dave, schedule everyone for at least twenty minutes today." Cedric told his assistant as the Vice Presidents stopped in their tracks.

The fact that Cedric Reyes was making time to hear them was more than enough.

"Cedric Reyes, we need to talk." Alexi said from behind Cedric, making him turn pale.

Alexi wasn't alone, with him was Eric Chan who seemed annoyed to be there.

"Let's do this in my office." Cedric said as he looked around and gestured for his friends to get on the elevator.

Alexi didn't need to tell him what this was scene was about, he could already guess.