Never Judge

"Ian." Cedric said as his assistant picked up the phone.

"Urgent?" Ian asked as Cedric could hear him still chewing on his food. 

"I know it's late, I'm sorry." Cedric said with a frown.

"It's fine, there weren't a lot of things going on at Lim Industries so I'm pretty relaxed today." Ian said.

Today was one of the days where Ian was working in his own company, most of the day to day work was run by his sisters and his future brothers-in-law.

"I need you to help Dave and Mae with this, you're the ones with the proper connections and I want to run through our plan again." Cedric said as he drummed his fingers on his desk. 

Cedric was very anxious for things to work perfectly, he knew that something would always go wrong with any plan and there was no such thing as a perfectly executed plan. Despite knowing this he wanted to be as close as possible to perfection with this matter.

"I'll give Dave and Mae a call, we should be there in the next thirty minutes." Ian promised Cedric.

"If Nicole and Tristan want to come along, it's fine." Cedric informed his friend. "Veronica and Dominic are on their way too, but Veronica will just most likely sleep." He said with a laugh.

"I'll tell Nicole, if Veronica is there she'll definitely want to tag along. See you in a bit." Ian said as he dropped the call.

As Cedric ended his conversation he heard a demanding knock at the door, only one person would dare act that way in his house.

"Come in, Ayanna." Cedric called out, knowing that it was his sister that was at the other side of the door.

"How did you know it was me?" Ayanna asked as she entered the room.

"You are the only one that can be so demanding of me even in my own house." Cedric said as he took out his laptop and powered it on. 

"Will you tell me exactly what's going on or will I have to annoy you to tell me?" She asked.

"Didn't Ray tell you?" Cedric asked his sister.

"My husband will tell me what he thinks is safe." She said with a frown. "If he knows there is a chance of me wanting to help he will make things sound simpler, less complicated, and less dangerous."

"He is only looking out for you." Cedric reminded her.

"I'm not a child that needs to be coddled." Ayanna argued back.

"No, you are not, but you are pregnant. You need to be kept safe." Cedric said in as tender a tone as he could muster. He knew he couldn't fight fire with fire when it came to his sister, she would always win if he did.

"I'm three months pregnant, Cedric, three months!" Ayanna shouted. "I can still handle myself and I can help."

Cedric sighed and shook his head, he hoped that Ray had told his sister everything, but he doubted that. 

Ray had the tendency to protect her, forgetting that she was quite capable on her own.

"Julia is in Kashmere but there is a medical emergency. I had Miguel fly there with Ray and Jonathan." Cedric quickly told his sister.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Ayanna asked.

"Your husband advised against it." Cedric told her. "And his reasoning made sense. I need to be here to start our plan, I also realized later on that I need to keep Lucius Ting distracted. If I go to Kashmere while Guan Ming is there, Lucius Ting will want to follow."

"It's a private island owned by Ray, he can't follow." Ayanna pointed out.

"He can't, but it won't stop him from trying to get spies in there and trying to investigate what happened with Guan Ming's mother." Cedric explained to his sister. "If I am here, his attention is divided."

"I want to help." Ayanna told her brother in a stubborn tone.

"I knew you were going to say that." Cedric said with a laugh as he pulled out a tablet from his drawer and handed it to his sister. 

"What's this?" She asked.

"I won't lie, I honestly could use your help." He said with a shrug. "With so many plans running all at the same time there are jobs and tasks that I end up leaving ignored. I know they are important and could eventually be the reason why our plan will fail."

"You want me to make sure everything gets done?" Ayanna asked, surprised that her brother would give her a heavy task.

"That's on top of your work at the Reyes Group." He reminded her. "We can't afford to go lax, if we do Lucius Ting will take advantage of it."

"I thought you would give me a useless task like watching over Yoyo." Ayanna said with a chuckle as she scrolled through the list on the tablet.

"As much as I want to keep you safe and calm, you are my sister and I know you too well." Cedric told her. "I know that if I stop you from helping things will only be much more difficult because in that scenario I don't just have to deal with Lucius Ting, but I will also need to deal with you."

"It's more difficult dealing with me than Lucius Ting." Ayanna pointed out.

Cedric laughed and shook his head, his sister was a challenge, that's for sure.

"This is what I need the most help with." Cedric said as he pointed at an item on the list. 

"The Chans?" Ayanna asked, confused as to what he meant. 

"Don't worry, it's not convincing the Chans." Cedric said as he shook his head. "We need to find out whose child Lucius Ting is."

"I'll probably need to work with Nicole on this." Ayanna said as she continued to look at the tablet. 

"Make sure to get Ian to say yes." Cedric warned. 

"Can't you make him say yes?" Ayanna asked her brother.

"I'll tell him it's light work, don't worry." Cedric said with a nod. "She and Veronica should be here soon with their children."

"Perfect, Yoyo hasn't gone to bed yet, he will be more than happy to see that his friends are coming over again." Ayanna said with a smile. "I'll go get your son and have some food and drinks brought up.." She said as she left the room, leaving Cedric only with his thoughts.