Never Judge

Chapter 17 – 17

The next day Cedric woke up with a smile on his face. He had wanted to spend the night on his old bed in the Reyes house but his mind kept thinking of his wife Adrianna, alone in bed. 

Despite an exhausting night he still got up early and prepared breakfast. Oddly enough that morning Gracia was silent, although she kept sending nasty looks towards Cedric's way. 

When Adrianna came down, she told Cedric that she would be going shopping with some friends in the afternoon so there was no need for him to pick her up. Cedric simply nodded, he was expecting to work long nights for the next few weeks, since he was planning on having Mor Co.'s relaunch soon.

At the office Cedric arrived with a tray of coffees. He had decided to give it to Ian and Camilla as a treat for their hard work. 

As he walked in the building he accidentally bumped into someone, spilling the coffee both on him and on the person.

"You idiot!" He heard a familiar voice say. The person who he bumped into was Chris Garin, a logistics manager who he went to highschool with.

"I'm sorry Chris, it was an accident." Cedric said, apologizing to Chris.

"Do you know how much this shirt is worth?" Chris was furious at the stain on his shirt.

"What if I just replaced it?" Cedric offered.

"Can you even afford it? Or will you ask your wife for money? What kind of a man relies on his wife for money?" In Chris' mind Cedric was still just an assistant who had little money and relied on his wife to get by.

"I really can. I'll give it to you by the end of the day." Cedric insisted, a shirt like what Chris was wearing was like loose change to Cedric.

"Fine." Chris said and turned away.

Cedric went back to get new coffees for his assistants. When he got to their floor he gave them the coffee and to his surprise Ayanna was talking to Camilla and Ian.

"Brother." Ayanna greeted him with a smile.

"Ayanna. Hold on a moment." He turned to Ian and Camilla and gave them each a cup of coffee. "This is to thank you guys for the past few days."

In Cedric's office Ayanna made herself comfortable on the couch.

"Shouldn't you be on a plane by now?" Cedric asked as he took his seat.

"I asked dad to push my flight back to tomorrow." Ayanna said, playing with her phone. "You know if you wanted to treat Ian and Camilla, you could have just given them money. They would appreciate that more."

"Sister, sometimes it's the small things that count." Cedric said.

"You aren't poor anymore brother." Ayanna answered back, rolling her eyes. "But I do admit you might be right."

"So why are you here?" Cedric said as he looked through the files on his desk.

"Well I was gonna ask you if you wanted to go shopping with me and the others?" Ayanna asked.

"By others, you mean the girls?" Cedric asked without lifting his head.

"Well, Ram is going with Veronica, and the Sebastian siblings are all going. Honestly it's just you that's going to be left behind." Ayana told Cedric.

"If people see me with you guys they will speculate. So I'll pass this time, maybe next time, alright?" 

"Alright. Do you need us to get you anything?" Ayanna asked before leaving.

"Maybe some clothes that I can leave here in the office? You have much better taste than me." 

Ayanna held out her hand in front of Cedric who looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Your card." She said.

"Don't tell me you lack money." Cedric replied.

"I don't, but you have much more. Also, I plan to put my shopping on your tab. You owe me 13 years worth of shopping." Ayanna told her brother.

"Fine." Cedric gave Ayanna the card that held Mor Co.'s earnings.

"Thanks bro!" Ayanna giggled and left the room.

Cedric then asked Ian to go out and buy the shirt he had promised Chris, it was after all partially his fault. 

Later that day, Cedric went down to the logistics department to look for Chris. Ian accompanied him since he had to bring some documents to the Logistics Director as well.

"Here." Cedric handed Chris the shirt.

"Do you think I'm a fool like you Cedric? This is obviously a fake." Chris said loudly. Many people were at the Logistics Department at that time, so naturally many people heard Chris accusing Cedric of passing off a fake.

Ian wanted to laugh at Chris, his boss was the owner of the company, why would he even need to buy a fake. On top of that, Ian had personally gone to the store to buy this shirt.

"Do you need the receipt as proof?" Cedric asked.

"Sure, show it to me." Chris dared him.

Cedric fished out a receipt from his pocket and gave it to Chris.

"Ha! You poor guy! You even asked assistant Ian to buy this shirt for you. How desperate are you?" Since Ian had gone to the store and used his company issued card to purchase the shirt, Ian's name was naturally reflected on the receipt. 

"I had to go to the mall today so I offered to buy it while I was there. Cedric paid for it." Ian said, in defense of his boss.

"Really Cedric, using your new co-workers to defend you?" Chris questioned Cedric.

"What is going on out here?" The director of the logistics department suddenly came out of his office. He noticed that there was a commotion outside. 

Today was a peak day for the department and he couldn't suffer any more delays. On top of that, the President's assistant was going to visit him today. If the President heard his people were slacking off at such an important time he could expect to be scolded.

"Director! Here are the documents." Ian suddenly greeted him.

"Assistant Ian, you're here. What's this mess going on out here?" the director asked.

"Director, one of your employees is trying to bully my teammate, assistant Cedric." Ian told the director.

"Assistant Cedric?" The director paused for a bit before realizing that the person one of his managers was bullying was actually the president.

"Who is it?" He said, quite furious at the fact that someone chose to offend someone that powerful.

"A manager named Chris? He's been at it since this morning when the president spilled coffee on him." Ian whispered to the director. The director soon paled at the thought. 

"Manager Chris!" The director shouted.

All eyes were suddenly on the director.

"Come to my office now." He said with a dark expression.

Chris was forced to drop the matter with Cedric. The logistics director was so mad at Chris that he demoted him. Chris assumed that it was because he was causing a fight in front of assistant Ian and that the director didn't want the news to reach the president. 

The rumor in the company was that to get into the president's good graces you needed to go through assistant Ian and assistant Camilla. Cedric being a new guy on the president's team was often ignored by these rumors.

That afternoon at Marques Mall,  Adrianna was shopping with her friends. Adrianna had known Natasha, Sofia, and Julia since their high school days. They had all gone to the same private school and the same university after, despite being rich and spoiled they never looked down at Adrianna for marrying Cedric. They did, however, feel disappointed at how Cedric turned out in the end.

As they entered an expensive watch shop they were surprised to see Lorisa, her husband Anton, and her best friend Mary.

"Ugh, babe can we hurry up. I think someone just brought the trash into this shop." Lorisa told Anton. 

Anton saw that Adrianna and her friends had entered, he knew from his wife's stories that this woman had married a man that depended on her.

"Can you even afford to buy anything here Adrianna?" Mary suddenly asked.

"Hey! Don't talk to Adrianna like that." Julia said in defense of Adrianna.

"Aren't you tired of working to provide for both your parents and your husband?" Lorisa mocked.

"Look Lorisa, we are only here to look. You don't need to attack us for it. It's not like you own the place." Adrianna said, calmly.

"You guys are too poor to be in here." Mary said.

"Hi miss, how can I help you?" A shopping assistant said as she approached the group.

"We aren't together." Lorisa said in a disgusted tone. "You don't even need to attend to them, they can't afford anything here." 

Adrianna had initially planned on buying a watch for Cedric with the 500 million his parents had given her. Hearing Lorisa's comments, the shopping assistant proceeded to ignore Adrianna and her friends.

"Adrianna, how about this one! It looks really simple but it's quite elegant." Natasha said looking at a watch in the display case.

"Miss this watch is very popular to business executives, it costs around 150,000 each." another shopping assistant said.

"How about couples' watches Adrianna?" Sofia said, looking at another display.

"Miss, I really suggest you ignore them. The girl they are trying to convince can't afford anything in this store." Lorisa commented.

The shopping assistant couldn't help herself and she had to ask Adrianna.

"Miss, are you planning to buy anything? Can you afford any of our products?" 

"Of course she can. I'm sure she plans on buying the most expensive watch here." A group suddenly entered the shop.

Ayanna had been planning on buying a watch for her brother in the shop right next to where Adrianna and Lorisa were, the watches in that shop were much more expensive. But when she saw Adrianna, she decided to lead the group in. Unfortunately for Lorisa and the shop assistant, Ayanna had heard them talking down to her sister in law.

Lorisa's jaw fell to the floor. She was shocked that the 4 princes and their sisters were in the same shop as them.

"Ah we meet again Mrs. Reyes." Raymund commented from behind.

"Do you know these people?" Natasha asked Adrianna. 

"I just know Mr. Laurence here is acquainted with my husband, I don't know the others." Adrianna whispered back.

Unlike Adrianna, Natasha was updated with the latest upper class news, she knew that the true crème de la crème of society were standing in the same shop as them.

"Sirs, Misses, you know this woman?" Anton asked. He had once met with Alexander to discuss a business deal so he was familiar with who they were. 

"And you are?" Alexander asked, looking at Anton with disgust.

"Mr. Sebastian we met before regarding a business deal." Anton explained.

"I meet a lot of people." Alexander answered quite flatly.

"What's your most expensive watch here?" Ayanna asked the store assistant.

"Miss, it's this one." The assistant said pointing to a pair of watches at the center of the display.

"Do you have ten of these?" Ayanna asked.

"Yes miss. Only 13 sets were released in the country." The assistant answered.

"Good get me 13. Pack the two for this young lady and I'll have the other 12." Ayanna ordered.

Lorisa and her companions were floored at Ayanna's request. 

Soon the manager came out to assist in preparing the 13 watches. Ayanna simply handed her card without even asking how much it was.

Soon her phone started to buzz, it was Cedric.

"What did you buy?" Cedric said with a flat tone.

"I was saving a friend in distress, brother. I think you'll be quite proud of what I did." Ayanna had forgotten that after she made a purchase with Cedric's card he would immediately receive a text message notifying him of the purchase.

Meanwhile, everyone else was shocked when Ayanna said that Adrianna was her friend.

"Why are you being so mysterious?" Cedric asked. Ayanna was normally very straightforward with him.

"I'll talk to you later brother. Don't forget to send me off at the airport tonight! See ya!" Ayanna dropped the call without waiting for Cedric's reply.

"Who is the manager here?" Ayanna asked.

The man who had come out to process her payment stepped forward.

"I'd like you to ban these 3 from all your stores worldwide. They upset me. I'm sure the sight of them would upset my brother too." Everyone was shocked at Ayanna's declaration.

"Your brother would definitely approve." Nicole said from behind.

"Yes miss." The manager complied, and sent Lorisa and her companions out.

"Here you go, miss." The manager said as he handed Adrianna the two watches.

"Miss, I can't accept this." Adrianna refused Ayanna's gift.

"Miss Adrianna, you don't need to worry. My brother has so much money that to him spending this much is like buying coffee. Please take it. I would be very offended if you didn't." Ayanna told her.

Natasha urged Adrianna to take the gift as it would be rude to refuse the offer. In the end no matter how hesitant Adrianna was she had to accept the gift.

"I don't even know your names." Adrianna told the group.

"Well I'm Ayanna Reyes. Nice to meet you." Ayanna said, extending her hand to shake Adrianna's.