Never Judge

Katerina was surprised when Cedric had insisted  that they work at R Tower today. She expected him to go all over protective older brother on her the same way he had done with Ayanna when he found out she was pregnant.

"So why the office today?" Katerina asked Cedric as she looked out of the window as they drove from Cedric's Mountain View Mansion to R Tower.

Cedric smiled and gave her a light chuckle.

"Because I've been holed up in my mansion for too long." Cedric told her. "Were you worried I'd lock you up there and not let you work? I'm not your brother or fiance."

"We both know you are practically my brother at this point." Katerina said with a grin as Cedric's car pulled up to the entrance of R Tower.

"I never locked anyone up at home, Ayanna wasn't allowed to go to the office because of the attacks and even then it was Ray that stopped her from working." Cedric explained. "And Adrianna goes to the office if there are no security threats, though that would need to change soon."

Before Katerina could even reply to Cedric's words he opened the door and stepped out of the car.

All she could do was shake her head and follow suit.

As they made their way through the lobby the employees cleared a path for Cedric so that he could pass. He would occasionally smile at them and greet them good morning making their faces light up in excitement.

Katerina did her best not to laugh as several women practically screamed when Cedric greeted them.

After going through the large and elegant lobby of R Tower, they eventually found themselves in the CEOs elevator with two bodyguards.

"Are you going to tell me why we need to work and what you need my help with?" Katerina asked, slightly annoyed by all the secrecy.

"I can't tell you yet, you just have to trust me." Cedric said getting Katerina more and more frustrated.

Having noticed that Katerina was not happy Cedric smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's confidential, I don't like talking about it in public." Cedric told her as he pointed at the elevator cameras.

Of course, even if Cedric owned the building he wasn't naive to think that their enemies would not tap their security footage or that they wouldn't try to bribe the employees for information.

Those were tactics he had used in the past and tactics used against him as well. He had no plans of repeating the same mistakes.

"Mr. Reyes." Mae greeted as soon as the elevator doors opened.

"Did my sister come in today?" Cedric immediately asked as he glanced at Katerina.

"Yes, Miss Ayanna is in her office right now, do you want me to call for her?" Mae said as they walked down the posh hallways of the CEO's floor.

"Yes please, thanks Mae. Are Dave and Mien here in R Tower today as well?" Cedric asked, he knew that the two men could either be working with Ian or at Mor Co. working with Camilla.

"They are at their desks sir, I had to ask them to come in to help me." Mae admitted.

"Alright, that mission is a top priority. Please fetch my sister." Cedric told Mae who quickly went the other direction towards Ayanna's office.

"See, I'm not stopping my sister from working, there were just too many threats that's why I wouldn't allow her to go to the office." Cedric said with a grin as he pushed open the door to his office and gestured for Katerina to enter before him.

As soon as they were settled inside, Dave entered with drinks for them followed by Ayanna and Mae who were both happily chatting about shopping.

"Call Mien and close the door behind you." Cedric said in a serious tone catching everyone in the room off guard.

He had been quite happy right before that moment, even Mae who knew why her boss was so serious was surprised with the sudden shift.

Nonetheless she called her brother and they closed the door as soon as he had joined them.

"Let me get you all up to date with what is happening." Cedric said as he took a deep breath. "I'll tell the others about this later on, but we need to do something now or it will cause bigger problems in the future."

Cedric knew that Ayanna and Katerina would be concerned that the others were not around, that's why Cedric felt that he needed to add the last part.

"When the Rajas attacked, one of the places that was severely damaged was the Mor Co factory." Cedric explained. "Many employees were injured and we have been working on providing them with the proper compensation."

The others nodded as they listened to his words. Only Cedric had a complete view of the whole picture at the moment, so he needed to explain things.

"The Rajas had a goal to hit us anywhere that they could do damage, this much I learned from our prisoners. Now, most of the employees have been found and compensated. We gave them more than what was needed, but one of them is missing." Cedric heard Katerina gasp at the news. It seemed that what she was worried about had happened.

"Relax." Cedric said as he read the reaction of the two women in the room. "Both of you cannot be too stressed in your condition."

"CEDRIC REYES! What the fuck did you just say?" Katerina asked angrily as she glared at Cedric making Ayanna laugh.

"Congratulations Katerina, I won't tell anyone, I promise." She told her friend with a grin.

"As I was saying, you both don't need to worry, I already have our people searching for them. But in the event that they execute their plans before we can get to those employees, we need to be prepared for what legal cases they may throw our way." As Cedric said this he glanced at Katerina and Mien.

"Does this mean I get to work with Miss Sebastian?!" Mien asked a little too excitedly, making Cedric laugh at how silly he was acting.

​ "Yes, and don't let her get stressed, is that clear?" Cedric asked Mien who simply nodded.

"Cedric!" Katerina complained, but Cedric simply ignored her as they began planning their next steps.