Never Judge

Cedric had offered to pick Adrianna up again at Island's Inc. today, but she refused his offer. She had been refusing his offer to pick her up everyday for a week and her actions confused Cedric. She seemed mad at him but he couldn't figure out what he did wrong.

"Ian, what do you do when Nicole is mad?" Cedric asked as Ian entered with a stack of documents.

"Whatever she wants." Ian said with a laugh. 

"Really? And that works with Nicole?" Cedric sat up to listen better.

"Of course not." Ian said, rolling his eyes. In public it always seemed Nicole behaved because of him, but in private if he did anything wrong he would have to beg Nicole on bended knees and she still wouldn't easily forgive him. "Shouldn't you be a master of this already? You've been together for so long." 

"Well, she never had reason to be jealous. I was a poor guy. No one liked me that way." Cedric said with a shrug. "Our biggest fight was when I told her I was the Reyes Heir."

"Hey, you're good looking. I would go for you." As Ian said this Camilla walked into the office and looked at both of them awkwardly.

"Should I give the two of you some alone time? Or should I report this to Adrianna?" Camilla teased.

"Don't misunderstand. I wouldn't go for Ian." Cedric said with a laugh. "Plus Nicole would kill me."

"Well before you and Ian do something nasty, some business groups would like you to meet some partners. I said no lunches and no instances where you would have to take off your disguise." Camilla said in a more formal and serious tone.

"What time?" Cedric asked.

"Right now it's penned in for later tonight, after dinner. Just some drinks you could easily avoid that sir." Camilla told Cedric.

"Alright. I'll be there." Cedric said.

"Won't your wife get even more mad sir?" Ian asked, worried that his boss might get into bigger trouble.

"It's work. She'll understand." Cedric said as he took out his phone and sent a message to Adrianna.

Later that night the social event was held at Maharlika Hotel, the guests that the business heads had invited were all CEOs or owners of small companies that worked with the Reyes Group. Traditionally they would have this kind of gathering twice a year, but this year was special, they had a third gathering since Cedric had agreed to meet all of them for casual discussions.

They had been waiting for a while when Cedric arrived in full CEO mode. Ian and Camilla followed behind him and several bodyguards lined up on the side, they made sure that everyone was kept at an arm's length away. Leon stayed in the shadows since he also protected Cedric when he was not the Reyes Heir.

A business head approached and greeted Cedric. Cedric simply nodded as the man guided him through the business partners that they worked with. Some of them were people Cedric knew, including a few people who had bullied him back in university. 

Cedric grinned under his mask when they shook his hand and sung him praises. They were sucking up to someone they pushed down in the past. They would get what they deserved soon, Cedric was just preparing everything for them.

"Mr. Reyes, an honor to meet you." One CEO greeted as Cedric extended his hand to shake. "If I might say sir, your wife is the most beautiful and most incredible woman I have ever met." 

Cedric raised an eyebrow at the man, it seemed he was one of the people that believed that Elaine Moyra was Mrs. Reyes.

"I agree with you, my wife is truly amazing and the most beautiful in my eyes. But how do you know who my wife is?" Cedric asked the CEO.

"Sir, you bought her something so amazing, she wears it all the time." The CEO praised.

"What are you referring to?" Cedric said right before moving on to the next CEO, leaving the last one puzzled.

Down the line of introductions he was faced with a familiar necklace. The wearer was clearly hesitant if she should greet him or not.

"Mr. Reyes, these are the Moyras. We have some business with them." The business head introduced. 

Cedric just nodded and refused to shake their hands.

"Sir, my daughter loves the necklace we purchased from you." Mr. Moyra proudly said, he however said it quietly enough that those nearby could not hear them.

"She has bad taste then." Cedric said coldly. 

"Sir we purchased it from you at quite the high price, how could my daughter not have any taste?" Mr. Moyra was confused, how could he say the necklace was tasteless when he sold it at such an expensive price.

"She doesn't like it, whoever likes it must be tasteless." Cedric said before finally moving on.

As Cedric left he could hear people gossiping.

"Mr. Reyes and Mrs. Reyes are so professional, he is even acting so cold around her." One man whispered to his wife.

"They think we can't see it but she looks so lovingly at him. That's amazing." His wife replied.

"Sir, would you like for me to deal with the gossipers?" Ian asked, he too heard what the couple were saying. 

"No. The only one that needs to learn a lesson is the one pretending to be someone else. I'm not that petty." Cedric told Ian.

"I'm sure your wife would argue differently." Ian said with a grin.

"Grow up Ian." Cedric rolled his eyes at Ian.

The rest of the night went by peacefully with Cedric meeting all the business partners, many of whom had brought a female companion, be it their wife, daughter, or sister. These women in turn mostly gushed about being able to be so close to the Reyes Heir. 

When Cedric and his assistants got into the car, social media was filled with posts from women at the event. 

Some were posting about how handsome the Reyes Heir was, the posts were accompanied by a blurred photo of his front or side profile. There were a few of Cedric speaking to Elaine Moyra, some had the caption 'Does that necklace look familiar?' or others asking if she was really Mrs. Reyes.

"Camilla, make sure my wife has more than enough evidence to take down the pretender." Cedric told his assistant.

"Sir any more evidence and I would be handing her your marriage certificate." Camilla teased. Of course even showing their marriage certificate wouldn't prove anything, no one knew the Reyes Heir's real name.