Never Judge

"Miguel." Cedric greeted as his friend picked up the call.

"Cedric, I knew you would call early." Miguel said in an amused tone. "You're waiting for an update, sadly I can't give you one." He said in a sad tone.

"It's fine, how is she?" Cedric asked.

"If she wasn't in this hospital I would be worried, but at the moment she's fine." Miguel said with a grim tone.

"That bad?" Cedric asked.

"It's more of I don't know what's wrong with her." Miguel said to Cedric. 

"Thank you for doing this, Miguel." Cedric said with a smile as he continued to eat his breakfast.

"She's Dominic's mom." Miguel told Cedric. "Even if she gave him up he brought my son into the world and I can never repay her for that."

"The little boy was actually worried you had abandoned him last night." Cedric said with a frown as he recalled how worried Dominic had been.

"What?" Veronica asked as she was eavesdropping on Cedric's and Miguel's conversation.

"Why is she up already?" Miguel asked over the phone as he heard his wife's voice. "She never gets up this early. Cedric, what have you let her do?"

"Well. . ." Cedric didn't know what to tell his friend. He knew that one of them would be furious if he said anything.

"Cedric Reyes, don't you dare." Veronica threatened.

"He'll find out either way and he can't do anything about it if he is on Kashmere." Cedric reasoned.

"Cedric, what the hell are you talking about with my wife about?" Miguel demanded to know. 

"She and Nicole are helping Ayanna with work." Cedric quickly said. "Ayanna will also be accompanying them to visit your grandfather later. He asked for Nicole to visit."

"Oh, alright. Tell her not to overwork herself." Miguel said in a genuinely concerned tone.

"I'll pass on the message, bye." Cedric quickly dropped the call, not waiting for his friend to respond.

"So you took our side." Veronica said with a victorious grin.

"I'm so dead when they get back." Cedric told her as he shook his head in defeat.

"You'll be fine, don't worry." Veronica said. "Miguel can't be mad at you for too long, you gave us our son."

Cedric gave a weak smile as he shook his head and continued to eat. 

When they were done with their breakfast, the girls left so that Ayanna could get work done so they could meet up with Grandpa Chan.

Cedric quickly finished his breakfast and made his way to his office where Ian had asked a maid to bring down the documents and tasks he needed. 

He went through the schedule first before realizing that he actually had a full day of meetings and that the first one was set to start at 8am.

Glancing at the clock in his office he had about an hour to get everything thing ready and to inform the participants of his meeting.

It was one with all of the VPs of the Reyes Group so it was one he couldn't just cancel.

He quickly called a maid to his office and asked her to set up the rarely used conference room as well as to prepare beverages for his guests.

Cedric suddenly realized that his security team also needed to be informed about the change in his plans, so he quickly called his bodyguard to come over to his home office.

Luckily, Leon had stayed the night at Mountain View because the assists had informed him about Cedric's accelerated plans.

When the bodyguard came into Cedric's office, he looked up and smiled at the familiar face.

"Leon." Cedric greeted.

"Sir." Leon said with a nod as he made his way to the side of Cedric's table.

"I'll be working from here today, but those high level employees that I will be meeting with need to be allowed entry into Mountain View." Cedric informed his bodyguard and head of security.

"Very well, sir." Leon said with a nod, there was already a protocol for an event like this so there wasn't much for him to do. "Which assistant should I ask for a list from?" He asked.

"None of them." Cedric told his bodyguard. "Here is the list, the three have most of the day off, I need them to focus on the Lucius Ting matter. I'll be handling most of my meetings and paperworks for the day."

"Is that wise?" Leon asked Cedric.

"We both know that I've done this work before, it's not like it's the first time I'm handling an assistant's job." Cedric told his bodyguard. "And I'll be calling Marco for help."

Leon wordlessly nodded as he took a look at the list and left Cedric's office.

Cedric quickly informed all of those he would be meeting with for the day that their meeting will be at his home and that his security team had already been informed.

By the time he was done with most of the administrative work it was already 7:30am and he still had to look through the documents for the day.

He sighed at the amount of work he needed to do, but decided to call Marco for help first.

He knew that his father's old assistant was busy enjoying his life with Cedric's cousin Marie, but he needed to disturb him today.

He quickly called Marco, who answered within two rings.

"Mr. Reyes." Marco greeted in a respectful tone.

"Marco, we both know that you are practically my cousin in law, what's with all the formality?" Cedric asked.

"Just in case you changed, Ced." Marco teased him. "What can I do for you?"

"Marco, I need you to come back for a bit, we need your help." Cedric said with a frown. "I don't want to disturb your blissful-"

"Yes, let me get my car and drive to the office, your cousin has been driving me crazy!" Marco complained.

"I'm at Mountain View, I'm working from here for the next few days." Cedric informed Marco.

"Marco So what the hell did you just tell my cousin!" Cedric heard Marie shout in the background making him laugh.

"Let's talk more when I get there, right now I just need to escape Marie.." Marco told him as he dropped the call, making Cedric laugh more than it should have.