Never Judge

The day went on smoothly for Cedric, it was a good thing that he had decided to move around his schedule himself, because he was able to find some areas of work that he could unload from his assistants to himself.

He didn't like the idea of overworking them, he knew it was a tough job, but he wanted to change things for the better.

As his day came to an end Macro and the other assistants joined him in his office to give Cedric an update.

"I'm surprised you're still standing, old man." Ian teased Marco, shocking Dave and Mae.

"What?"  Ian asked as he gave them a confused look.

"We thought Marco So was all business and that even you would be scared of him." Mae said as she chose not to look at Ian or Marco.

"This young man apparently needs to be taught another lesson." Marco scoffed as he rolled his eyes at Ian.

"Oh please, you just miss seeing Ian and Camilla work with you." Cedric pointed out as he exposed Marco's tough guy act. "We both know you treat both of them as if they were your younger siblings."

Ian laughed as Marco's face dropped.

"Fine, I missed you and that other kid." Marco told Ian as he gave in, revealing his soft spot for the two former assistants.

"Too bad she can't be around us too much." Ian said with a frown.

"Do you guys have an update? And please take a seat, it's annoying me that all four of you are standing." Cedric said as he cut the banter short.

As much as he enjoyed the relaxed interaction between Marco and Ian, he wanted to give them all as much time to rest and spend with their families.

"We've given security details to all the families that Lucius could suspect his son was adopted to." Mae told Cedric. "As of earlier today there doesn't seem to be any odd behavior coming from Lucius Ting. He still waits around the school from a distance."

"He is good at hiding his emotions, if he is affected, only Camilla can tell us." Cedric said as he nodded at Mae.

"I hope Camilla is safe." Ian said with a frown as he thought of his friend.

"I told her to leave, but you know how stubborn she is, even Guan Ming couldn't get her to change her mind." Cedric said with a sigh.

"She's a smart girl, she'll be able to get out of any tight spot she gets caught in." Marco said as he tried to calm Ian's worry.

"Well she shouldn't be in that position in the first place if she wasn't so stubborn." Cedric said with a sigh as he shook his head. "Any update on Wu Jun and his company? I'm surprised they haven't bothered us."

"We're keeping them busy." Ian said with a shrug. "It seems like they are delaying too. It's quite obvious that they are working with Lucius Ting at this point."

"Luckily for us we don't need to do much since they are doing all of the stalling." Dave said as he shook his head. "Wu Jun is so determined to take Lucius Ting away from Guan Ming that he isn't paying attention to us anymore."

"They must also think we are idiots for falling for all of their delaying tactics." Cedric said with a sigh. 

"Wu Jun and his people have this superiority complex where they think they are better than us when they clearly are not. It's the perfect scenario for us." Ian added.

"Any update from Mien and the girls?" Cedric asked Dave who was in charge of checking in on them.

"None yet, but from what I last heard they got some information from grandpa Chan." Dave informed Cedric.

"Aren't they back yet?" Cedric asked as he began to worry.

"Not yet." It was Ian that answered Cedric since he was in constant contact with Nicole. "They aren't back, but they should be in the next thirty minutes. They just left the old Chan residence."

"They took a while there." Cedric said as he began to let go of his worry.

"Nicole didn't tell me what exactly happened but she said they ran into someone important to the investigation, I didn't want to question her." Ian said with a shrug.

"It's quite interesting to see how helpless the great Ian Lim becomes when it comes to Nicole." Marco said with a chuckle. "You were never this, well, under."

"You should go look at a mirror Marco, you've got it worse." Ian teased back. 

Everyone laughed at Marco's expense, they all knew too well how in love he was with Cedric's cousin, Marie.

"If there is nothing else, you can all go home." Cedric said as he moved to dismiss his people.

"You don't want us to stay till Mien and the girls get back?" Marco asked.

"Well, I'm sure Mae and Dave will stay behind to wait for Mien, and Ian doesn't exactly have a choice since his son refuses to leave till Nicole gets back." Cedric pointed out.

"I'll wait too then." Marco said as he made himself comfortable on the couch.

"Did you and Marie have a fight or something?" Cedric asked.

"No." Marco said as he denied Cedric's suspicions.

"Could it be about dad asking you and Marie to move into the old mansion with all the elders and him?" Cedric asked as he laughed at his father's former assistant.

"No." Maroc denied again.

"Oh, you don't want to move in, do you?" Cedric asked with a laugh.

"It's the opposite, I want Marie to move, it's safer." Marco said, catching Cedric off guard. Often it was the guys that didn't want to move in with the woman's family.

Just as Cedric was about to say something in response his phone began to ring.

"Miguel?" Cedric asked as he picked up the call.

"Cedric, the results came back, Julia was poisoned.." Miguel announced, shocking Cedric.