Never Judge

"Spain? For a week?" Adrianna asked as she rocked their son to sleep. She looked down at the little boy, Cedric knew that his wife couldn't bear leaving their son at home for so long.

 "Adri, I know it'll be hard leaving Emilio, but our parents are here, Ayanna and Ray are also here. He will be cared for." Cedric said as he touched his little son's face. He would miss his son too, but what he was doing was for his son's own future. 

"Alright, I guess I could shift some work over to Uncle Matthew and Henry. Margarette is also doing better so Uncle Matthew doesn't need to keep her company as much anymore." Adrianna said, agreeing to Cedric's request. "When do we leave?" Adiranna asked.

"Monday." Cedric said confidently.

"Monday!? That's two days away!" Adrianna said in a loud voice waking her son up.

"I'll take care of him." Cedric said as he picked his son up in his arms. 

"I need to start doing preparations, why did you only tell me now?" Adrianna asked as she picked up her phone.

"Well I only got confirmation this afternoon and I couldn't tell you over the phone." Cedric feebly tried to explain. 

Adrianna rolled her eyes as she began arranging for a meeting the next day. 

The two days passed by swiftly as Cedric and Adrianna made sure that they didn't leave any work behind. Cedric might have been traveling for the sake of the Reyes Group, but there were still some matters at home that needed to be settled before he left.

Cedric and Adrianna hailed a cab to get to the airport, Cedric decided that driving there would cause too much of a commotion and raise too many questions. 

"Is it odd that I miss taking a cab?" Adrianna said with a laugh as she leaned on her husband.

"I think you just miss the simpler days." Cedric said with a smile. 

"I guess they were simpler, back then our only problem was that my family hated you." Adrianna said with a laugh. "Did I ever tell you about my plan?" 

"Which plan?" Cedric asked.

"If my family continued to treat you badly I was going to ask you to leave the country with me." Adrianna explained as she looked up at Cedric's smiling face. 

"I wouldn't have agreed." Cedric said with a grin. "My parents and my sister are here." He teased.

"Well your mom had totally hijacked mine. I rarely see our parents." Adrianna said with a sigh. Ever since they moved to Mountain View, Priscilla Reyes had dragged Gracia Hernandez all over the country and all over the world. From someone who was furious at Gracia for the treatment she gave her son, the two mothers became best friends. 

"Mom was so mad at first, she wanted to ruin the whole Hernandez clan." Cedric said with a laugh as he recounded his mother's anger one time when he spent Christmas at home.

"Who knew that I managed to snag the most desirable bachelor years ago?" Adrianna said with a laugh as she planted a kiss on Cedric's lips. "Cedric, whether you are rich or poor I will always love you. I never loved you for your money, I always loved you for you."

Cedric placed a hand on her cheek and smiled back. "I love you too." 

It took Cedric and Adrianna almost a whole 24 hours to get to Madrid from the Capital. When they arrived they took a cab to one of the Reyes Group's offices where Dave was waiting for them. He had flown in two days ahead in order to arrange for everything. 

"Cousin!" A young man in a black suit greeted Cedric with a hug as they arrived at the Reyes Group's parking area. 

"Ace!" Cedric happily greeted. "Meet my wife, Adrianna." Cedric said with a smile as he wrapped an arm around Adrianna's waist pulling her closer to him. 

"A pleasure to meet you Mrs. Reyes. I'm Ace Reyes, Cedric's second cousin, we grew up together back in the Capital, when mama and papa decided to take a more active role in the family business we moved to Europe." Ace explained to Adrianna.

"Ace is in charge of all the European offices. He's quite the rising star in business." Cedric said proudly. 

"Of course my cousins are still my bosses." Ace teased. "I report to Marie on everything since she runs all of the international affairs, and of course Cedric just runs everything." 

"Don't sell yourself short Ace, I'm sure you do quite well." Adrianna said with a smile.

"I trust my cousin, so if he trusts me, then I trust myself." Ace said happily. "I still have a few meetings, Mama and Papa said we will have dinner with you tonight." Ace said with a nod as he left.

"Your family is too peaceful." Adrianna told her husband as they got into the car. 

"I have too many external problems to deal with internal ones." Cedric said with a laugh as he closed the car door behind him. "But in all honesty, poverty training helps a lot. We all know that whoever inherits leadership of the family truly deserves it. On top of that everyone is aware of the dangers being the family head carries with it."

"Dangers?" Adrianna asked.

"Dad wouldn't insist on so much security if we didn't have enemies." Cedric said with a shrug. "Being low profile helps a lot, but it still has its own pitfalls. Don't worry about the dangers part, we've got it covered, try to get some sleep." Cedric said as he pulled his wife to lean on him.

The Reyes Family owned a mansion nearby, Cedric had offered for Miguel, Veronica, Katerina, and Eric to stay there as well since it was quite big and despite already housing some Reyes Family relatives there were still too many rooms.

The last time Cedric had been to the Reyes home in Madrid was when he was twelve years old. They had all flown over for Ace's birthday, traditionally for important occasions the family flew over to the Capital since that was where the family head lived, but on a few rare occasions they did fly out to meet their relatives across the globe. 

As the car drove into the compound Cedric couldn't help but look up in awe, the mansion was still as elegant as it had looked when he was a child. Cedric noticed that Adrianna was too tired from their trip, so he decided to carry her up. 

The servants were ready to greet them on their arrival, but when they saw their mistress fast asleep they simply bowed to welcome them. 

Inside Cedric was greeted by a couple he had not seen in a long time, Ace's parents. Despite his annual reunion with the family, Ace's parents had not gone home for at least five years due to issues in some European branches. 

"I'll place her in our room first." Cedric told the elder couple as he walked up the stairs and into the master bedroom. 

By tradition the master suite was always reserved for the head of the Reyes Family, with Emilio Reyes stepping down from his post, Cedric took over the role, together with all the benefits and all the pressure that came with the title.

"Mmmm…" Adrianna slightly stirred as Cedric placed the blanket on her.

"We're home honey, get some sleep. I'll wake you for dinner." Cedric said gently as he turned off the lights and headed down.