Never Judge

"Auntie Nicole!" Emilio shouted as he ran inside Nicole and Ian's house.

"Woah little man." Ian said as he caught the running boy and threw him in the air.

"Ian, be careful!" Nicole scolded as she came down from the stairs carrying Tristan. 

"Hey Ian, Nicole." Cedric said as he entered the house, holding his wife's hand. 

"Why wasn't I invited to this?" Eric said grumpily as he went in after the couple. "I still own one third of this house."

Ian rolled his eyes at Eric who darted straight for Tristan, taking the little boy out of his mother's arms.

"If you love babies so much just have one yourself." Nicole complained as she watched her older brother coddle his nephew. 

"Convince your friend." Eric said as he looked lovingly at Tristan. "It's your friend that wants to wait. I mean we aren't getting any younger."

"Sounds very much like Katerina." Nicole said with a laugh as she asked a maid to serve their lunch.

"How's the takeover going?" Cedric asked Ian as Emilio squirmed in Ian's arms and ran over to Eric to play with Tristan. 

"I've bought most of the shares, they still don't know that it's me though." Ian said with a shrug. 

In the past year, Ian had managed Saints Hospital for six months then moved on to slowly buy back his family's old companies. Cedric had given whatever support he could, but Ian refused the financial support that he had repeatedly offered. So instead of supporting Ian financially he let Ian use Prince Group as a front before transferring all the share to his name, on top of the Cedric had also let Ian use his multiple connections in order to acquire the shares.

"How long are you planning on keeping things like this?" Cedric asked Ian as they walked over to the dining table.

"Hopefully I can establish the new management team by this year and complete the take over by next year." Ian explained. "I already have some people ready to take over key roles, my sister included."

"I hope they don't notice that a Lim is back in the management team." Cedric said, he was worried that Ian's plan was too aggressive and that it would backfire if Ian's sister took a key role.

"No need to be worried. She will be the last member to join the management team, by the time they realize that she is my sister it will be too late." Ian said with a smile. "How's the investigation going?" Ian asked with a worried look. 

Cedric knew that Ian felt guilty for having to leave Cedric's team at the height of the investigation, when he tried to return after Nicole recovered Cedric rejected his offer. Cedric knew that if Ian returned to work for him he would have a hard time leaving again and he may fail in pursuing his dream of seeing the Lim family back in their rightful place.

"Ace said he made some progress." Cedric explained. "And Damien came over last week, he's slowly figuring out the chain of command between MT Summit and the police."

"It sounds promising." Ian told his friend with a smile.

"I've been worried recently that whoever is behind this will come after Adrianna." Cedric said with a sigh.

"Why?" Ian asked.

"The mistress rumors are back." Cedric said with a frown.

"I thought people dropped the issue?" Ian said with a puzzled look on his face.

"You know how these things are, they die then they come to life again, it's really annoying." Cedric sighed. "I guess it has something to do with the new necklace I got her. She wore it to an event and some jeweler recognized it and knew it's true price, then the rumors spread once more."

"Is that why you increased security?" Eric asked as he listened in on the conversation.

"How did you know?" Cedric thought he had been discrete in the increase of security personnel around Adrianna. 

"I went to Island Inc. recently to sign a partnership deal, I was going to meet with Adrianna and I noticed several guards who seemed too good to be working at Island's Inc." Eric said with a shrug. "I notice things other people don't, I doubt anyone else has noticed what you've done."

"You meddled with my company again?" Adrianna asked her husband. "You know I don't mind, as long as you tell me." She said with a warning look at him.

"I spoke with Uncle Matthew and he said it was a good idea." Cedric said with a shrug.

Adrianna simply rolled her eyes at her husband, she knew that at times it was useless to argue with him, and it wasn't like his actions did any harm. He was just worried.

"Cedric, do you mind if Ayanna, Auntie, and I took Emilio to Nationalia with Tristan next week?" Nicole asked as she passed one of the dishes over.

"If people see him they might suspect." Cedric said as he took the plate over from Nicole.

"It's Nationalia, Cedric. No one there will spread news about him. And your mom will be there, do you think they would dare cross her?" Nicole asked.

"Cedric, I don't see the harm." Adrianna said as she placed a hand on her husband's arm. "Plus Emilio is always cooped up at home. While most kids go to parks with their grandparents, our son stays at home. This will be good for him."

"And I mean, the attention will be on Tristan, since everyone knows who his mom is." Nicole said with a shrug.

"You can send as much security as you want Cedric." Adrianna said. "You can even borrow some of those specialized ones that Alexi uses against the paparazzi. I know how much you want to keep Emilio out of the public eye, but I don't want it stopping him from living a normal life."

"Daddy, I want to go!" Emilio said as he seemed to understand that the adults were talking about him going somewhere with his aunties and Tristan.

Cedric moved Emilio to his lap and smiled at his son. 

"You need to promise me that you will behave." Cedric said as he wore a serious look on his face.

"Yes daddy. Yoyo will be a good boy." Emilio, who struggled to say his own name, promised.

"Do you really want to go out and play with your aunties and Tristan? You won't be able to bring all your toys with you." Cedric said as he tried to convince his son.

"Out! Out!" Emilio said with an adorable determined look on his face.

"Alright. You can go." Cedric said, much to his son's delight.