Never Judge

"Hey Ced." Camilla greeted over  the video call, she was clearly in a much better mood compared to Cedric.

"Good afternoon Camilla, Benedict." Cedric said with a nod as he prepared to discuss Lucius Ting with them.

"He took the bait?" Benedict asked, going straight to the point, not bothering with pleasantries.

"Ignore my brother." Camilla said, rolling her eyes. "He took the night off and went out last night. He clearly had too much fun." She said with a laugh as Benedict smirked next to her.

"I enjoyed myself quite a bit, little sister." Benedict said as he grinned at Camilla. "I had two gorgeous women -"

"Ugh, gross." Camilla said, cutting her brother off, making the others on the call laugh.

Cedric had decided that he didn't want any of his team out of the loop, so today all of his assistants were joining them as well. They had made sure to inform everyone in the company not to bother them for at least an hour.

"Honestly, this is a much needed break." Dave said with a sigh, making Ian and Camilla laugh.

"What?" Dave asked as he noticed the older assistant's reaction.

  "You should have been around when news first broke out about the Reyes Heir's return." Ian said with a laugh as Camilla nodded on the screen.

"Everyone wanted to know who he was, they kept nagging and inviting us to lunch." Camilla said, rolling her eyes. "That's why we don't really hangout with other people either. It was clear they all had ulterior motives."

"It's much calmer now." Ian said, making Cedric laugh.

"Okay guys, enough comparing the past and the present, we need to focus on Lucius Ting." Cedric said as he tried to get all of them back on track with their discussion.

"Where do we start?" Camilla asked.

"I'll catch you and Benedict up with what happened on our end, then Dave and Mae can give an update on the investigation, then you guys tell us what your latest interaction with him has been about." Cedric said as he leaned back on the couch.

Everyone simply nodded, agreeing to his proposal.

"Almost everything went according to plan yesterday night." Cedric began. "As we expected he would retaliate and most of his competitors have signed up to work with Mor Co." 

"Will you work with all of them?" Camilla asked Cedric.

"I've asked Dave to look through all of the proposals and filter them to see which show the most potential." Cedric explained as he looked at the frowning assistant. Dave had thought Cedric would go through the list himself, but he chose to delegate it to Dave first.

"Dave will send those proposals to you tonight." Cedric said as he nodded to Dave. "You have finished looking through them, righ?" Cedric asked his assistant.

"Most of them." Dave said with a frown. 

"Dave, you should know that time is of the essence with this matter." Cedric scolded.

"Relax, Cedric." Camilla told her boss. "I still have some Mor Co. work to deal with today, the earliest I could even look at those documents is tomorrow evening. So Dave has time."

Cedric sighed and nodded, he didn't appreciate it when his assistants ganged up on him, but he knew that they always had his best interest at heart. They knew how to calm his temper and to get him back on track, they were crucial members of his team.

"Moving on, I'm sure you all saw how Lucius was triggered by my presence there, he chose to leverage the knowledge of the rift between me and Camilla. What took me by shock were his accusations of me not truly earning my place." Cedric explained with a frown.

As much as he hated to admit it, those accusations had hurt him. He didn't let anyone spot that he was bothered by what Lucius said, they all knew, after all, that Cedric had built Constellations Resorts through the Prince Group with his own money and without any connections. 

"We could release that statement, Cedric." Ian said as he reminded his friend and former boss about Prince Group. 

"No, if we do that it will come out as desperate." Cedric said, shaking his head. "I will not apologize for the circumstances of my birth. I love my family and I would not have wanted to be born to any other family. Rich or not, I am thankful to them."

"So we will push through with that version of the statement?" Mae asked Cedric, to which he simply nodded.

"We will open up to the public about Prince Group when the time is right." Cedric explained. "I don't want that company to be another asset that I use to protect my name. The businesses under Prince Group are supposed to be passion projects for us, I won't let it be tainted that way."

The assistants nodded in understanding, it was one of Cedric's non-negotiables, he wouldn't budge on the matter, even if it would benefit his and the other's image to the public.

"With Adrianna's pregnancy he will target her, so I want security around my wife heightened. I will not risk her safety for some petty feud." Cedric instructed his assistants.

"I'll inform Leon." Dave told Cedric as he noted down Cedric's instructions.

"Camilla, Benedict, this is something that will be a little more troublesome for you. The Chan family is planning on welcoming Lucius Ting back." Cedric revealed, shocking the siblings over the call. 

"Don't they realize how bad that is for them?" Benedict asked, shaking his head. "Aren't the Chans supposed to be a family of super geniuses or something?"

"The old man is blinded by his desire to make it up to his dead son." Cedric said with a frown. "Lucius shouldn't be able to do much with the Chan family since control of the family always belongs to the person with the most influence on the Saints Hospital board, but we never know what Lucius has planned." 

"We'll see if he has anything to tell us when we meet up next time." Camilla said with a nod. "I think he trusts us now."

"I want us to leverage on whatever confidence he will be earning from this." Cedric said in a serious tone. "The more confident he is, the more likely he will be to slip up."

"We'll make sure to keep it that way." Benedict said, nodding at Cedric through the screen.

"What if he does manage to convince the Chan family to change the family head to him? What will happen then?" Dave asked as he looked at Cedric and Ian.

"There will only be one way to avoid that situation." Ian said with a frown. "It isn't exactly an easy option."

"Eric will need to come back and claim his position as the head of the family." Cedric informed assistants.

"How will that force them not to give the family over to Lucius?" Benedict asked.

"The Chan family is steeped in tradition, some of them are written down as family laws as conditions for inheritances. Their ancestors did that to protect their wealth." Ian explained. 

"One such 'law'" Cedric explained as he did air quotes. "Was that if the proper heir came back to claim his birthright, no one can contest." 

"So if Eric claims the position as family head, there is nothing anyone would dare to do against him." Ian said with a shrug.

"It's what they wanted from the beginning anyway." Cedric said, shaking his head. "What updates do you have for us?" Cedric asked Mae and Dave, as he shifted the topic, not wanting to explain the complexities of the Chan family any further.

"Oh, we found the nurse." Mae suddenly said, shocking everyone else.