Never Judge

Everyone was shocked when Jason suddenly slapped his wife, those that had not been paying attention to them suddenly turned to see what the commotion was about.

"Why aren't the Chans doing anything?" A guest asked his companion.

"Shhh." The female companion hushed as she craned her neck to see what was going on. "It seems like that couple might have offended someone in their group." The woman said as she pointed at Cedric's table.

The guests couldn't deny that they were quite shocked to see that Cedric and his group of young and powerful men and women were sitting calmly as they watched the drama unfold.

"Who is he?" Jason asked loudly as he glared down at his wife.

"Tsk tsk tsk, are you sure you want to be doing this Jason?" Ram asked as he looked at the man. "It's not just your family name on the line, if I'm not mistaken it was Rose's family that managed to salvage your career." Ram said with a laugh.

"H- h- how. . ." Jason began to ask before snapping out of his shock. "My career was not dying, it was not ruined, it was growing and it was doing well!" Jason insisted as he marched over to Ram.

"I would think very carefully about what you are about to do next." Eric warned from his seat as he watched the drama unfold. "You have no idea who you are going up against." 

"What would you know?" Jason asked as he turned to look at Eric. "You are just an actor, you probably even encouraged my wife's affair!" Jason shouted.

"I'm telling you, you do not want to do this." Eric warned as someone approached behind Eric.

Jason simply scoffed at Eric's warning and curled his hand into a fist as he prepared to throw a punch at Ram.

Ram laughed as Jason approached, making Jason stop in his tracks, wondering what was wrong with Ram. Here he was approaching to punch the man and all he did was laugh, that's not what a normal person would do.

"Do you really think you can lay a finger on us?" Ram asked with a raised eyebrow. "First of all the Chan family has this place packed with security." 

As Ram spoke, four large men approached Jason.

"I suggest you leave with them." Eric warned as he gave a slight nod. "You don't want things to get ugly."

"How did you get that information?!" Jason asked angrily as he stayed glued to his spot, clearly afraid to move. 

"Which?" Ram asked as he raised an eyebrow. He stood. walked up to Jason and leaned forward to whisper.  "Well, I know you can't have kids, because a little drug was slipped into your drink for a while, and I wouldn't threaten to file a case against me. There is no proof and you can't even use this confession to prove anything."

"You bastard!" Jason hissed at Ram as the man took a step away from Jason.

"The letter, well it came into my possession through a happy mistake, the actor was paired with my girlfriend. I visited her one day on set and the letter was dropped by his assistant." Ram said with a shrug.

"That's an invasion of privacy." Jason said in a low voice.

"In all honesty, I thought it was addressed to Francesca." Ram said with a shrug. "The assistant had been eavesdropping and waiting outside her room, he panicked when he saw me and ran away."

"Sir, come with us." One of the security guards said as Jason threatened to take a step forward.

"I would go with them if I were you." Cedric told Jason as he pointed at the guards.

"You assholes!" Jason said as he spat on the ground.

"That's disgusting." Eric said, rolling his eyes at the man. 

The guards quickly grabbed Jason by the arms and lifted him out of the room. It seemed that Jason had not learned his lesson as he thrashed and kicked in an attempt to get the guards to let go.

"Were four really necessary?" Cedric asked as they watched the guests whisper among themselves. 

"He insulted my sister in-law, he hurt her, hurled insults at my brother, and threatened my friends." Eric said with a grin as he shrugged. "I won't show him any mercy."

Cedric laughed at Eric's words, it was rare for them to see this side of him, normally the eldest Chan was happy and laid back. Cedric knew that this side was the one that the Chans desperately wanted to take over as being head of  the family.

"We apologize for the drama." Raphael Chan said as he spoke from the stage.

Cedric glanced at where Rose had been standing, it seemed that Eric also had the woman escorted out. 

Veronica and Miguel were now seated with Miguel whispering something into Veronica's ear making her smile. 

"I understand that many of you have truly made the effort and taken the time to come over, but we must end this party." Raphael Chan said with a frown. "Thank you all for coming."

Cedric could see that many of the guests were disappointed, they hadn't been able to interact with the important people as much yet, especially since Cedric and his group were normally the last to arrive.

The garden soon cleared as the guests left, to Cedric's surprise he even saw Lucius Ting saying goodbye to Grandpa Chan and leaving.

"We should go too." Cedric said as he approached his uncle Raphael.

"You don't have to Ced." Raphael Chan told Cedric. "I just don't want more outsiders gossiping. Have a few drinks or some coffee, I'm sure your father and grandfather are not quite ready to leave either." Raphael Chan added as he pointed at Grandpa Emilio as he chatted with Grandpa Chan and a few of their friends.

"Eric!" Grandpa Chan called out as he saw his grandson pass by him to say goodbye to Cedric.

"Grandpa." Eric said with a smile. "Happy birthday."

"It was a happy birthday indeed." The old man nodded. "I got to introduce my long lost grandson and I saw you stepping into the role you were born to be in. You handled that mess quite well." Grandpa Chan said as he nodded in approval.

"With all due respect grandpa, I simply did what needed to be done." Eric said in a respectful tone. Clearly he was in no mood to get into a fight with his grandfather on his special day.

"My wife and I will go ahead, uncle." Cedric said with a smile as he left to fetch Adrianna and her parents.

  As they were getting into Cedric's car, Eric came running out of the old mansion after Cedric. 

"Ced, a word?" Eric asked as he gestured for them to move to the side.

Cedric signalled to his wife and in-laws to wait for him for a bit as he followed Eric.

"What's up?" Cedric asked in a cheery tone.

"How are you coping?" Eric suddenly asked, making Cedric laugh.

"So this is a doctor patient thing?" Cedric teased the older man.

"I'm serious Cedric. I want to know how you are coping with the outside world." Eric said in a much more serious tone.

"I'm fine, I guess." Cedric said with a shrug. "That week away from everything really helped me, and the weekly sessions are working." Cedric nodded. He went to Katerina's house every Friday night to have therapy sessions with Eric.

"Good, I just wanted to check up on you." Eric said with a nod. "By the way, if grandpa threatens to make Lucius his heir and to name everything under him, I want you to tell me."

"What?" Cedric said in surprise. "Eric, I'm sure that you would know before me, and what's with this all of a sudden."

"I know I keep saying I want to chase my dream, and I'm living it. I'm legitimately living my best life, but if grandpa does something to threaten the family I'm coming back." Eric said within a serious expression.

"You won't have to." Cedric told Eric.

"Ayanna told my sister your crazy plan." Eric said, rolling his eyes. "This is my family's issues, I should be the one solving it, not you." 

"It won't reach that point Eric. I promise." Cedric said as he walked away, not wanting to hear anymore from Eric.