Never Judge

When Cedric arrived at his office in R Tower, Dave and Ian immediately came in saying that Mae was ready to update them on her first day of following the old nurse.

Cedric asked Ian to call Ayanna over, he knew that if he didn't tell his sister that there was some sort of development she would be extremely angry with him.

When Ayanna arrived at Cedric's office she smiled and hugged her brother.

"What did you do this time?" Cedric asked as he tried to pry his sister's arms off him. "You only act like this when you've done something wrong." Cedric said as he moved over to the couch in his office.

"I told Eric about your plan." Ayanna said with a frown as she followed her brother to the couch.

"I know, he gave me an alternate option." Cedric said with a shrug. "I don't think it will work the same so I will only tell him it is needed if the moment is appropriate.  I don't want Eric losing his acting career for nothing."

"So you aren't mad?" Ayanna asked her brother, she was clearly worried about his reaction since she decided to apologize the moment she saw him.

"You did it because you were worried about me." Cedric said with a sigh. "It wasn't a bad decision and your actions meant well, I'm not mad Ayanna."

"Thank you, Ced." Ayanna told her brother as she smiled up at him. "I honestly thought you wouldn't invite me to any matters concerning Lucius Ting." Ayanna said with a frown.

"Why would you think that Ayanna?" Cedric asked. "You are my sister and a great asset to, well almost everything. I regret not involving you more."

"No need to involve me in more work brother." Ayanna said with a laugh as she shook her head. "I don't want more work, although sometimes I would appreciate it if I knew what was going on."

"Don't worry, I promised Ray that I wouldn't make you work too much." Cedric said with a wink as Ayanna's expression turned to one of disgust.

"Gross, you and Ray talk about our sex life!" Ayanna said as she pretended to vomit.

Cedric simply laughed at his sister as his assistants prepared for their call with Mae. 

"Is it ready?" Cedric asked as he looked at Dave who was now just sitting by the laptop, seemingly waiting for Cedric's go signal.

"Yes, sir." Dave said with a nod. "Mae is ready to speak to us when you are ready." Dave told Cedric.

"Alright." Cedric said with a nod. "Give her a call."

Dave nodded in response as he turned to the laptop and called Mae. After a few rings, Mae picked up the call and smiled at them.

"I hope that smile means you have good news." Cedric teased his assistant.

"I do, sir." Mae informed them. 

Mae had been in Singapore for two days and Cedric had given her a week to make contact with the old nurse. He was honestly surprised to hear that she had already called them for an update, she was moving faster than Cedric had expected.

"And?" Cedric asked over the call as he leaned forward.

"I've spoken to him." Mae said with a nod as she smiled proudly at them.

"Wow, that's amazing." Ayanna said as she was surprised by Mae's update.

"How?" Ian asked in a more serious tone. "I want to know if he suspects anything." Ian explained to them as he saw Ayanna and Dave both give him confused looks. 

"I should tell you all this story from the beginning, it's quite interesting." Mae said with a giggle.

"Go on." Cedric said with a nod, instructing her to recount to them what had happened.

"When I first arrived, my bodyguard and I actually got lost trying to find our hotel." Mae confessed with an embarrassed look on her face. "It was good though that we got lost, that's how we ran into him, the nurse."

"By getting lost?" Dave asked with a laugh. "Why am I not surprised that you got lost?" Dave teased over the video call.

Cedric smiled at his assistants' casual behavior with each other, he was glad that they got along and that they knew each other's weaknesses, this was definitely important.

"I've never been to Singapore in my life!" Mae argued back, rolling her eyes at her fellow assistant. "You would get lost too." 

"I wouldn't." Dave said confidently.

"I guess we are lucky that both Mae and her bodyguard have a horrible sense of direction." Ian said with a small grin. "Continue Mae." Ian instructed.

"So, as we were walking around, trying to figure out where we were we met an old man." Mae explained. "I had no idea at the time that he was the nurse we were looking for, he just looked like he was sad and needed company. So we spoke to him." Mae said with a shrug.

"So let me get this straight, you got lost, wait, how is that possible, we sent a car to fetch you?" Cedric asked as he gave his assistant a confused look.

"Well it was really late when we arrived and it was the driver's daughter's birthday, so we asked him to just drop us off on his way home." Mae explained. She was clearly embarrassed by what she had done as she looked down, refusing to look at her boss.

"It's fine, it brought more good than bad." Cedric said with a sigh. "So you spoke to a random stranger, how did you figure out who he was?" Cedric asked.

"He told us that he had worked as a nurse long ago in Italy." Mae said with a shrug. "At the time I didn't realize it was him still. So we walked him home and he asked if we could accompany him the next day, and I agreed."

Ian laughed and shook his head, this was classic Mae. She was an excellent employee but she had her clueless moments, she was a genius but there were times where she could be quite dumb too.

"When we got to the hotel and I reviewed what we knew about the nurse we were looking for I took one look at the photo and realized it was him." Mae said with an embarrassed laugh. "His name is Joaquin David, he said he was only staying here in Singapore for a year or so before moving on. I think it's because it's too close to home."

"Should we just go and talk to him?" Ayanna asked her brother.

"I think that would just scare him." Cedric said as he thought of his options. He didn't want to lose this man when they were already so close to getting to him.

"What if Mae befriended him for a week?" Dave suggested. "That way, when he meets us he won't be too jumpy with Mae around. And maybe Mae can find things out while he is unaware that we are looking for him."

"Good, do that." Cedric said with a nod. "I'll arrange for Miguel, Nicole, Eric, and I to fly over next week."

"Okay boss." Mae said with a nod as she ended the call.

"Now, we need to get all our work done for the day in three hours." Cedric told his companions. "I have a feeling that speaking to the dads will take much longer than we expect."