Never Judge

"Yes, I'm related to Miguel and Nicole Chan, and not distantly." Eric said with a smile as he revealed who he really was for the first time.

Cedric saw how the man he often looked at as an older brother breathed a sigh of relief. He understood the feeling, he too had gone through something similar, and being able to say the truth out loud was an amazing feeling.

"Wait, so how are you related?" Capt. Lim suddenly asked as he sat up.

"Capt. Lim, didn't you review our documents from the immigrations department?" Cedric asked with a laugh. He had expected the captain to know.

"Captain! That counts as a question!" One of his staff members complained.

"It's fine, I'll give this as a free one." Eric said with a wink.

"That's my signature move!" Miguel accused. "You can't just steal it cause you are famous, brother." Miguel said with a smirk, shocking all of Eric's fans.

"Br - br- brother?" Capt. Lim said as he pointed at Miguel and Eric.

"Yes, and Nicole is my younger sister." Eric said with a laugh.

"So that means, you are the eldest." Capt. Lim said as he pointed at Eric.

"You really didn't notice that our parents had the same names?" Eric asked as he grinned at the police captain.

"No. I mean coincidences like that happen often, especially with such common names." Capt. Lim said.

"No, I'm not related to your captain." Ian teased as the group laughed at his joke.

"And before you ask, yes this is like a family vacation, we all decided to tag along since Nicole was going with Ian." Miguel answered with a shrug.

"So why is Miss Nicole running your family business?" A fan suddenly asked. "Why did you leave the Chan family?" 

Cedric expected someone to get mad that their companion had wasted a question, but they all kept silent, it seemed that all of them wanted to know more about Eric and the Chan family.

"We don't have bad blood between us, if that's what you want to ask." Miguel said with a smile as he answered for his brother.

"That counts as two questions by the way." Eric said with a laugh. "But my brother is telling the truth, I get along quite well with my family and attend family gatherings all the time. As a matter of fact I live with my siblings." 

"So why leave the Chan family?" Capt. Lim asked, he was now just as curious as Eric's fans. It seemed that it was the drama of the rich and famous that he enjoyed.

"I left the Chan family because I wanted to follow my own dreams. To carve a path for myself that isn't dictated by the expectations of my family." Eric explained. "The reason why Nicole is leading the family now is because she is the best one suited for the role."

Cedric smiled as he watched Eric explain his reasons to his fans among the police. Eric carried a proud expression as he explained why he left and why Nicole was the future head of the family and not him.

"This is a truth I plan to tell everyone someday, and I hope you will all respect that." Eric said as his fans vigorously nodded, agreeing to what he had asked.

"You still have five questions, fire away." Eric said.

There were so many things that Eric's fans wanted to learn about him since he was such a private actor. They jumped at the opportunity to continue asking him about his personal life.

"Is it true that you didn't date all those actresses?" A fan asked.

"No, well yes." Eric said as he laughed at his answer. "I was never officially together with any of them, we went out on dates, hung out a bit, but I guess we all just come from different worlds that I couldn't connect with any of them." Eric said with a shrug.

"So what Mr. Abad said. . ." A fan began to day as he recalled Ram's statement during the Gizmo Awards afterparty

"It was the truth." Eric said with a nod, cutting off his fan mid sentence. "It was their agencies that were making it seem like I was officially with them and that we were hiding it, they were lucky my brother-in-law didn't go after them."

"Brother-in-law?" A policeman asked.

"Oh right, it's not public knowledge." Veronica said with a laugh as she realized that they didn't exactly go around announcing that she was an Abad. 

Veronica had continued going around using her Bernasconi family name, her mother's maiden family name before marrying their father. 

"Veronica's real name is Ann Abad." Miguel said, answering for his wife. "Ram is her older brother, and she belongs to the Abad family. And don't get any ideas, Ram never did anything out of the ordinary to make Eric famous." 

Cedric nodded, agreeing with Miguel. Eric could have been much much more famous if Ram had decided to pour all the opportunities his way, but Eric just wanted to act, so he passed on many of them to other actors.

In the local entertainment industry Eric was seen as a generous top actor, someone who never hogged the fame or opportunity. 

"Mr. Eric is amazing!" A fan exclaimed. 

"I just prefer to act over being famous." Eric said with a shrug.

"That's because you don't need to act to become famous." Katerina teased as Eric smiled at her lovingly, a look that the fans clearly didn't miss.

"So is it true, what Miss Calathea Carpio was saying years ago?" A fan asked, this was one of the rumors about Eric that failed to die. Even when Calathea had become friends with their group the rumor persisted.

"There are many rumors that came from Calathea. Which one?" Eric said with a laugh. 

"The one about you and her dating and that Miss Katerina stole you from her." The police woman said. "Please tell us the truth." She added. 

"Calathea and I never had a romantic relationship." Eric said flatly with a cold look in his eyes. It was a rumor that he hated because it had kept him and Katerina apart. "There were talks between our families to arrange a marriage but it never pushed through because I left. I became of no value to the Caripios." Eric answered honestly.

Cedric wondered why Eric was being so honest to his fans tonight, he normally did not do things this way. He liked keeping things from others, he didn't believe that because he was an actor he had to share his life with everyone else.

"Next question." Eric suddenly said, quickly shutting down any comments coming from what he had said.

"Is it true that you are dating someone and that you are in love with that person?" A police woman asked.

Eric looked at the woman and smiled. "Yes." 

Eric's answer was simple, but it surprised his fans.

"We thought those were just rumors. People were saying that you said that to avoid the press." A policeman explained. 

"No, I am in love and I truly want to spend the rest of my life with this person. I've loved her from the beginning and my heart has always belonged to her." Eric said as he professed his love for the woman who sat next to his sister.

"Who is she?" A police woman asked.