Never Judge

With the press quickly shouting questions over one another, Cedric had to silence them once more. He wasn't done with his statement just yet.

They all eyed him cautiously as Cedric grinned at them. They knew at that moment that he had even bigger news, the type of news that their editors would fire them if they had missed out on.

"Good, you have all decided to listen." Cedric said with a smile as he cleared his throat, he wanted all of them to hear what he had to say.

The reporters quickly focused all their attention on Cedric, who simply gave them a cunning smile. 

"As part of our contract, which these companies have chosen to violate, we, the Reyes Group, now own 50% of their physical assets. Meaning their stores, equipment, and resources are ours to distribute." Cedric announced.

The reporters gasped upon hearing how much the companies had lost when they broke their contract with the Reyes Group.

"On top of that, my lawyer, Miss Katerina Sebastian, will be suing these people for damages both to my name and my company's name." Cedric informed the press. 

The members of the media had already published a lot of articles about the companies abandoning the Reyes Group and how it was a sign that they were not to be trusted. The media themselves had played a hand in sealing the coffin for these traitorous companies.

"On top of all of these, my family and I have decided to invest what money was supposed to be given to them into different ventures." Cedric announced.

The reporters leaned forward, all eager to hear where Cedric was moving the funds. It was rare for the Reyes Group to release their plans ahead of schedule, so this was definitely big news. 

"The first investment that we will make is to double the investment we have committed to those secondary companies that we had acquired for each industry where the market leader had chosen to abandon and embarrass us." Cedric announced.

The members of the press were in shock, doubling their investment in smaller companies was a risk, it was a big risk. These companies were in no way proven or tested, many of them were young and still growing.

"Isn't this too much of a risk for the Reyes Group?" A reporter bravely asked.

Cedric smiled at the man, he had asked the very question Cedric wanted to answer.

"It is, but what is life without risks?" CEdric said with a laugh. "Those that have chosen to stay with us and remain loyal will be rewarded way beyond what they had been promised."

"And those that betrayed you?" A female reporter subconsciously asked out loud, making everyone turn to her in shock.

"Wow, you are one brave woman." Cedric said as he observed the reporter, he took a mental note to recommend her to Ram as soon as he had made it through this impromptu interview.

The woman stared at Cedric, wide eyed in shock as soon as she realized what she had said. She covered her mouth and began to panic.

"Relax, that's a question I wanted to hear." Cedric told the woman with a smile, hoping that she would calm down.

"Those that left us and wanted to cause us damage will pay for what they had done ten times over." Cedric said in a stern and cold tone as he looked at the reporters. "You all know that this is not how I deal with things, but it seems my lack of brutality has caused people to look down at me."

  Cedric took a deep breath as he watched the reporters' reactions, most were in shock. It was true, they all knew Cedric was not a brutal man. He was cold and distant, but he was not brutal, he still had compassion in him.

"Go on, ask." Cedric said, encouraging the reporters to raise their questions.

"Sir, no one would dare look down on you." A reporter finally managed to bravely say.

Cedric simply smiled at the man and nodded his thanks.

"Sir, what's the second part?" The brave female reporter asked. "You said the Reyes Group would be doing two things with the money that was supposed to be invested into the companies that betrayed you, what's the second?"

Cedric smiled at her question, it was the very question he wanted to hear and wanted to answer.

"Did you notice the people that entered before me?" Cedric asked the reporters.

"The ones with Miss Katerina and Miss Ayanna?" The female reporter asked.

Cedric smiled as he noted how keen her attention to detail was, she would truly be an asset to Ram, should she agree to make the move.

"Yes, the foreign looking guests." Cedric pointed out.

The crowd remained silent, clearly at a loss to what Cedric meant. Were they simply friends of Katerina Sebastian and Ayanna Reyes? 

"You can make a guess." Cedric said as he toyed with the reporters.

"Are they more investors? For the secondary companies?" A male reporter at the back of the crowd asked as he waved his hand to get Cedric's attention.

"If I wanted to invest more, I would have done it myself." Cedric said with a laugh. "Plus, no I am re-investing, not seeking more investments."

The crowd of reporters stayed silent, they weren't businessmen, their knowledge was quite limited, and those among them that were quite well versed with business still didn't dare to take a gamble at what Cedric had planned. 

"Those people were from the top five international companies in industries that the Reyes Group has not ventured into." Cedric announced, taking everyone by surprise.

"For years they have asked my family and my company to work with them, but in the interest of promoting local talent my father, my sister, and I as well as the other members of the Reyes Family, decided not to work with them." Cedric informed the reporters.

"But it seemed that we were betrayed by our fellow country men, so now we are forced to look to other countries for partners." Cedric's message was clear. He had taken the risks both out of nationalism and out of his own hope for those companies and all they did was betray him.

"I never thought that it was my fellow countryman that would shoot me in the back, and yet here we are." Cedric said with a seemingly innocent shrug. "I don't like being betrayed, and this is me just showing the world what they will get."

With that Cedric turned around and walked over to his wife, he held her hand lovingly as he walked away from the reporters, leaving everyone in shock.

It took the reporters quite a while to recover, by the time they had realized what Cedric had said, everyone was on their phone calling their editors trying to get the news out as quickly as possible.

They need it online, on paper, on every possible outlet and resource their company has. Cedric Reyes just released life changing news, news that even their own CEOs needed to hear. 

This was the biggest news of the year, Cedric Reyes had just announced that he had stopped playing nice.