Never Judge

Everyone was at a loss for words with what Ray had just told them. Cheng, Mien's father, had worked for Ray.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't mean to offend, but why was my father working for you?" Mien asked, clearly utterly confused.

"Simple, because he was the best." Ray said with a grin as he gave an unclear answer to the group.

"I think we should all take a seat and have our meal served first." Cedric told them as he directed Mien to the seat across from Ray.

"I'll have the waiter bring in our food." Dave offered as he quickly stepped out.

Cedric made a mental note to talk to Dave after tonight's dinner, his assistant was clearly bothered by something but he was keeping it to himself.

It took ten minutes for their food and drinks to finally be served, and those ten minutes were quite awkward for everyone. 

No one said a word and the only noises in the room were Yoyo's quick chatter with his father. 

Cedric was glad his wife had decided to bring their son along. Their situation would have been way more awkward if the little boy had not been around.

As the waiters left the room and closed the door firmly behind them, Cedric knew that it was the time to revive the topic.

"Ray, you owe us an explanation." Cedric said as he placed a piece of cut up meat in his son's plate.

"It's just odd that you didn't ask me this time around." Ray said. "If you had asked me I would have told you about Cheng." 

"Well we are in this situation now, so how is it possible that Cheng worked for both you and Fernando?" Cedric asked. "And what use was some retired Businessman slash investigator to you? He isn't even from around here."

"Wait, my dad was not an investigator." Mien said as he gave Cedric a confused look. "Maybe you have the wrong person. My father couldn't have been involved in any of this." 

"Did you ask Alexi about Cheng?" Ray asked, ignoring Mien's suspicions of a mistaken identity. Ray sounded like he was definite that Cheng was Mien's father. 

"Of course not." Cedric said. "It's an international matter, I didn't think Alexi would have any inputs on this either." 

"You should have asked either of us." Ray said with a sigh. "Cheng isn't just some Singapore based businessman, he isn't even Singaporian."

"What do you mean?" Cedric asked. "I have his documents, he is clearly a citizen."

"See Mr. Reyes, it's clear that Mr. Laurence isn't talking about my father." Mien said as he injected himself into the conversation.

Ray suddenly laughed at Mien's frantic words. 

"Mien, I'm sure that it's your father that worked for me." Ray said, shaking his head. "Don't worry, that's easy enough to prove. The moment I saw Mien I asked Alexi to come over."

"What does Alexi have to do with this?" Cedric asked.

As if on cue, the door to Cedric's private room in Nouveau swung open and Alexi, still wearing his attire from being in congress, walked in.

"No fucking way!" Alexi shouted as he made his way to Mien.

Mien panicked as Alexi pulled his chair and made him stand up. Alexi grabbed him by the chin and tilted his face, making him turn to the left then to the right.

"You weren't joking Ray." Alexi said as he finally released a panicked Mien.

The young lawyer took two steps back, attempting to create some sort of distance between himself and Alexi. 

"Did you really have to do that?" Ray asked as he placed down his wine glass after taking a sip. "You scared the boy."

"You do know that he is at most five years younger than us?" Cedric asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"You found young Mien?" Alexi asked Cedric as he crossed his arms on his chest.

"Didn't your sister tell you about him?" Cedric asked back.

"We both know my sister doesn't tell me things and we don't exactly live in the same house anymore." Alexi told Cedric as he pulled up a chair and placed it in between Cedric and Mien.

"So how do you know Mien?" Cedric asked Alexi.

"Easy, he is Cheng's son." Alexi answered with a frown. "God, I remember how Cheng would go on and on about this son he had. He showed me photos and he even boasted about Mien's achievements."

"I'm pretty sure you felt worthless next to Mien." Ayanna said with a laugh as she pointed at Alexi. 

"How do you know about Mien's achievements?" Alexi asked.

"My brother's files of course." Ayanna explained as she took another bite from her dinner.

"And how do you know Mien?" Alexi asked Cedric.

"You answer me first, who is Cheng and why do both you and Ray know about him?" Cedric asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's easy." Alexi said with a laugh. "Cheng was one of dad's top guys, later on he started working for me." 

"My dad worked for you too?" Mien asked. "Wait, how sure are we that you and I are talking about the same man."

"Easy, I'll tell you everything he told us about you." Ray said with a laugh. "You were all he talked about so we picked up a thing or two."

"Okay, go." Mien challenged.

"Alright, for one you are adopted, Cheng is actually your uncle, but he loved you so much that he never treated you like anything other than a son." Alexi started to say.

"When you went off to university your father missed you so much that he flew all the way to New York just to see you." Ray explained. "I provided for his tickets by the way."

"And he stayed at my apartment." Alexi added.

"He said that was a BnB." Mien said as he gasped. "My dad did work for you."

Ray and Alexi burst out laughing as the young lawyer realized that they were indeed talking about the same people.

"Told 'ya." Ray said with a wink as he took another drink from his glass.

"Wait, you still haven't explained how Mien's father worked for you." Cedric demanded, earning him a curious look from Alexi and Ray.