Never Judge

Cedric had been working at the Reyes Group for a week as an assistant manager at the business development team, part of his job was looking through all the plans for the Reyes Group and evaluating them.

Everyday, Cedric would wake up earlier than the rest and be dropped off at a bus station quite far from R Tower. He would then commute to work, clock in, and have a cup of coffee with his officemates, many of whom had started their career in the Reyes Group and had planned to work there till the day they retired.

"You know Cedric, you're lucky. You got into the Reyes Group. Everyone wants to work here, and it's not just because we pay the best, it also because of the prestige of working for the Reyes Group in R Tower." A manager told him.

"I remember during my interview there were hundreds of us and only ten open positions. I was so nervous that I puked in the washroom." A female employee laughed as she recounted what she went through to get into the Reyes Group.

"But was it all worth it?" Cedirc asked.

"Yes, of course it was. The Reyes family takes care of all of their employees. You know Mark on the 5th floor? Yeah, his son got into an accident once, really bad, the bills were humongous, after a day he was shocked, the bills were all paid for by the Reyes family. They go beyond what an employer should do." The manager recounted. Cedric felt proud to hear that his family had taken care of all of their employees, it seemed that everyone in his department was more than happy to work for the Reyes group.

"I'm actually quite excited for the Reyes Heir to take control of the group. I heard he has made miracles happen over at Mor Co." A young male employee said.

"But they said he is quite strict and demanding." The female employee said.

"Too bad he's married. According to all the rumors he's quite good looking." A female manager said.

"But you can't see his face, ever." The young male employee told his manager.

"The Directors have all seen him, plus his assistants." The female employee whispered.

"What do you think Cedric, would we have it harder with the Reyes Heir here?" The young male employee asked Cedric.

"Oh, it's not like we would have a choice." Cedric said with a nervous laugh. In all honesty he found the whole conversation awkward since it was about himself.

The rest of the day was filled with Cedric assessing the different projects and plans within the Reyes Group. Day in and day out it was like this, his department was incredibly busy since the Reyes Group was constantly expanding and absorbing smaller companies.

Cedric had formed quite a close friendship with Adolfo Luna, they had lunch everyday at the cafeteria.

Today was no different, after a tiring morning Cedric went down to the fourth floor to meet up with Adolfo and have lunch.

He saw the young man waving at him from their usual table and walked over.

"Busy day?" Adolfo asked Cedric.

"Yeah, you guys?" Cedric asked Adolfo.

"Yeah, I was supposed to skip lunch. There is this whole new confidential project that the group is working on. I think your department is reviewing it." Adolfo told Cedric.

"We probably did." Cedric said as he ate.

"The president passed by this morning." Adolfo said.

"Emilio Reyes?" Cedric asked.

"Yeah. He's a bit old, but man is he scary. He spoke to our department head and I swear, the old man almost shit himself. According to my teammates the president rarely visits our team." Adolfo told Cedric.

After lunch Cedric went back to work and spent the rest of the day behind his desk. His job at the Reyes Group gave him the unique opportunity to see everything that was going on within the company.

He had seen most of the projects that were slated for the rest of the year and had noticed that some had similarities with the projects that didn't push through in the past. Cedric felt that it was odd that these projects had been forwarded to their department when others that were very similar had been rejected. He added them to his investigation notes and continued to work. He also asked around his team about these projects and the projects similar to them that had been rejected in the past.

Cedric went home the same way he had arrived. Many of his officemates offered to give him a lift, but of course it would be very suspicious if he had asked them to take him to Mountain View.

When Cedric got home every one had already arrived and were all hanging out in the living room.

"How was work?" Adrianna said as she hugged her husband.

"Good. I thought you didn't like public displays of affection?" Cedric told his wife as he played with her hair.

"It's just family. Plus I missed you." Adrianna then placed a kiss on her husband's cheek.

"Son, a word." Emilio said pointing at the office.

Cedric nodded and followed his father.

When they were alone Emilio took a glass of whisky and handed it to his son.

"Did you find out anything new?" Emilio asked.

"Just more clues. It's odd how the projects I found were similar to the projects we are studying now." Cedric told his father.

"Could they have been overlooked?" Emilio asked his son. He knew that it was unlikely but he didn't want to jump into conclusions.

"I doubt. The plans were actually good, even the partners that were chosen were well known. There was no reason to reject those plans." Cedric explained. "I asked around, the plans for the projects never made it to the business development team, so it was blocked prior to that stage."

"That's odd. Okay, keep working on it. And good job son." Emilio said as they went out to join the others.