Never Judge

Cedric had provided a list of the steps the syndicate was going to take to his father, sister, and their friends. They would allow for some of the actions to take place but block the others, they made sure that everything that related back to Cedric would be done, luckily the business link it was targeting to sever was the one with the Laurence family, and Cedric was quite confident with Ray's acting skills.

When Cedric met up with Martin over lunch to hand the list back, Martin decided to have a talk with Cedric about Carissa. Martin was still hoping that Cedric could give his cousin a chance since to Martin's knowledge, Cedric's relationship was already on bad terms.

"My cousin really likes you." Martin told Cedric as he took the list back.

"I'm married, Martin." Cedric said as he shook his head and sighed. He would never cheat on his wife, even if Adrianna cheated on him in real life he could never do that.

"She's already with someone else Cedric. Stop being a martyr for a woman who clearly loves someone that isn't you." Martin told Cedric. Cedric was so tempted to punch Martin in the face for saying that his wife was unfaithful and that he should just cheat on her with Carissa. "She's even carrying another man's child. Don't tell me it doesn't hurt you. It's too much Cedric."

"I'm not going to stoop to that level Martin. I'm not like that." Cedric said as he took his plate and put it away in the cafeteria. They chose to meet here since Cedric was just handing a list back to Martin, nothing suspicious with what he was doing.

"Are you ready on your end?" Martin asked Cedric in a low voice.

"Almost. I just need to speak with Jason, then I should be ready." Cedric told Martin.

"Good, good. Everything is in place then." Martin said with a nod. "I'll see you when things are done." Martin then turned and left Cedric.

The next day the syndicate's plan began. The first to make a move was Cedric and those he was coordinating with.

By afternoon the Reyes Group was in the headlines, numerous projects that were in partnership with various companies owned by the Laurence and Carpio families were suddenly cancelled after the internal team found issues with the projects.

Cedric, of course, had no clear hand in the matter, it was only the others around him. Cedric made sure that the evidence couldn't be traced back, and by the time these people began to say who was involved, the police would know that Cedric was actually undercover for the Reyes Group.

Later in the afternoon, Carissa's team was supposed to mess up all of the press and PR releases that would come out of the Reyes Group. To their surprise the upper management decided to make a change in the process. In the past after things were finalized a junior member would release the statements, this time however the head of the PR department wanted to see everything himself first and personally send the statements out.

Carissa broke their rule of not contacting each other when she gave Cedric a call. Cedric was surprised that Carissa had called him instead of her cousin. This was the perfect moment to put his plan into action.

"Cedric! Something happened." A frantic Carissa said over the phone.

"With our plans?" Of course Cedric knew that he had blocked a major issue that the syndicate wanted to use.

"Yes. I was wondering if you had an idea on what we could do to fix it. We don't have much time." Carissa was quite worried about how they could get the press releases they had faked out to the public. This part was crucial in driving away investors and partners from the Reyes Group.

"Meet me tonight. I'll send you an address." Cedric said. He knew Carissa wouldn't refuse, he was playing on the fact that she liked him and wanted to get him alone.

"Alright. Why don't we have dinner together as well?" Carissa asked in an attempt to push her luck.

"Sure. Don���t forget the wine." Cedric said as seductively as he could without throwing up.

After dropping the call, Cedric quickly sent Carissa a message and informed the Chan siblings that the plan was on.

A little later he heard from the other members that some parts of Martin's plan had gone on well. The government had found malicious documents in the finance department during a random check. The head of finance was now being called in to the police station while members of the Reyes family were now being investigated. What they hadn't expected however was when they moved to the government projects all the evidence that pointed to bribery and corruption had just disappeared. It was as if a ghost had spirited the documents away.

This of course was Cedric's doing. He made Ayanna cause a stir at the department after the evidence was planted. While everyone was distracted, Leon and his men searched the office and disposed of them. Of course everything was a hoax that Martin and the others were hoping could bring division between the Sebastian run government and the Reyes Group.

The members of the syndicate just shrugged it off since what they saw as the more crucial part of the plan had been successfully implemented. Martin and his team finally were able to breath a little bit better as the first day of their plan went on without issue.

Martin however, tried to contact his cousin. He was worried since Carissa's part failed. Both he and Cedric had managed to successfully execute most of their parts while Carissa's did not take off at all. When Martin finally managed to get through to Carissa she simply told him that she had a back up plan and he didn't need to worry.

"Cousin, don't forget that we are doing this for aunt Cora." Martin reminded her.

"Yes, yes. Don't worry." As Carissa said this she looked up at the residential building where Cedric said they should meet. "I gotta go. Talk to you tomorrow cousin."