Never Judge

At Saints Hospital, Miguel sat at the head of the table. He never expected that when Nicole's news came out on the internet he would be thrown into the position he was in now. Initially Ian was supposed to take over for Nicole, but it would have meant that they would need to announce that he was the father of the child then leave the Reyes Group.

When the board of Saints approached the Reyes Group however, Cedric rejected the idea. He told them to put faith in Nicole, she may be pregnant, but she was still capable. In order to keep Saints in their hands Miguel finally agreed to take the position of VP while they waited for the news of Nicole's pregnancy to settle. Many members of the board believed that the fact that Nicole had gotten pregnant without being married would pull down their stock price.

"Sir, a Mr. Cedric Reyes in here to see you? He said he is from the Reyes Group." Miguel's new assistant.

"Let him in." Miguel said with a sigh. Since taking over, he and Cedric had not spoken in length about the issue.

When Cedric walked in he was wearing ordinary office attire clothes and gave off a forgettable vibe. He turned to thank the assistant who blushed when Cedric smiled, even as someone ordinary Cedric still had his looks which was enough to make the young woman crush on him.

When the door finally closed Cedric became more like his ordinary self. He walked over and lounged on Miguel's couch.

"Has the board reconsidered?" Cedric asked Miguel.

"No. I told you, this plan won't work. Soon enough they'll either think the family is incapable or I am just incapable. They won't call Nicole back." Miguel said as he stood and poured himself a glass of whiskey.

"Ian is capable, but giving him the reins would just prove to them that they can be sexist about this." Cedric said with a sigh as he sat upright.

"I know, I know. That's why I came to you remember. Who would have known that after four months they still refuse to realize that Nicole is the better choice!" Miguel complained as he took a drink. He walked over to Cedric and handed him his own glass.

Cedric thanked his friend and looked out the window to a distance.

"How are the books looking?" Cedric asked.

"I've been giving out so much charity work that we're almost in the red. I've also raised the salaries of almost every employee. Still they refuse to let my sister take her place back." Miguel complained.

"I guess it was a good thing that this happened. The first trimerster is always the most dangerous and Nicole got to rest it out. Ian said she's doing well." Cedric was forced to mention the brigher side of things since it seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

"We don't have enough shares to overwrite the will of the entire board." Miguel sighed. "If we had as much as you had in the Reyes Group, then no one could oppose."

Cedric suddenly blinked, an idea popped up in his head from Miguel's complaints. Miguel was right, the reason why the other shareholders of the Reyes Group couldn't complain or do anything about the decisions of the Reyes family was because across all of the companies the Reyes Family held most of the shares. Since there was no internal strife in his family it meant that their business decisions could not be challenged.

"Miguel, how is your family? Do they all support Nicole being named as your father's successor?" Cedric asked as he rubbed his chin.

"Some, but not all. My relatives are very traditional." Miguel explained.

"And how much say do they have in Saints?" Cedric asked.

"Dad holds most of the shares at 30%, but another 30% is spread out across cousins, uncles, aunts, and great aunts and uncles. The remaining 40% are among various stockholders." Miguel told Cedric as he tried to recall how the shares of Saints were divided up.

"What if Saints suddenly had new shareholders that were on Nicole's side?" Cedric asked as he waited for Miguel to realize what he was proposing.

"Well that would be great, but we still need to convince the shareholders to want Nicole as the next head, and that's quite a challenge." Miguel explained, still oblivious to what Cedric was trying to say.

"Miguel, you're so slow sometimes." Cedric said giving himself a facepalm.

"What? It's the truth! Those old fasioned men would never accept a pregnant woman. The only way you could change the opinion of those stocks was if you were to change the stockholders themselves." Miguel ranted. "Oh you mean -!" Miguel exclaimed as he realized what Cedric was trying to suggest.

"Change the stockholder, change the vote." Cedric said with shrug.

"But we can't purchase those stocks. We need to keep them as publicly available, and it won't be easy convincing them to sell." Miguel told Cedric.

"We aren't related." Cedric reminded Miguel. "I mean I see you as my brother but, I am not in any legal way your relative." Cedric expounded further.

"You would do that for us?" Miguel said with his eyes wide with shock.

"Saints is profitable. It's also the perfect investment for the Reyes Group." Cedric said with a shrug. "Alexi and Ray aren't related to you as well so he can purchase stocks. So many of those old men want to suck up to our families that they wouldn't mind selling their Saints shares if it was to benefit their own businesses." Cedric said with a grin. He knew of at least three that were desperate to get a partnership with the Reyes Group.

"We need to play it carefully. If we approach them we will seem desperate and it would drive up the price." Miguel said as he took another sip of his drink.

"They will come to us, and when they do, we will set the condition as them selling us their shares." Cedric said with a nod. He liked the idea, it was his idea of course but it felt like a sound and solid plan. "How many shares would we need to pruchase in order to take control?"

"If you could purchase 20% of it, that should work fine." Miguel said with a nod. "I'll have my assistant draft up a list of shareholders." Miguel told Cedric as they began to formulate their plan.