Never Judge

~Author here!

I would just like to address a question many of you had asked in the past, and that is, what country is Never Judge set in.

Before I tell you what country, I would just like all of you to know that I intentionally avoided mentioning a country so that you could imagine it happening in your own. I know that practices and traditions are different, that's why I used those that I am very familiar with.

With that being said, I guess you could say that Never Judge is set in the Philippines, because that is where I am from and that is the culture and society I am most familiar with.

For those that are curious, yes, the upper echelons of society in my country somewhat behaves like the people in my novel. Of course much of it is tweaked for literary purposes.

Thanks for reading! ~

"And you're only telling me this now?" Cedric asked as he glared angrily at his assistants.

"Relax, Cedric." Ian told his friend as he placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm the CEO down. "I told them not to tell you just yet."

"Why would you even do that?" Cedric asked Ian as he glared at him.

"Because if you had known that the nurse had been found you wouldn't meet with the Chans." Ian said with a shrug. "I know you well enough to expect that if you had found out sooner you would have dropped everything. We need you to stay objective."

Cedric opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again, Ian was right. If Mae or Dave had told him beforehand that they had found the nurse, Cedric would have made them drop everything and focus on finding a way to speak to the nurse.

"Now that you've gotten most of your work for the day settled and you've dealt with the Chans, you can focus your attention on the missing nurse." Ian said with a shrug as he grinned at Cedric.

"Ian is right." Camilla said with a nod. "We know you well enough to expect that you would drop everything for this."

Cedric sighed and nodded, he couldn't argue with them, they were right.

"So where is the nurse?" Cedric asked.

"Could we explain things to you first boss?" Dave asked, it seemed he had prepared a speech to explain their efforts.

Cedric groaned, but nodded in the end.

"It seemed that this nurse had much more backing than we had initially expected. It was as if someone was helping the nurse stay hidden, he was always one step ahead of us and our men." Dave explained.

"It could be Uncle Raphael." Cedric guessed as he looked at Ian.

"I'm not too sure." Ian said slowly, his tone full of hesitation. "I don't see why my father-in-law would hide the nurse. If he knew who the nurse was then why didn't he just take his nephew and raise him as his own. It doesn't make sense."

"How old is Uncle Miguel's son?" Benedict asked.

"Obviously the same age as Lucius Ting." Cedric said, rolling his eyes. "A few months younger than me and almost a year older than Miguel."

Benedict sighed. "I was thinking maybe Miguel or Eric was actually their uncle's son and that Raphael Chan simply adopted him."

"It's not possible." Cedric said, shaking his head. "There are photos everywhere of auntie Lucy pregnant with both boys. Plus the ages don't match."

"It was worth a guess." Benedict said with a chuckle.

"Lucius falls right into that age, but who is hiding the nurse, there is something very off here." Cedric said as he thought about the circumstances.

"Why hide the nurse if the child has already been found?" Ian asked.

"Maybe Lucius isn't a Chan?" Camilla suggested. "Maybe Uncle Miguel's wife cheated on him or he was sterile, so they got a sperm donor."

"That's not too far-fetched." Cedric said as he scratched his chin and considered what Camilla had just said. "Either way, we need to know who is hiding him, why, and where." Cedric told his assistants.

Mae slowly raised her hand as she tried to get everyone's attention.

"I swear Mae, you need to learn to speak up." Dave complained as he got everyone's attention for his partner.

"What is it Mae?" Cedric asked.

"We know where the nurse actually is." Mae said with a shrug.

"And you let us come up with wild ideas while knowing where he was?" Ian asked with a laugh.

"Well, it's not exactly easy to get a chance to speak with all of you around." Mae said, shaking her head. "You guys all talk so much and so loudly."

"We'll talk about your attention grabbing issues another time, Mae." Camilla teased over the video call, making everyone else laugh.

"Go on, tell us." Cedric said with a nod as all ears turned to Mae.

"The person who has been funding the nurse kept him moving." Mae explained as she flashed a map on the screen.

"These are all the places the nurse has lived at?" Cedric asked as he noticed more than twenty countries marked across the map, and it wasn't like he was just moving from one country to the next.

"He would spend about one to two years in each country, sometimes working, sometimes just in hiding." Mae explained. "He wasn't just hopping to the next country either. One year he would be in Italy, the next he was in Japan, after that he went to Nigeria, then USA, then Germany."

"Someone with deep pockets had to be funding this." Ian said as he looked at the map.

"The places he stayed at were never cheap either, luxury apartments, houses, some five star hotels, all of which seemed to be paid by someone for him." Mae said.

"Did you track the money?" Cedric asked as he turned to his assistants.

"We tried." Dave said with a shrug. "But this person was way too good, their was barely a trail, and most transactions were done in cash. Even the nurse doesn't seem to have any bank accounts."

"Does the nurse have any family?" Cedric asked.

"Yes, they live here, in the capital." Mae said. "We tried to get information from them but it seemed that they were barely in contact with him, just a few updates here and there."

"He must have lived a lonely life." Camilla said with a frown.

"What was in it for him, why was he so willing to live a life alone just for an orphan?" Cedric asked.

"We can ask him when we meet him." Dave said with a shrug.

"Wait, you know where he is?" Cedric asked, shocked with what his assistants just revealed.

"Yup." Mae said with a nod. "And he isn't going anywhere, we have people watching him from a distance and he just moved, I doubt he will move again."

"So where is he?" Cedric asked, eager to learn the man's location.

"A few hours away from here by plane. In Singapore." Dave said as he nodded at Mae to project a file.

It was images of the man stepping out of Singapore's Changi Airport.

"He is from here?" Cedric asked as he observed the man's features.

"It seems the elder Miguel Chan could have met him here and later on met up with him in Italy." Dave said. "He was probably an employee at Saints Hospital."