Never Judge

"So she doesn't pick her victims. . ." Cedric said as he thought of the siblings' encounter with Louisse.

"Wait, why aren't you surprised that she extorted us for money?" Benedict asked with a confused look on his face.

"Louisse, English model, worked with some of the biggest names but you can't just book her, she has to come to you." Ram suddenly said. "We looked her up."

"So you know the rumors?" Benedict asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They aren't rumors." Selina suddenly said, speaking up.

"Selina." Dave said as he looked at her with a frown. He knew that this was a difficult topic for her and she would rather not talk about it in front of the group.

"It's alright Dave, I'm ready." Selina told him with a nod.

"Selina, what are you talking about baby?" Alexi asked as he gave her a concerned look.

"I'm ready to talk too." Francesca said, surprising everyone in the room.

"What's going on?!" Alexi asked in an angry tone.

He looked around and noticed that Cedric had remained calm throughout the whole discussion.

"You know something." Alexi said as he got up and charged towards Cedric. He grabbed the front of Cedric's shirt and pulled him up.  "You know something bad happened and you chose not to tell us."

As soon as the words left Alexi's mouth Cedric hit his hand swiftly and decisively making Alexi let go and stare at him in shock.

They all knew that due to his poverty training, Cedric never learned to defend himself. And yet now he was moving as if he had been training all his life.

"I'm not as helpless as I used to be." Cedric said with a smirk as he fixed his clothes.

"So you can handle yourself in a fight now?" Ram asked as he pointed at his brother-in-law.

"I've been training a bit." Cedric said with a shrug as he sat back down. "So where were we?" He asked as he looked around the room. Clearly most of them had not recovered from what had just happened.

"Selina, Francesca, do you mind if I tell them?" Cedric asked as he looked at the women who were calmly sitting down, not hinting at the trauma they had suffered.

Selina looked at Francesca and the actress glanced back at her. Francesca gave Selina a nod as she gave her a comforting smile.

"Please tell them for us." Selina said as she hugged Alexi's arm as he sat back down next to her.

"Are you alright?" Alexi asked.

Selina did not give him an answer, she simply hugged his arm tighter as he leaned on to him.

A worried look crossed Alexi's face, but he said nothing. He simply gave her a light kiss on the head as he turned his attention back to Cedric.

"I don't know the details of Francesca's experience with Louisse, but I do know Selina's." Cedric began. "Earlier we had a report come in that a woman was escorted from the bar that Lucius had booked the party at, my natural inclination was to worry that it might be Camilla."

"But it wasn't?" Alexi asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cedric nodded, confirming that he was right.

"The woman was identified simply as Louisse." Cedric told them. "We did our best to investigate who Louisse was, but in a short period of time there was very little that we could find out."

"So you approached Selina and Francesca?" Veronica asked as she glanced at the two women.

It was only natural for Cedric to turn to the people he knew who had been involved in the international fashion industry.

He had thought of asking Eric but he knew that Eric never listened to gossip and would be useless. Also the actor avoided the international fashion industry for some reason, Cedric never thought to ask why but he made a mental note to ask this time around.

"I asked Selina, Francesca, and Maureen." Cedric said. "I also asked Ram, but Ram had limited knowledge on the matter."

Everyone nodded as they listened to Cedric's words.

"Selina was one of Louisse's victims." Cedric said to the shock of everyone in the room.

"What? When? How?" Alexi asked as he turned to look at his girlfriend. "Baby, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I wish I could have protected you sooner."

"Alexi, there was no way you could have known." Selina said as she kissed Alexi on the lips.

"When did this happen?" Alexi asked as she broke off their kiss.

Selina was not ready to talk about her experience a second time, so she looked at Cedric, asking him to explain for her.

"Selina isn't ready to talk about it, but I think she is willing to let me tell you guys." Cedric said as he waited for Selina to either confirm or deny his suspicions.

Selina nodded, giving him permission to tell the others the details of what she went through.

"This all happened when Selina was still recovering from Jen leaving her." Cedric began as he explained what Selina went through.

Cedric decided not to go too deep into the details, those parts Selina could tell the others in time. It was her story, not his.

"It was during that difficult time in her life that she met Louisse." Cedric said. "Louisse was someone that was willing to be a friend to her in those dark times and became someone she could depend on."

Cedric paused as he observed Selina's expression, he wanted to see if she would stop him, but she remained calm as she clung on to Alexi.

"To make the long story short, Louisse used that vulnerable moment in Selina's life to get sexual favors." Cedric explained. "From there she made Selina feel guilty about not loving her, later on she became more aggressive through blackmail."

"I - I-" Selina began to say as she struggled to form words to express what she wanted.

"It's okay Selina, you don't need to say anything." Alexi said as he rubbed his hand on her back.

"No, I can do this." Selina said with a determined look on her face.

Selina took a deep breath and looked around the room.

"I felt weak for not being able to tell anyone, but at the same time I was so afraid for those images to be released they could ruin my name." Selina said as she began to cry.

"It's okay Selina, we understand." Katerina told her with a nod as she walked over and pulled Selina into a hug.

"I went through something similar too, with Louisse I mean." Francesca said, speaking up.

"Are you sure about this?" Ram asked as he looked at her with a worried expression.

"Yes, I'm ready to talk about it." Francesca said with a nod as she took a deep breath.