Never Judge

Fernando's family home was a thirty minute drive away from the provincial office of the Reyes Group.

It was far enough that there were barely any buildings around, and the tiny village where the home was located consisted of only thirty families.

As Cedric's convoy pulled up to the house, he looked out and frowned. The nurse had been living quite a comfortable life and yet his relatives lived in a small single story concrete house.

"This is really it?" Cedric asked as he looked at Dave's car that was parked right outside of the house.

"Yes, sadly Fernando's family and all the families in this area sold their homes to a mining company." Mae explained.

"Find out about that mining company once we get back to the hotel." Cedric ordered as he opened the door and stepped out of his car.

The whole town was silent, it seemed that most of those living there in the past had already left, and Fernando's family was one of the last ones to remain.

"Boss." Dave greeted as he came out of the small house. "We got to them in time. They were just about to leave when we arrived."

"Is Mien inside with them now?" Cedric asked his assistant.

"No, he's in the car. Should I fetch him?" Dave asked.

"Ian, please ask Mien to join us." Cedric told Ian who was standing behind him.

His assistant dutifully did as he asked and walked towards the car.

"You're the one they've already met." Cedric explained to Dave who was quite confused that a trivial task was assigned to Cedric's more senior assistant. "If I step in there and tell them the news it will be way too overwhelming. Let's help them out a bit." Cedric said with a smile.

Dave wordlessly nodded and led Cedric and Mae into the house.

The inside of the house was quite bare, it was clear that Fernando's family was moving with the intention of never coming back.

Cedric and his group were immediately faced with people Cedric assumed to be Fernando's family. There was an elderly woman who immediately frowned at the sight of Cedric.

She began to shout at Cedric in a language he didn't understand.

Cedric frowned as she spoke, he didn't need an interpreter to understand that she was mad at him for some reason.

When the elderly woman finally finished her piece Cedric looked at Dave who took a deep breath and turned to a man sitting next to the elderly woman.

"I'm sorry about my mother." The man said.

"She's mad about something, do you mind translating for me?" Cedric asked as he dared to take a closer step.

"It is very offensive, I don't think you would want to hear it." The man explained with a frown, he was clearly unsure about what to do.

"I know, it was quite clear with her tone. Please, translate." Cedric said with a nod.

"If you don't mind sir, I'll just leave out some of the offensive parts." The man told Cedric as he finally gave into his request.

Cedric simply nodded and let the man continue.

"My mother is mad, she said she has seen many men like you. Men in suits and ties all dressed up pretending to bring us good things only to take our home and throw us to the wolves." The man said as he looked at Cedric, as if asking if he should continue.

"Go on." Cedric told the man with a nod.

"She said that if you bring the same false gifts as those men you should just go back to where you came. She is sick and tired, she is old, and she wants you all gone." The man translated.

"Tell her that I am not with the men she is talking about, and what I bring isn't exactly good news." Cedric said with a frown.

The man paused as if wanting to ask more, but he went against his better judgement and simply translated to the old lady.

She quickly gave her answer and her son translated it back.

"She said, let's get over with it, what do you have to tell us?" The man explained.

"Do you know a man named Fernando? Did you have a brother and she a son named Fernando?" Cedric asked.

"Fernando?! Fernando?!" The old lady began to say in a distressed tone.

Her son quickly tried to calm her down, it took him a while but eventually she settled down.

"Yes, my older brother's name is Fernando, but he died over twenty years ago." The man said with a frown.

"Why was your mother so distressed?" Cedric asked as he looked at the old lady.

"My mother. . ." The man said as he looked at the old lady. "My mother doesn't think my brother died when he did. She said she would see him in the city or in the woods out back."

"What if I told you your mother wasn't exactly wrong?" Cedric asked the man.

The man looked at Cedric as if he were crazy, and after a long silence he laughed.

"With all due respect sir, we buried my brother's remains. We mourned him. I doubt that my brother could have been alive all these years and not contact us." The man said as gave Cedric a serious look.

The old woman began to tug on her son's shirt, trying to catch his attention. The man quickly said something to silence her, before finally facing Cedric once more.

"My mother wants to ask how you know of my brother." The man said with a frown.

"How did she understand what I said?" Cedric asked.

"She didn't, she just heard his name and assumed." The man said with a shrug.

"It's not my boss that knew Fernando." Mae said as she spoke up.

The man seemed to be quite surprised when he saw Mae. He probably wasn't expecting for one of Cedric's people to be the one to have known his brother.

"You can't have known him. My brother died when you were probably 2 or 3 years old, he couldn't have known you." the man said as he shook his head.