Never Judge

"Dad, what are you talking about?" Cedric asked as he turned to look at his father.

He could see from Emilio's expression that he was one hundred percent sure that Andrew Chan didn't have a son, so it meant that his father could know where the real Andrew Chan was.

"What made you think that Andrew has a son?" James Abad asked as he looked at Cedric. "Did someone tell you?"

"Yes." Adrianna said as she jumped into the conversation. "My friend Julia was married to a man who was going around with the name, Aaron Ting." She explained.

"Then he must be a relative of Lucius Ting then, how is that even related to Andrew Chan?" Raphael Chan asked as he waved his arms in the air. "Don't tell me you kids are still convinced that Lucius Ting is Andrew Chan."

"No." Miguel said as he shook his head. "We've known for a while that Lucius Ting couldn't be Andrew Chan."

"Then tell us how you came up with the conclusion that you found Andrew Chan's son." Raphael Chan demanded from his son.

"Because according to my friend Julia the real name of the father of her son and her husband on paper was Andrew Chan." Adrianna revealed, shocking everyone in the room.

"That's impossible." Jose Sebastian said as he sat up as he looked towards his friends. "He isn't married."

"So you guys do know where the real Andrew Chan is?" Cedric asked as he looked at the fathers.

As he scanned the people seated around the table he noticed that the moms didn't look the least bit surprised, it was as if they too knew the truth.

"You all knew?" Ray suddenly asked as he noticed the same thing as Cedric. "You all knew!"

"Ray, son, it was for his own protection, Andrew needed to be kept safe." Benedicto Laurence told his son with a sad look in his eyes.

"We never wanted to lie to you, to any of you." Emilio Reyes told their children as he looked at each of them. "But we had to, little children could slip up and accidentally say something."

"Why did you have to hide him, dad?" Cedric asked. They were all eager to find out who was after such a young boy and why he needed to be hidden.

"There were people in the Chan family that wanted to use him." It was Raphael Chan that answered for them.

"They wanted to use the boy to take power from my dad and me. They wanted to kidnap him to manipulate him into claiming that he should be the head of the family after me." Raphael Chan said with a sigh.

"But dad, Eric is older." Miguel said as he pointed at his older brother. "He still remembers uncle Miguel being in the country. How can Andrew be the next family head?" He questioned.

"At that time I was already showing signs of being more progressive than they could stomach." Raphael Chan explained. "I let your mother do operations and help with the business when traditionally she should have stayed at home to help raise Eric."

"They didn't like that." Eric said with a frown as he closed his eyes and leaned back. "I always thought I had imagined you fighting with some of your uncles about mom working. I thought it was too archaic a belief to be possible."

"Son, you know how our family operates, they prefer to stick to tradition rather than to innovate." Raphael Chan said with a frown. "I warned them time and again that their old and ancient ways would be the reason our family ended, but they refused to listen."

"But dad, couldn't you have just overruled them?" Nicole asked.

"Back then? No." Raphael Chan said with a laugh. "Back then we didn't have as many stocks in our immediate family, the stocks were spread out much thinly among relatives, it was only when you started working at Saints Hospital that we got so many stocks in our hands."

"How?" Miguel asked, curious about what his father meant.

"Your grandfather and I did our best to buy as many stocks from distant relatives as possible." Raphael Chan explained. "They had very small stocks individually, but combined they were quite significant. Over the years we managed to accumulate as much as possible."

"How old is Andrew Chan now?" Ian asked as he looked up from where he sat next to Nicole.

As much as he and Nicole refused to admit it, the Lims were just as much involved in the Chan family drama as they were.

"He is a month younger than Cedric, around a year older than Miguel." Raphael Chan explained.

"So he could be someone we have met." Miguel told his father who nodded slowly.

"Dad, where is Andrew Chan? Where is our cousin?" Nicole asked in a determined tone.

"When my brother Miguel died, he left a will which he gave to the person he trusted the most." Raphael Chan began to explain.

"Fernando." Cedric whispered in a voice loud enough for the other to hear.

"Yes, Fernando was not just his employee, over the years they became best friends." Raphael Chan said with a nod. "On his will he asked Fernando to send out a letter to me asking me to take his son and hide him."

"That's who Fernando was waiting for, he was waiting for you in the letters he sent to his wife." Katerina said with a gasp.

"Not just me, he was waiting for us, he needed all of us to hide his son." Raphael Chan explained.

"You were the ones that made sure Fernando lived a good life." Cedric pointed out.

"Yes." Emilio Reyes said with a nod. "Fernando was supposed to be reunited with his son and wife this year, sadly his brother-in-law was murdered and he too passed away."

"So the people after Andrew are still at it?" Cedric asked.

"In a way, but this isn't them, this is someone else, someone that doesn't want the truth to come out." Raphael Chan said in a dark tone.

"Where did you hide Andrew then?" Ian asked as he continued to push the question for Nicole.

"In plain sight." Raphael Chan said with a shrug.. "We hid him as Ramon Abad, eldest son of the Abad family."