Never Judge

When they got back to the VIP room they found Ray waiting for them.

"I got a lead." Ray proudly announced.

​​

"Let's go outside and talk about it." Emilio Reyes said.

"Dad, I'd like to hear it, and help if I could." Adrianna said.

Emilio looked at Ayanna who just nodded back. Ray saw this and took out some photos and documents from a brown envelope.

"What did you find?" Emilio asked.

"The driver of the truck died upon impact with Cedric's car, which we found to be highly suspicious, so we sent his body for an autopsy. He was dead for at least an hour when the truck crashed into Cedric's car." Ray explained showing photos of the truck driver.

"The driver wasn't reported missing since he had gone to work like normal that morning. The driver was hired by Triple Line Shipping, the same company that owned the truck." Ray continued.

"Let me guess, Triple Line Shipping filed for bankruptcy." Ayanna said.

"Correct. According to Triple Line Shipping they filed for bankruptcy a week ago and that this truck was sold in cash to the driver." Ray said, confirming Ayanna's suspicions.

"How could a truck driver afford the truck?" Adrianna asked.

"He couldn't. He took a suspicious loan from Southern Bank, wanna guess who else is linked to Southern Bank?" Ray said.

"I'm sure you're gonna say Triple Line Shipping." Adrianna answered.

Ray nodded.

"Interestingly 75% of Triple Line Shipping's retrenched employees got hired by a sister company of Southern Bank. To add to that, the driver's family received an anonymous check of three million. The bank, Southern Bank." Ray said.

"How did you find that out?" Emilio asked.

"Oh easy, the truck driver's neighbor is such a gossip. One of my men's mother just pretended to buy from her shop and she told her what the widow told her." Ray shrugged.

"Let's look into Southern Bank." Adrianna said.

"I will look into it. You stay here with Cedric. He would never forgive me if you got into harm's way." Ray told Adrianna.

"Ray's right Adrianna. Cedric would want you here when he woke up. I'll help Ray." Ayanna said.

"No you are not. You aren't getting in harm's way either!" Ray told Ayanna.

"Look, I can go to Southern Bank, meet with their bosses without raising suspicion. You and Alexi are both too suspicious. And don't tell me you can send Katerina, the moment she walks into their lobby they will lock up all their records and think she's there to file a case against them! At least I can phrase it as a proposal to work with M Bank." Ayanna explained. M Bank was the largest bank in the country which was owned by the Reyes Family. As a member of the family, Adrianna held shares and could also act on behalf of M Bank.

"She's right." Emilio said. As much as possible he did not want to risk putting Ayanna in a position where she could potentially come face to face with someone that wanted to hurt Cedric.

"Fine. But make sure to have more body guards than usual. And use the Phantom, Alexi had that built like a tank, so any attempt on you should be worthless." Ray said.

"I'll be careful Ray." Ayanna said touching his hand before getting up to make calls to set up the meeting.

"Who would want to hurt us? And how did they know that Cedric was the Reyes Heir?" Emilio Reyes asked.

"Alexi thinks they were following the car. Cedric tends to use the Ghost when he travels as the Reyes Heir. When they saw that it left Mor Co.'s parking they must have followed it." Ray explained. "They probably saw it going to the police station and set the trap up along the way."

Ayanna came back and announced that she had a meeting that afternoon with the president of Southern Bank.

"Did you talk to Alexi?" Ray asked.

"Yes. He's sending a security team and the car to pick me up in an hour. You're worse than my dad." Ayanna said rolling her eyes.

"I don't need to worry about you if Ray is there." Emilio Reyes teased.

After an hour, Cedric was still in the ICU recovering and Ayanna had to leave. She hugged her parents and opened the door. As she went out she tripped. Luckily she was caught by Jo, who was leading the team in as they rolled Cedric back to the room.

"You should be more careful, miss." Jo said as he helped Ayanna up.

"Oh, sorry. I'm such a klutz." Ayanna laughed awkwardly.

"I'll walk you downstairs myself." Ray, who was suddenly in a bad mood, held Ayanna by the arm and walked out with her.

"Is something going on between Ayanna and Ray?" Adrianna asked despite knowing that the girls already suspected that Ray liked Ayanna.

"I hope so." Emilio laughed.

Cedric was still unconscious when Jo had returned him to the room. Adrianna looked at her husband and sat next to him again.

"When will he wake up?" Emilio asked Jo.

"Either tonight or tomorrow morning." Jo replied.

"Cedric will be hungry. Get Marco to buy food for him." Priscilla told her husband.

"Auntie, no need. I asked my chef to come over to cook for Cedric." Eric said as he entered with Nicole and Miguel.

"Eric, so good that you could visit." Emilio said with a smile.

"Eric finally managed to shake off the paparazzi and come over." Nicole teased.

"How is he?" Nicole said as she looked over Cedric.

"He should wake up tonight or tomorrow morning." Miguel said, confirming what Jo had told the family.

"Thank you Miguel." Adrianna said with a smile.

"He's one of my best friends. I'd do everything to save him." Miguel smiled.

"Come sit. You all must be tired." Emilio said to the Chan siblings.

Everyone just smiled and took their seats.

"I remember when I first met you with Cedric, Adrianna." Miguel said laughing as he recounted the memory.

Adrianna and Cedric were a newly married couple and they had decided to have dinner at nearby Elisia Mall.

As they took a look around a tall figure began waving at Cedric.

"Ced, Ced! I'm back!" The stranger greeted Cedric.

"Oh hey Miguel." Cedric said with an indifferent smile.

"Honey, who is this?" Adrianna asked.

"An old friend. Adrianna this is Miguel, he's studying to be a doctor." Cedric quickly introduced.

Miguel ended up laughing.

"Yes, I guess you could say I'm studying to be a doctor. And who is this gorgeous woman?" Miguel asked, winking at Adrianna.

"My wife. Don't you need to go home to study some more?" Cedric asked, shooing away his friend.

"Yes, yes. I need to study. Bye Adrianna. We'll meet again." Miguel said as he ran away.

Adrianna laughed at the memory.

"When we met I was already a doctor and I had just come back from operating on the president of an African nation." Miguel said laughing.

"I think Cedric was worried you might spill!" Nicole teased her brother.

"I probably would have!" Miguel laughed.

Eric's Chef had prepared dinner for the group and when it was brought up they continued to tell stories about how Cedric was growing up. Adrianna walked over to her husband and stroked his hair.

"Hey Ced. You need to wake up. At this rate Miguel and Eric will have told me all of your embarrassing stories." Adrianna whispered.