Never Judge

"What do you mean she never dated Alexi?" Cedric asked. "Alexi still slept with a lot of women he didn't date. She could be one of those."

"No sir, we even looked into that." Mae informed Cedric. 

"What do you mean Mae?" Selina, who had chosen to stay behind, asked.

"There was just no chance for her and Mr. Alexi to meet." Mae explained. "So her claim that Alexi had hurt her and used her, it's not true."

"Why would she lie about that?" Selina asked as she looked at Cedric. 

"What did you find out about her and her family?" Cedric asked his assistants. "Why were they at the wedding?" Cedric asked.

"Her father is in banking and works with M Bank a lot." Dave said as he read through the notes he and Mae had compiled. "As a partner they were invited to join the wedding."

"The bank he works for, who is their biggest client?" Cedric asked with a raised eyebrow. He had a gut feeling that there was a connection somewhere there.

"A moment sir." Mae said as she typed something quickly on her phone. Cedric saw the shock form on Mae's face as she read what she had found. "Impossible, the coincidence is just too much." Mae said with a gasp.

"What is it?" Cedric asked as he tried to look over what she was reading.

"Sir, her father's largest client is Regis Inc." Mae's voice trembled as she said this.

"Could the Carpios be involved?" Priscilla Reyes asked her son. 

"We have been on good terms with the Carpios, I don't think they would do something like this." Cedric explained as he thought of a possible angle to everything that was going on.

"Everything that keeps happening seems to keep leading back to them Cedric." Priscilla told her son as she placed a hand on his arm.

"I won't jump into conclusions mom." Cedric said as he tried to contradict her in a respectful manner. "The Carpios are almost as powerful as we are. This isn't a simple matter."

"Your son is right Priscilla." Rebeckah Sebastian said. "You need to go about this carefully. We can't just fling accusations."

"Mom, we can handle this." Cedric said in a comforting tone. "Don't worry."

Priscilla Reyes had no choice but to trust her son and nod in agreement with him. He was after all an adult now and he had proven his own capabilities time and time again, but of course as a mother she couldn't help but worry about him.

"Mae, have someone look deeper into her background." Cedric instructed. "Something must have coerced her to work with Jen and I want to know what that was."

"Yes sir." Mae said as she turned and left.

"Dave, come on." Cedric said as he gestured for his assistant to follow him. "We need to inform the others about this new development."

Cedric and Dave left the main house and headed to the Reyes Family's garage. 

The ground floor and upper floors of the structure were quite ordinary, the first and second floors housed the cars while the third floor was a repair center. The building's fourth floor served as a residence for the family drivers and mechanics as well as some of their families. 

The basement, however, was quite unique. It was sound proof and had a state of the art security system installed. There were interrogation rooms and holding cells, they were there for the protection of the Reyes Family.

Cedric knew that his grandfather had this building constructed when Emilio Reyes III was still undergoing poverty training. There had been some threats on the then Reyes Heir and Cedric's grandfather wanted to ensure that he could run the investigation on his own and at the same time protect the Reyes Family.

The modern features and state of the art security had been added by Ayanna later on while Cedric was still undergoing his poverty training. 

"That's her." Alexi hissed as he pointed towards the woman at the other side of the one way mirror. 

Paola's hands were tied behind her back, she was clearly not happy about being brought to the strange place. 

"She isn't scared." Ray said as he scratched his chin.

"Should she be?" Ram asked as he joined them in observing the woman.

"If she was your ordinary socialite she would be scared shitless." Jose Sebastian said as he and Emilio Reyes joined the boys.

"So what does this mean?" Miguel asked.

"I'm not sure." Ray said as he continued to observe the woman. 

"Alexi has never slept with her." Cedric said all of a sudden.

"What?" Alexi asked. "Are you sure? How can you be sure?"Alexi berated Cedric and Dave with questions.

"Sir, we looked at all the possibilities, there is just no way for you to have met her." Dave explained.

"So why did she claim to have slept with me?" Alexi asked as he gave Cedric a very confused look.

"That's what we need to find out." Cedric told Alexi. "Oh and another thing."

"What?" Alexi asked.

"There may be ties between her and Regis Inc." Cedric said, surprising everyone in the room.

"But son, the Carpio family." Emilio Reyes said as he tried to explain his confusion. "Cedric, all of our relationships with them have been good. Why would they go after the Sebastian family now? And to add to that Jose and Alexi are at the peak of power at the moment, it isn't a simple thing trying to offend them. The Carpios are much smarter than that." 

"I told mom the same thing dad, I don't want to jump into conclusions." Cedric explained. "I've had Mae look even deeper into her background."

"Well now that we know that Alexi hasn't slept with her or anything, I won't feel bad about interrogating here." Ray said with a grin. To the outside world Ray might have seemed like the most charming gentleman in the group, but to the underground he was one of the most feared people around.

"Nothing above the neck." Alexi warned. "We don't want to leave any proof."

Ray nodded and walked to the other room.