Never Judge

After Cedric had told Camilla about her family, Miguel made everyone except the Reyeses and Cedric's assistants go home.

"Cedric needs to rest." Miguel said as he pushed the Sebastians out of the door. "Visit him tomorrow, he still needs to recover."

"You just don't want me to tell -" Alexi was cut off as Miguel shut the door on his face.

"What was that?" Adrianna asked. "It sounded like Alexi wanted to tell me something."

"It's nothing honey." Cedric said as he pulled his wife into his arms and kissed her.

"Seriously guys?" Ayanna complained. "We are still here."

Cedric rolled his eyes as he let his wife go.

"Camilla, how are you holding up?" He said, as he looked at his former assistant with concern.

"Do you hate me?" Camilla asked with a worried expression.

"Camilla, why would we? How could we?" Adrianna said as she walked over and hugged Camilla.

"My family has done so much bad to yours." Camilla said with a frown. 

"You didn't choose the family you were born into." Cedric said, shaking his head. "But you did choose the person you have come to become, and Camilla, you are amazing."

"Boss is right Camilla, you are amazing." Dave said, agreeing with Cedric's words. "You taught me and Mae so much, we probably would never have survived working for the Reyes Group if it weren't for you and Ian."

"Suck up." Ian teased. He and Nicole had stayed behind, Nicole to check up on Cedric, Ian to wait for instructions. He had promised to help the Reyes Family until things were better.

"Don't bully them." Camilla scolded.

"I miss seeing all four of you in the office." Cedric said with a laugh. "Speaking of the office, there will be a fifth member joining you guys, at least till things recover."

"Who?" Ian asked.

"Marco." Emilio Reyes III announced proudly.

"Marco?" Camilla asked.

"Yes, he's finally done with his vacation and has chosen to come back to work." Cedric laughed. He knew that Marco couldn't stay away from the Reyes Group for long. 

Marco was a workaholic, he needed to work to function properly. He also had another reason, when he had called Cedric to ask if he could come back, he confessed that he was finally ready to make it work between him and Cedric's cousin, Marie.

Cedric was ecstatic when he heard the news and was more than willing to let Marco come back and call Marie to the head office to help. He knew that the couple loved each other, there were just a lot of hindrances in their romance.

"Cedric, there is something I wanted to ask." Camilla said shyly.

"What is it?" Cedric said as he looked up from his seat.

"Did my brother tell you anything about my past?" Camilla asked. "I know I chose to forget, but that was back when I was a child, now I feel like I'm ready to face those ghosts."

Cedric nodded in understanding. He knew some things took time to heal, and for Camilla's case it took decades. He didn't blame her, she must have gone through so much as a child for a little girl to choose to forget.

"All I know is that he seemed to love you very much, and it's your supposed death that hurt him the most." Cedric tried his best to recall what Aiden had told him. "He believes your parents were innocent, but even you as a child had confirmed that to be a lie. He grew up alone with just your cruel grandfather."

"What if we told him I survived?" Camilla asked.

"He wouldn't believe us. A DNA test would take too long as well." Cedric said, quickly thinking of how they could prove the relationship. "Aiden would be long gone before we could get the results."

"You are probably right." Camilla frowned.

"Camilla, if you want to seek him out I will not stop you." Cedric told her. "It's your life, he is still your family."

Camilla shook her head. "I gave up on that family a long time ago."

"I might have been young at that time, but I chose to start a new life, a life away from those people." Camilla added. "I might not remember everything about the past, but I know I wasn't happy with them."

"Still, he is your family." Cedric said. "If the time comes and you get your chance, tell him you are alive. Aiden was just a child then as well. He isn't to blame for what you have suffered, he was too young."

"But look at him now Cedric, he is clearly worse than my parents." Camilla said, shaking her head. "I saw what he had them do to Jen. He is a monster."

"I can't pretend to feel empathy for Jen, but don't blame Aiden for your parent's actions." Cedric told Camilla. "As for his actions today, he is old enough to know right from wrong, and I will hold him accountable."

"We made sure that all those that died will be honored properly." Mae suddenly said. "They knew that this was a possibility, but they still didn't deserve to die that way."

"Did you send their families the money?" Cedric asked. "I know that won't be enough, but I hope bringing their loved one's murderer to justice will give them peace."

The mood turned somber as they thought of the guards that had been killed in cold blood. Those men didn't need to die, but Aiden ordered their death anyway. Cedric had made up his mind to punish Aiden for killing those people.

"When will we go back to work?" Dave suddenly asked.

"Take today and tomorrow off." Cedric told his assistants. "By then I should be in better shape and we can focus on cleaning up after the mess Aiden has created."

His assistants nodded, acknowledging his instructions.

"You may all go." Cedric told them.

At that, everyone except Ian left.

"This will be harder than we expect." Ian told Cedric.

"I know, but we will need to keep pushing forward." Cedric said with as smile.

"We will catch Aiden, and he will pay." Ian told Cedric.

"Sometimes Ian, I wonder if we are any better than them." Cedric said as he stared into the distance. "We punish people, how are we better than those that we punish?"

Cedric's words stunned everyone, making them all speechless.