Never Judge

"I'm assuming you got all of his assets on the property?" Benedict asked.

"No, it's kept under a biometric lock. We're still working on it." Ray explained.

"I should be able to open it. My brother probably never bothered to take out my biometric access from his system." Benedict said with a smile. "Without those funds he only has one person he can turn to."

"Kenneth Cruz." Cedric said with a grin.

"So the party must go on?" Katerina asked.

"Won't they be suspicious?" Camilla asked with a concerned look on her face.

"They might." Cedric admitted. "But I'm hoping that Lorisa's social climbing tendencies will overpower her logic. Everyone who is anyone will be there." 

"I doubt my brother will be able to contact Kenneth soon." Benedict told everyone. "He will need to find a safehouse that I don't know about, and that will take a while. I also have a feeling that he will try to kidnap my sister again."

"Camilla and you can stay in my home for the meantime." Cedric informed Benedict.

"As much as I would love to accept your offer, you are too trusting." Benedict said with a frown. "What if I take the opportunity to harm you or your family."

"If you were planning on harming us, you wouldn't have shot your brother." Cedric said, shaking his head. "And I, no, we owe this to Camilla."

"Cedric, what if my brother stays at the guest house?" Camilla suggested. "You can place guards around the area and cut off any form of communication."

"That's a great idea Camilla." Cedric said with a smile. 

"That was bloody." Miguel said as he joined them in the house.

"Any casualties?" Cedric asked with a worried look on his face. The number of deaths from Aiden's attack in the past still haunted Cedric.

"You know that at times like these, death cannot be avoided." Miguel said with a frown before telling him the total body count.

"If I could save every life, I would." Cedric said with a determined expression.

"Five dead and another twenty injured." Miguel told him. "I'll tell their families personally." Cedric told Miguel.

Miguel sighed and placed a hand on Cedric's shoulder. "A good friend of mine once told me, you can't save everyone." Miguel said, repeating the words Cedric told him when he couldn't save Jam.

Cedric smiled at his friend and nodded.

He still felt bad about people dying and getting injured because of him, but Miguel's reminder helped him get over the guilt a little bit.

"Besides, the real person to blame here is my brother." Benedict said in a dark tone. "He went too far kidnapping our sister. This needs to end."

"It will. Will you help us?" Cedric asked.

"Yes." Benedict promised.

After resting for a bit, the group left Katerina's house and headed for Cedric's Mountain View Mansion. It had been a long and tiring day, Camilla was fast asleep in the back seat, leaning on her brother, while Ian drove.

When they finally got back, the women took Camilla away and drew her a calming bath.

"Thank you." Cedric said as he and Benedict walked towards the guest house. "You didn't have to turn on your brother like that but you did." 

"No, my brother had gone too far." Benedict said, shaking his head. "I should be the one thanking you. You took my sister in, you treated her as a true friend and today you saved her. I don't know how I could ever repay you."

"Camilla is like a sister to me. So there is no need." Cedric told Benedict as they approached the guest house.

"This place is massive." Benedict said as he looked around in awe.

"I had hoped to live here with my wife and kids till we grew old enough to pass it on, but it seems life has different plans." Cedric said with a frown.

"What do you mean?" Benedict asked.

"We may have to move because of my mother's passing." Cedric said with a sigh. "The Reyes Compound is where the head of the Reyes Family should live. I managed to escape that by saying my parents should live there instead, but with mom gone they will pressure us to move in."

"I'm sure you'll find a compromise." Benedict said as they entered the guest house.

"By the way, there are some things I wanted to ask you." Cedric said as he gestured for Benedict to take a seat.

"I'll try to answer them the best I can." Benedict told Cedric with a serious expression as he took a seat on the couch.

Cedric smiled and walked over to pour himself and Benedict a drink.

"We might need this." Cedric said with a chuckle as he took a sip from his glass.

Benedict mirrored his actions and did the same. It had been a long day, a little alcohol was truly needed.

"How did the Carpios not know of yours or of Camilla's existence? I visited Jonathan Carpio a while back and he only mentioned one child of your parents."  Cedric asked as he took a seat across Benedict.

"My parents never let them know that they had two other children, the only one that knew about us was our maternal grandfather." Benedict said with a sad nod. "Sometimes I can't help but wonder how our lives would have turned out if we had been adopted by the Carpios instead."

"We will never know." Cedric said as he poured them another glass. "There is no use worrying about the what ifs, what matters now is what you do with the cards life has dealt you."

"Wise words." Benedict said with a smile as he drank from the glass Cedric offered.

They both sat in silence as they pondered different things.

"Next question?" Benedict finally asked, breaking the silence. 

Cedric smiled then sighed.

"I don't know if you will know the answer to this, but I might as well ask." Cedric said as he looked at his now empty glass. "Do you know how your brother managed to enter Reyes Compound?"

"I do." Benedict admitted. "And it was my plan."

____________________________________________________________________

I understand that many of you still have questions regarding Never Judge, like how the government and it's accompanying police system seem to be worthless in this novel. 

The answer to that is, not all countries have a good police or justice system, and this reflects just that.

In many countries, if you are rich you can more or less get away with anything and everything, and this is reflective of that.

Cedric is part of the elites of the country in this novel, he has the power to take justice into his own hands had have no need to pay for whatever consequences it has with the law. 

In my up coming novel, Rise of the Disgraced Heir, you will get to see how the poor people of this country has to deal with a poor justice and police system.

Many of you have asked me what country the story is set at, it is at an imaginary country, but many things about it are reflective of countries that do exist.

The behavior of the rich families are similar to those that we see in South East Asia, and the traditions are quite similar as well.

If you have more questions you can ask them in my discord server as well.