Never Judge

It was dark and silent as Ian marched into the Mountain View security building.

His friends had left hours ago and his wife and son were sound asleep in Cedric's Mountain View home. For their protection, Cedric had asked for Nicole and Tristan to live longer with him under the guise of his son needing more companionship.

Tristan might have been younger than Yoyo by two years, but he was quite smart and could easily interact with the older boy.

"Mr. Lim." The guard in charge at that hour said as he saluted his employer's friend and right hand man. Everyone knew that they were to treat Ian Lim as if he were Cedric himself.

"Switch off the cameras, I want to speak to a prisoner." Ian commanded in a cold tone.

The guard in charge scrambled to do as Ian asked. It was quite well known that unlike Mr. Reyes, Ian had a temper and the guard knew it was best not to see that renowned temper of his.

"They are switched off sir." The guard reported.

Ian looked at the screens before him to confirm that all the cameras were switched off, there was no room for mistakes.

"Where is the prisoner Henry located?" Ian asked, making sure to make it sound like an ordinary procedure.

"Cell 23, block 2, basement 3." The guard said quite confidently. He knew that this was a high profile prisoner held at a random cell.

​ Leon had made sure that if the Rajas invaded in an attempt to free Henry it would take them a while to figure out where the man was being kept.

"I shall have a word with him, hand me your access badge." He told the guard.

"Sir, don't you want me to take you there?" The guard asked, finding it odd that Ian would want to go down to the holding cells alone.

"No, I will go alone. My body guards will stay here with you." Ian pointed to the two men who followed him practically everywhere.

"Are you sure you can navigate the holding cells, sir?" The guard regretted the question the moment he had asked it. Of course Ian could navigate the maze of cells beneath, he had helped design it.

"I will be on my way, stay here with him." Ian instructed as he left the main level of the security building and took the elevator down to the correct level.

While the bodyguards had been assigned to him by the Reyes Group in his first years of working with them, the two men were completely loyal to him.

Aside from Cedric and his friends, his bodyguards were the only ones aware of the deception he was about to pull.

Paying attention to where he was headed, Ian stopped in front of one of the most isolated holding cells in the whole building.

Leon had ensured that no one was even near Henry. He had no plans of letting any information leak back to the Rajas about where the designer was being held.

Ian tapped the access card on the door and entered the master code allowing him entry into the holding cell.

"What are you doing here?" Henry hissed as he noticed Ian stepping into his room.

"Relax, the cameras are switched off and no one will question my presence in this building." Ian said as he closed the door behind him and walked towards the designer.

"Your grandfather would be embarrassed by you!" Henry dared to accuse him.

Ian grabbed Henry by the neck and lifted him, slamming him against the wall. His years working for the Reyes Group and the Mafias had taught Ian how to be cold hearted and how to intimidate people.

He looked the designer in the eyes as the man now trembled in his hand.

"You almost ruined generations of work!" Ian shouted.

He threw Henry across the room as the man slid on the floor and hit the other wall.

"Do you have any idea how hard I worked, how hard my family worked to get into the good graces of the Reyes family and their friends!" Ian shouted furiously as his voice echoed across the room.

"Y- y- you. . ." Henry was unable to speak. He was too stunned to learn that Ian and the rest of the Lim family had been working for the Rajas all along.

"Yes, I've been part of the Rajas this entire time. Working to get to our goal." As Ian spoke he took something from his pocket and opened his palm to show Henry a ring.

"Sir, I didn't-" Henry was cut off when Ian glared at him, he knew that it wasn't his place to speak. He was not to speak unless asked a question, he was meant to listen.

"You didn't think!" Ian shouted. "If you are hoping that I will let you out of this cell then you are gravely mistaken! If you escape then Cedric and his friends will know that I let you out. But you have already caused too much damage."

Ian took out a phone from his pocket and tossed it to Henry.

The man stared blankly at him, he seemed at a loss as to what he had to do.

"Your action against them and your accusation against me has reached the Rajas. My family's involvement had been kept a secret for decades only for you to ruin it. You will call your handler and inform him of your mistake. You will tell him to get in touch with me." Ian ordered in a cold and unfeeling tone that made Henry shiver.

In all the years that Henry had known Ian, this was the first time he was seeing this side of the man and it scared him.

Henry quickly did as Ian asked and dialed a number, he spoke to someone and explained things just as Ian had ordered him.

Ian stood across him, watching him, not showing any emotion as the man trembled on the floor.

After a few minutes of explaining the situation, Henry stretched out his hand as he offered the phone back to Ian.

His head hung low as he realized the gravity of his mistake.

"They wish to have a word with you, master Lim." Henry said.

Ian took the phone ready to speak to the person at the other end of the line.

"Mr. Lim." A voice greeted. "We thought we had lost your family to the wrong side."

"You were mistaken." Ian said as he looked down at Henry and gave him a kick on the temple, knocking him out cold.