Never Judge

Being away from the office for so long meant that the work had managed to pile up. Even if Ian and Camilla were around, it didn't mean that they could handle everything. There were still some things that required their CEO's attention. 

By the time Cedric was done, it was already well past six and both Adrianna and Ayanna must have been waiting for him for a while. 

Cedric quickly dialed his wife's number and asked Ian and Camilla to tell Ayanna to meet him at the basement parking.

"Hello?" Adrianna said over the phone.

"I'm sorry I took so long honey, Ayanna and I are on our way. How's the little one?" Cedric asked in a loving tone.

"It's okay Ced. I know you're really busy." Adrianna said over the phone. "Our baby is a little active today. It seems our little one will be quite a handful." Adrianna said with a giggle. Cedric loved everything about his wife, especially her laugh, he knew that as long as she was happy he would be happy as well.

"I'll see you in a bit. We'll pick you up at the basement so that people don't see." Cedric told his wife. 

"See you." Adrianna said in a cheery tone as she dropped the call.

Cedric didn't have to wait long as his sister arrived right after he did. They drove to Island's Inc. and picked Adrianna up.

Inside the car, Adrianna held Cedric's hand and leaned on his shoulder. Cedric knew that being pregnant was tiring so he tried his best to comfort his wife. 

"Sister in law, does it hurt to be pregnant?" Ayanna asked Adrianna. 

"Why Ayanna? Do you plan on getting pregnant soon? I should warn Ray." Cedric teased. He had no issue with his sister and best friend getting married and having kids. He knew that his parents wanted them to give them grandkids since it took Cedric so long.

"Oh shut up Cedric!" Ayanna said as she pretended to be pissed off with her older brother. Cedric just laughed at her as he held his wife in his arms.

"It's not painful, just uncomfortable sometimes." Adrianna told Ayanna with a smile.

Soon they arrived at Bamboo Room, everyone had already been waiting for them and they were greeted happily by their friends.

"Did you see the amount of reporters camping out outside?" Nicole said with a giggle.

Cedric did notice all of the flashes as their car passed through the entrance. It seemed their dinner plans had been leaked.

"Well I did cancel all the reservations, so people ended up getting suspicious." Ray said with a shrug.

"I really don't understand why they are so fascinated with you guys." Natalia sighed.

"If you came out of your lab more, people would be fascinated with you too." Alexi teased his youngest sister. Cedric knew that Natalia worked in a secret laboratory on the palace grounds. She did classified work for the government that often required her to stay away for weeks and even months.

"I don't see what's so interesting about you Alexi. You're just a playboy!" Natalia said, sticking her tongue out.

"It's not my fault ladies love me!" Alexi said, raising his hands. Everyone except Natalia laughed.

"So Cedric, care to shed some light on who we need to deal with?" Alexi asked in a more serious tone as he leaned back on his seat.

Cedric looked at everyone and grinned. Of course they were all eager to hear who his next target will be. 

"There are some people I want to pay back for their horrible treatment of me and my friends back when I was in poverty training." Cedric began to explain as everyone listened intently.

"Do you have a list?" Nicole grinned and half teased. Ian who was seated next to her pinched her on the waist making her yelp in surprise.

"Ian, Nicole, please save that for the bedroom." Katerina said as she laughed at the blushing Nicole. Her embarrassment made Nicole gulp a whole glass of wine.

"I have a list and I want to start with the easiest." Cedric explained. He was slightly worried that his friends would think he was being petty, but he had every right to be. They did, after all, step on and look down at him. 

"I want to make these five companies suffer." Cedric said as he nodded to Ian to pass the list he had prepared.

"Shouldn't be too hard. I work with several of them, if I pull out a project it should cause a panic." Ram said with a shrug.

"It would be easy to have them investigated as well. No one is clean, everyone has bribed an official or two. Maybe some tax issues." Alexi looked intently at the list as he tried to think if he had encountered any issues with the companies on the list. He was planning on pinning it on some political rivals, hitting two birds with one stone.

"Stop drinking! You don't have a driver and you aren't vomiting in my car!" Katerina scolded her older brother Alexi. She grabbed the list from him and grinned when she saw the names. "You're in luck, Cedric. I'm about to file a few cases against one of these companies."

"Why don't you just ban them Ced?" Ayanna asked as she looked over Ray's copy of the list. "If we blacklist them then they can't get any projects or any investors. They will close within the day of us doing that."

"Simple. I want them to suffer. I want it to be a slow burn for all of them. They need to think about who they offended before I show myself to them." Cedric explained to his sister.

"Ced, isn't this too much? Isn't this quite petty?" When Adrianna saw the list she immediately knew what they did to Cedric.

"They should learn not to look down on people just because of their background. I didn't put everyone that said no to me on that list Adrianna." Cedric said in a cold but tender tone to his wife. He had his reasons and he was hoping she would understand.

"Why would Adri say it's petty Cedric?" Veronica asked. "Clearly they did something to you that Adrianna thinks isn't that big a deal."

"They rejected my job applications." Cedric said with a laugh. It was true every single company on the list that Cedric placed were companies that had rejected him when he was first looking for a job.

"That's petty, even for me Cedric." Alexi said, rolling his eyes.

"It's not that simple, is it?" Ray asked his friend.

"No. Each and every one of them rejected me because the son or daughter of some rich or influential person decided they wanted the job I was after. Many of those that took the jobs took it intentionally." Cedric explained to everyone.

"Not that petty but still petty." Veronica said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't tell me these are the only people you are after?" Ram said, raising the list full of suspicion.

"Of course not. Those are the easy ones. I want to get back at all my bullies as well, then those people who looked down at my relationship with Adrianna, then there are also all those men that tried to take her from me." Cedric said with a grin that made everyone uneasy.

"We get it, we get it. You hate a lot of people." Miguel teased.

"You're actually the useless one here!" Veronica said, bullying her husband.

"Woman, can't you give me a break? But if you wanna play rough, I can play rough." Miguel said with a wink that was loaded with meaning.

Veronica got annoyed and hit him.

Everyone burst into laughter, they had never seen such a failed attempt at flirting as Miguel. 

"Cedric, I chose you. You don't need to go after the people that tried to get in between us." Adrianna said with a frown.

"Don't worry Adri. I'm not the Cedric from before. I can stand my own against them." Cedric said with a wink.