Never Judge

Cedric took a seat on his desk and checked the documents his assistants had left on his desk.

"Why are you here Nicole?" Cedric asked without looking up. ​ ​

"I came to ask for money!" Nicole said cheerfully.

"And why aren't you asking Miguel?." Cedric said flatly.

"You're richer than my brother and this is a business thing, Miguel sucks at business things." Nicole said, crossing her arms.

"What is it?" Even if Nicole acted like a child around him he knew that a business proposition from Nicole would have a 90% chance of success, 10% was when Miguel meddled with the plan and turned it into a charity.

"I'm building a mental health clinic, well a chain of clinics and I need an investor. It's innovative, it's modern, and it will earn. I've already proposed this to the board at the hospital and they rejected my plans, they will only back it if I have a significant and reputable name backing the project, and even then what they want to give me is very limited. The old men in office think this is a fool's errand, I think people need this." Nicole said with a serious face.

"Why do you want to build clinics for crazy people?" Katerina asked.

"You of all people should know they aren't crazy people! Mental health is important. You, Katerina, suffer from depression, anxiety, and bipolar personality. You visit one of my old clinics every week." Nicole said, contradicting Katerina.

"H-h-how did you know that?" Katerina was furious.

"I know everything about everyone's medical records!" Nicole boasted.

"Whatever happened to patient-doctor confidentiality?" Alexi teased.

"I own the hospital. Plus if you get sick you'll still come crawling to my hospital. Cedric did you know that we've patched Alexi up more times than a poor man's flat tire!" Nicole proudly said.

"Hey! I told Miguel not to tell anyone." Alexi complained.

"How could I not know! Cedric did you know, right after you left no one was there to reign Alexi and Ray in. They got into street fights, and bar fights, and all kinds of fights! They were in the hospital so often my dad reserved a room specifically for them, even the doctors were on standby. You're lucky your hood days didn't affect your dad when he ran for office!" Nicole complained.

"Hood days?" Cedric asked, he had an idea about the fights Alexi had gotten himself into, and he wasn't surprised about Ray. Alexi's fights were well talked about among kids their age and Ray was going through his own training. His family might have controlled the underground for years, but the leader was always selected, a Laurence just so happened to be selected every time. That's why Ray had to work his way up from the bottom, it also helped that their businesses could fund the gangs and their connections could make the authorities look the other way.

"It's Nicole's term for Ray's other world. Just ask him next time." Alexi said with a laugh.

"Now aside from Cedric I want you all to invest in my mental health clinics, or I won't let my brother operate on you." Nicole demanded.

"That's illegal Nicole." Katerina threatened.

"Can you prove it?" Nicole teased.

"I'm me." Katerina boasted back.

"You guys won't do anything to each other." Cedric said with a laugh.

"Fine, I'll invest." Alexi said in surrender.

"Of course, I'll invest, Nicole." Cedric smiled.

"Katerina and Natalia will too." Alexi volunteered for his two sisters.

"I earn less than both of you." Natalia grumbled.

"Why are you going to me with this and not the others?" Cedric asked.

"Well, my Miguel is useless, I'll just get him to give me money. Ayanna agreed before leaving, Ayanna always agrees with me. Ram and Eric are actually at a movie shoot right now so I can't really bother them. Ray brought Ayanna back to America, and Veronica is off somewhere buying some stuff for your new house." Nicole explained.

"I have so many questions!" Cedric teased.

"Why would you have questions, I explained everything." Nicole cluelessly answered.

"What's Veronica buying?" Cedric asked.

"I don't know, she's going crazy with your limitless budget and shopping up a storm. She did mention buying you a car to display since you don't have time to buy cars on your own. Oh and I think she might be flying to Italy soon to buy some special material for your house." Nicole shrugged.

"What movie is Ram and Eric filming?" Cedric asked Nicole.

"A book by the author The Wanderer." Nicole answered easily.

"Why did Ray bring Ayanna back to America? She has a plane and her staff?" Cedric asked.

"Ray said he had business there anyway so might as well go with her, plus he always goes with, it's nothing new." Nicole shrugged. Cedric stared at Nicole to see if she was hiding something.

"Fine." Cedric said, surrendering to Nicole's explanation.

"And what are you three doing here?" Cedric looked at the three siblings who were lounging on his couch.

"We were bored. Katerina just finished defending a case, she won of course. We heard about what happened yesterday from Mom and decided to hear it from you." Alexi admitted.

"It seems it was a good thing we went here." Katerina giggled.

"Why? What happened?" Nicole asked.

"You were too busy flirting with Cedric's assistant." Katerina teased Nicole.

"I was not!" Nicole suddenly became over defensive.

"Oh come on! Ever since Veronica mentioned him to you, you've been looking for a reason to meet him!" Natalia said exposing Nicole.

"It won't be good for you Nicole, Ian will be extremely busy in the future." Cedric was serious about his warning.

"I wasn't flirting with him!" Nicole shouted.

"Cedric was just warning you. No need to get all riled up about it." Alexi teased.

The Sebastian siblings and Nicole spent the whole morning in Cedric's office, they spent it mostly teasing Nicole.

Cedric finally managed to drive them out after they had lunch at Nouveau. Luckily no one else in the family had reserved the private room so Cedric and his friends managed to eat in peace. Despite an attempt to get his friends to pay for their lunch Cedric still ended up paying.

"We saved you today. Plus you own the place and you don't need money." Was all Alexi said to get Cedric to pay for the bill.

After lunch they went their own separate ways, Nicole back to the hospital and the Sebastian siblings back home. Cedric went back to Mor Co. to deal with all the delayed work due to his friends dropping by.

When Ian brought in some documents for Cedric to sign at the end of the day Cedric stopped him and asked Ian to take a seat.

"You'll be very busy soon." Cedric said.

"I know." Ian nodded in agreement.

"I'm helping you get what you want because I believe in you. When I was no one, you were my only friend here at Mor Co. You didn't even remember who I was." Cedric told Ian.

"Well a person changes a lot in thirteen years, I didn't expect to see you around as anything less than the president of a big corporation." Ian admitted that he never considered the Cedric Reyes he met at Mor Co. could be the same Cedric Reyes that he went to school with.

"Nicole is a good girl. Don't hurt her." Cedric warned. He saw Nicole the same way he saw Ayanna and the other girls, as his little sisters, and he would always be on their side.

"I don't have time for love." Ian said before excusing himself to leave.

At the end of the day Cedric walked out of the office like every other employee, his bag slung over his shoulder, listening to music as he walked towards Island's Inc.

Suddenly someone tapped his shoulder. Cedric turned around and saw a chubby man smiling behind him.

"Can I help you?" Cedric asked.

"Yep you can. You're Cedric Reyes, assistant to the president of Mor Co. correct?" The chubby man asked.