Never Judge

"Sir, I have news." Dave said as he rushed into Cedric\'s office with a tablet and some files. It seemed like he had dug up quite a lot of news. 

After having settled on an investigation into the mysterious missing Chan cousin, Cedric had sent his people to do two things. First, find the mysterious nurse who would know what happened to the boy, and second, to find more about Aiden\'s connections.

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Mae was leading the investigations into the nurse and working quite closely with Ace, while Dave was in charge of investigating Aiden\'s network. 

Ian, Alexi, and Ray were quite critical in drawing out Aiden\'s people, most of whom had gone into hiding since Jen\'s death and Aiden\'s attack on Cedric during the funeral.

"Please tell me you\'ve found someone, anyone connected to his network." Cedric said in an exasperated tone as he placed down the document in his hands. 

On top of the investigation, work at the Reyes Group had continued to increase. It seemed that since the public knew that the CEO of the Reyes Group was quite familiar with the needs of their customers, they suddenly had more faith in the conglomerate. 

Cedric began investing in new industries, buying small companies, funding them, and keeping their original owners at the helm. They all respected him and not one of them grumbled about the big corporation taking over.

"We have, and I think you\'re going to find this quite amusing." Dave said with a knowing grin as he handed Cedric the tablet and spread out the documents on the table.

"So, we followed the trail and tried to climb as far up Aiden\'s web as possible." Dave began to explain. "Guess who seems to be in charge of managing all his underground activities for MT Summit."

"How is this something that I will find amusing, this is what I\'ve been asking you to find out!?" Cedric asked in an annoyed tone as he massaged his temples. "Dave, don\'t test me." Cedric warned.

"I\'m not." Dave said with a laugh. "His name is Kenneth Cruz, does the name ring a bell?"

Cedric raised an eyebrow at Dave, he knew that Anton\'s father worked at MT Summit and he handled some of Aiden\'s illegal transactions, but he didn\'t know his first name.

"Mr. Kenneth Cruz, 59 years old, worked at MT Summit as a liaison officer and messenger. At least that was his official title." Dave said as he pointed at an employee profile on Cedric\'s desk.

Cedric\'s gaze followed to where Dave had pointed, it was a photo of a man that looked like an older version of Anton Cruz. There was no doubt now in Cedric\'s mind that this man was Anton\'s father.

"His son is Anton Cruz?" Cedric asked, just to confirm his suspicions.

Dave nodded as he pointed at another document. "He has one son, Anton Cruz, who is now a CEO of his own company. How Anton came upon the funds to build his own business always puzzled me, so I dug a little deeper."

Dave then took out several files and spread them on the table again. Cedric looked at all the records of bank transfers from MT Summit to Anton\'s bank account, but there were also several others that seemed to fall on the same day as the MT Summit transfers.

"What did you find out?" Cedric asked as he waited for Dave to confirm his assumptions.

"Aside from just getting his father\'s commission from MT Summit, the Cruz father and son duo were taking their cut from people that owed MT Summit money." Dave pointed out as he showed Cedric the transactions.

"So Kenneth Cruz would tell the debtor, if you give this amount to MT Summit and this to me we won\'t add fines, or he will lower the amount owed?" Cedric asked as he tried to guess the tactic Kenneth Cruz had done.

"Something like that." Dave said with a nod.

"And Aiden didn\'t fire this man? Did he even know Kenneth Cruz was stealing from him?" Cedric asked. if it were him that was being stolen from he would have fired the person. He was sure that Aiden would have done something much much worse.

"That\'s what we find odd." Dave said as he scratched his head. "But we looked deeper into it and found out that a year ago all of the top executives of MT Summit were fired, any in the past year every single one of them has turned up dead."

"Aiden did it?" Cedric asked.

"Could be Aiden, could be Kenneth, it could even be Anton." Dave said with a shrug.

"We could interrogate Anton, but he would never show up here." Cedric said as he thought of how he could bait both Anton and Kenneth. 

"He might not, but his wife is a social climbing whore." Dave said with a grin.

"Let me guess, Emilio\'s birthday party." Cedric asked as he laughed. Who knew his son\'s fourth birthday would become a part of their ploy.

"Sir, it\'s the perfect bait." Dave told Cedric in an attempt to convince him.

"Dave, you\'ve been working for me for a while." Cedric said with a serious look. "You should know by now that my family does not do extravagant displays."

"Sir, it doesn\'t have to be extravagant." Dave suggested.

"Do you know why Ian, Alexi, and Ray made you give this suggestion on your own?" Cedric asked.

Dave thought to himself but eventually shook his head.

"They knew that I wouldn\'t agree." Cedric told Dave. "My goal is to keep my son as far away from the public as possible, that includes not having a lavish party on his fourth birthday."

"Sir, will you at least hear this idea out?" Dave pleaded. 

Cedric looked at his assistant and nodded hesitantly. There was no harm in listening to an idea, and he knew Dave wouldn\'t give him a stupid one.

"It won\'t be a lavish event. It will be simple, and it will be a way for children of rich families to give back to those that have less than them." Dave suggested. 

Cedric leaned forward as he nodded to signal Dave to continue speaking.