Never Judge

"Chan is a very common last name." Julia insisted.

"Yeah, I just find it odd that the first and last name match." Adrianna told Julia over the phone.

Despite sounding like she had let the discussion pass Adrianna still had a nagging feeling that the two were somehow connected.

"Cedric and I will put up a memorial for him." Adrianna promised her friend.

"Thank you." Julia said.

Adrianna smiled as she realized that her friend sounded a little bit better over the phone now.

"What was your husband\'s name?" Adrianna asked.

"I don\'t know if I can tell you." Julia said as she hesitated to speak.

"Julia,we can\'t help you if we don\'t know his name." Adrianna pushed, hoping that Julia would give in and tell her.

"He gave me a fake name, I\'m not even sure what his real name was." Julia said as her voice cracked over the call.

"Then how were you able to register your marriage? How did Dominic get a birth certificate?" Adrianna asked her friend. Things weren\'t adding up.

"He had a fake ID." Julia told Adrianna. "He had all the documents he needed for this fake identity of his."

"Just give me his name Julia, then we can find him. We need his name to get you out of there." Adrianna told her friend.

"You\'ll hand him over if you find him, I won\'t let you." Julia cried out.

"Julia, if we can get you out of there safely without sacrificing your husband, then we will. But we need to know who he is and why the Esteves Group is after him." Adrianna explained.

"I can tell you why they want him." Julia told Adrianna.

"No more lies? No more details that you will forget to tell me?" Adrianna asked.

"Yes, I promise." Julia said in a desperate tone.

"Julia, if you lie or leave something out people could die." Adrianna said as she tried her best to get Julia to realize that she needed to know the whole truth. "This isn\'t just about you anymore Julia."

"Why do you keep doubting me, Adrianna?" Julia asked over the phone.

"You haven\'t exactly given me a reason to completely trust you at the moment, Julia." Adrianna said in a frank tone. "I love you, you are my friend. You are one of my oldest friends. But at this point I feel like I don\'t even know who you are. Your secrets have secrets."

"I\'ll tell you everything, and you might as well put me on speaker since I\'m sure Cedric is there and you would need to repeat everything I tell you to him." Julia told Adrianna.

"Alright." Adrianna said in response as she pretended to put the phone on speaker phone. 

She had already let Cedric hear the majority of the conversation. There were just too many details that she could miss out on if he wasn\'t listening with her.

"Hello, Julia." Cedric said in a cold and distant tone. 

He wasn\'t happy with the way Julia had lied to his wife, and it made him distrust her even more than he already did.

"Cedric." Julia grunted.

"Tell us everything you know." Cedric said. "I cannot help you if you leave something out, remember that." 

"Yes, yes, your wife already told me. You don\'t need to keep repeating what she said." Julia grumbled.

"I get nothing from helping you, Julia." Cedric hissed, not liking Julia\'s tone. "I can easily turn my back on you and leave you with the Esteves Group."

"Sorry." Julia mumbled. "I\'ll cooperate."

Cedric smiled when he heard the tone of Julia\'s voice. She had given up fighting and being a pain in the ass, finally.

They heard Julia take a deep breath before finally speaking.

"By law I\'m still married." Julia revealed. "Aside from just being the mother of his son I am also still his wife. I was the one that left because I couldn\'t stand being with him anymore."

"Julia, you left him and sent your child off to die? How could you?" Adrianna asked as she turned pale. 

She never thought her friend would be capable of doing something so vile.

"You weren\'t there Adri, he wasn\'t a good husband." Julia said. 

Adrianna could hear her sobbing over the phone. 

"Did he hurt you, physically?" Cedric asked in a rough tone, worried about what Julia would say.

He knew that if Julia said yes, Adrianna would never be able to forgive herself for letting her friend suffer on her own.

"He hurt me, but not physically." Julia revealed. "He was never around and he said things. He told me how his real family wouldn\'t accept me, how I wasn\'t enough." 

Cedric and Adrianna could hear as  Julia sobbed at the other end of the line.

"How was he involved with the Esteves Group?" Cedric asked as his wife threw him a poisonous glare. 

Cedric didn\'t want to hear about why Julia and her husband separated, he needed to know why the Esteves Group was looking for him.

"He worked for the Esteves Group, investing in certain people and activities in our country. He met someone and trusted the wrong person." Julia revealed. "I don\'t know who that person was, I just know that he took all the money the Esteves Group gave my husband and ran."

"This happened a long time ago then?" Adrianna asked Julia.

"No, it happened after I left him." Julia explained. "When I left my husband he was only beginning to work with this man."

"At the end of the day it was still all about money." Cedric said with a sigh as he shook his head.

"Is that all Julia?" Adrianna asked.

"They were hoping he would hear about me being taken by the Esteves Group and come get me, but the problem is, they knew him by a different name as well." Julia said.

"Julia, you need to tell us now, do you know his real name, or are you lying to us again." Cedric hissed. He knew that it was impossible that Julia didn\'t know the name of the man she married.

"I do." Julia eventually confessed.

"Why Julia? Why do you keep insisting on lying?" Adrianna asked.

At this point she was already furious with her friend.

"When we met, he told me his name  was Andrew Ting." Julia told the couple.

"Please don\'t tell me his real name was Lucius Ting." Cedric grumbled. If that was the truth then he would be extremely frustrated.

"No, his real name is Andrew Chan." At Julia\'s words Cedric could feel the blood draining from his face in shock. 

Did they just find a way to get to the real Andrew Chan?