Never Judge

The general assembly ended at 5:30pm, aside from telling the employees what they knew Cedric also answered their questions and, to their surprise, even asked what they would want from the company to feel assured. 

At first people were hesitant to speak out, but as the assembly progressed more and more employees found their voices. Some of the suggestions Cedric would do, most were quite smart and logical suggestions, the others made sense but Cedric felt that they might be too much. 

 After it all the employees left calmer than when they arrived. 

Ian sat at his desk, sighed and massaged his temples, he could feel a headache coming up. 

"You should tell boss that you aren't feeling well." Camilla said as she returned to her desk. They had been running around all day, talking to different people, and arranging meetings for Cedric. 

"No I need this. I need to keep my mind off things." Ian said as he turned his laptop back on.

"Cut yourself some slack Ian. You came from one shit storm to be met by another shit storm. You can take a breather." Camilla said as she took Ian's laptop away. "Our boss is understanding, he'll let you take the rest of the day off." 

Ian smiled weakly at Camilla. "Give me back my laptop."

Camilla shook her head and placed the laptop back on his desk. 

"As I said. I don't want to think about the first problem, so I'll focus on this one." Ian explained turning the laptop back on.

"The girls are right you know, it is your fault." Camilla said.

"I know." Ian sighed.

"But I think Nicole's reaction to your fight was a bit too much. I understand her fears and trauma after last night, but she shouldn't have stormed off like that and gone to a bar." Camilla explained.

"It's been hard to gauge her emotions lately. I mean I've never had a girlfriend so I really can't tell." Ian said as he typed away on his laptop. 

"You need to make her feel like she's the most important thing in your life. Make an effort for her. Look at boss, even if he was extremely busy with the problem today he still found the time to call his wife and assure her that everything was fine." Camilla advised. "Just take the junior boss offered. He did say to speak up if we needed help, he wouldn't be against the idea of extra hands." Camilla said with a shrug. 

Inside Cedric's office Ayanna was on the phone with several important people from Elisia Malls. Even if the matter had happened in the Mor Co. Tech Hub and Mor Co. had taken the brunt of the blame and rumors after the press conference tonight people would learn that the building that exploded was that of Elisia Malls. 

"I don't understand why anyone would target Elisia Malls and Saints at the same time." Ayanna shouted in frustration.

"We aren't sure that you or Nicole were targeted." Cedric reminded his sister.

"Cedric, it's painfully obvious. The two projects were more than just business to us." Ayanna said, rolling her eyes at him. Sometimes her attitude annoyed Cedric and he would scold her, but today he decided not to, she was suffering a much bigger loss than him.

"I know that the Psych Center was Nicole's passion project and that all five of you placed your heart into the Elisia Mall, but Ayanna, you cannot go around making false accusations. Even if it targeted you, you don't even have a suspect." Cedric said calmly.

"Many women want us gone. You know as well as I how many rich heiresses want Ray for themselves, and don't rule out the fact the Calathea and the Carpio family defied your orders. They should know better." Ayanna spat, clearly pissed off with being in the dark as to who had attacked them.

"I don't think any of those heiresses would go as far as doing this." Cedric said with a serious look on his face. "As for Calathea and the Carpio family, if there was anyone they were targeting they should have gone after Katerina, she's after Eric anyway, not Ray." Cedric shrugged.

"Sir." Ian entered. "Damien said there was a development in the case." 

Ian placed a phone on the table and placed it on speaker mode. 

"Damien, I'm with Mr. Reyes and Miss Reyes." Ian informed the person at the other end of the line.

"Sir, Ma'am." Capt. Damien Park greeted. "We have some findings we would like to discuss with you. We discovered that the man who committed suicide was the same man that planted and detonated the bomb. He was employed under one of the external contractors hired to build the apartments for the Mor Co. employees. He had come into work at 5AM that day and his shift was already over when he committed the act." 

"I don't mean any disrespect, but Capt. Park, the bomb went off after he died. It's not possible to time something that accurately." Ayanna said.

"You are right Miss Reyes, you cannot. But the perpetrator used a special trigger that only detonates the bomb when the pressure is lifted from the trigger. We think the bomb was supposed to go off moments after the man shot himself, but the pressure was only released after he fell to the ground." Capt. Damien explained.

"Do you know why he did this?" Cedric asked.

"Not yet Mr. Reyes, all we know is he possibly did not act alone. We are heading over to speak to his wife, he left a wife and a one year old son, he was also diagnosed with an incurable disease, he only had at most a year since he couldn't afford the treatment. According to our investigation he had a lot of debts and a lot of people had already threatened to use his wife and son to work them off. We think that someone may have bribed or blackmailed him into doing this." Capt. Damien said over the phone. "Sir, I am well aware that you are possibly connected to the King of the Underworld, we are asking that you hold off a personal investigation and let the authorities go after the perpetrators." 

Cedric looked up at Ayanna and gave her a warning look, his sister nodded in acknowledgement.

"Rest assured Capt. Damien that only the police will be investigating this matter." Cedric said.

"That's good to hear sir. Oh before I forget, we would prefer that if you kept the press in the dark on the name of the man who committed the sucide as well as on the fact that we are looking into him." Capt. Damien told Cedric.

"Very well Capt., thank you." Cedric said, dropping the call.

"Does he know it's Ray?" Cedric asked Ian.

"No." Came Ian's quick reply. "Before this case they had built a special task force to identify who really was running the underworld, he complained that witness descriptions of the King keep changing."

"Good." Cedric said with a nod. "Tell Ray to do nothing. He will be too close to being identified if he investigates this." Cedric told his sister.

"On it.’’ Ayanna said as she called her fiance.