Never Judge

Cedric waited at the basement parking of Island's Inc. he sent his driver home early and personally took his car to pick up his wife.

When she saw that his car was there, Cedric saw a slight smile creep up before Adrianna frowned again. Before she got near the car, Cedric jumped out and opened the door for her, she was surprised to see that it was him driving.

Inside, Cedric placed her seatbelt on her before giving her a light peck on the lips. He reached behind and handed her the bouquet of flowers that he asked Camilla to buy.

"Did you do something wrong?" Adrianna asked him. Cedric smiled and shook his head.

"Can't I treat my wife like a teenage girl once in a while?" Cedric asked as he fixed a stray hair that had fallen to her face.

"Something is off about you today." Adrianna pointed out.

"I know you had a tough meeting and I just wanted to make you feel better." Cedric said with a shrug as he started the car.

"Are you alright? I was worried when I heard someone was bullying you." Cedric continued to speak as they left the parking.

"Yes. Mr. Quinto is someone I can handle. As expected, he thought I was your mistress." Adrianna said with a sigh.

"What did you tell him?" Cedric asked.

"That I was no one's mistress." Adrianna said proudly.

"Darling, why don't we just tell people about us? That way they wouldn't think you were a mistress and they would stop looking down on you." Cedric said in a sweet tone. He hated that she had to go through this. He wanted to give her a comfortable life and yet she was so stubborn in her desire to prove herself that she ended up getting bullied and suffering. But it was because he loved and respected her that's why he couldn't force her to do what he wanted. 

Cedric always knew that his wife was a career woman, that she was driven and independent, she refused to let society dictate who she was supposed to be.

"Ced, you know my reasons." Adrianna complained. "Also, because of what happened today, I realized that I need to be stronger, I need to be better. I need to earn the right to be your wife and to belong to the Reyes Family. I need to be a better person so that I can stand next to you." 

Cedric didn't say anything in reply. He didn't know what to say anymore. He knew his wife, when she had made up her mind that was it and no one could change it.

The next day Adrianna sat at a coffee shop with Henry. Aside from being mad at Elaine Moyra for claiming to be Mrs. Reyes, she realized that she was also feeling an irrational jealousy. She wanted Cedric to be hers and hers alone, he was her husband anyway. What Adrianna didn't understand about her feelings was that she had never felt this way. 

Over the years, many of their classmates would have a crush on Cedric, especially when they still didn't know that he was poor. Many women colleagues also found him easy to talk to and yet Adrianna never felt jealous of them, so what was it about Elaine Moyra that kept getting on her nerves? 

Today, Elaine Moyra had actually invited her and Henry to a little get together, from what Henry had gathered she held a little court with women and some men who truly believed that she was Mrs. Reyes. Many of them wanted to suck up to her in order to get some sort of benefit from the Reyes Group.

Eventually when Elaine arrived she was once more wearing the necklace Cedric had sold. The day before, Adrianna had gotten the document from Camilla proving that Elaine's father had actually bought the necklace a hundred thousand above Cedric's asking price. Adrianna was sure that the money needed to buy that piece was something that the Moyra's worked hard to earn.

"Elaine, your necklace is fabulous." One of the women praised.

"Of course, someone who loves me very much bought this for me." Elaine said as she acted as if she were in love.

"Oh Elaine, how lucky you are to have someone that loves you so much. So what are the princes like?" An older woman asked.

"Oh well, as you know Alexi has such a strong personality, but he is incredibly gentle once you get to know him. And Ray, he really spoils Ayanna, he even empties out planes for her!" Elaine gossiped. 

Adrianna found it odd that Elaine knew these intimate details about Cedric's family and friends, most specifically the one about Ray emptying out planes for Ayanna. As far as Adrianna knew, not many people were privy to that information.

"Miss Elaine, tell us is it true about the Mountain View Mansion?" A young businessman asked.

"What about it?" Said Elaine.

"That the Reyes Heir had Veronica design the place and that he stays there now?" The businessman explained.

"Of course it's true." Elaine said with a grin. This again surprised Adrianna. Cedric had kept it a secret that they had moved into Mountain View, even Calathea Carpio who was from the Carpio family didn’t know that they had moved at first. How could this pretender find out where they lived?

"Miss Elaine is truly lucky!" A young woman said as she praised Elaine Moyra.

"Miss Elaine, what is she doing here? Isn't she the mistress?" Someone whispered to Elaine. It seemed the person wanted Adrianna to hear it since despite acting as if she was whispering her voice was quite loud.

Adrianna and Henry could see the hesitation on Elaine's face. It was clear that Elaine wasn't sure if Adrianna really did have any connections to the Reyes family, if she did, sending her away could spell horrors for Elaine and her family.

"Don't worry. We were about to leave." Adrianna said with a smile. "I just wanted to see if that really was the necklace Ayanna and her brother asked me about after the auction. Seems real enough."

Adrianna then stood up with Henry and left.

"Why did you say it was real? You could have said it was a fake." Henry was puzzled about what Adrianna did. Saying that the necklace was real would only make people believe Elaine's lie even more.

"Because it is real. That necklace is not a fake." Adrianna explained as Mia drove them back to Island's Inc. "Plus the more people believe who she is, the more embarrassing it will be when they find out that she's a fake."