Never Judge

After a week, when Ray had returned to the capital the boys got together to have dinner at Nouveau.

"Did my sister get back well?" Cedric asked. ​​

"Yeah. I went with her to some meetings. That international endorser you wanted asked if I was her gay bestfriend! What the hell was that? You should drop this person!" Ray complained.

At that all of the boys burst into laughter.

"I can't believe an international star thought you were gay! I thought they were just rumors here." Miguel said bursting into laughter.

"What do you mean by rumors? There are gay rumors about me here?" Ray said, demanding an answer from his friends.

"Don't you know, that due to your ultra over the top dedication to Ayanna people have assumed that you were gay. I mean Ray, there is nothing wrong with that, it's just I think you aren't." Ram told Ray.

"But you guys know that I'm not. Why didn't you ever speak up?" Ray complained.

"Well, you never said you weren't we didn't want to assume." Miguel said with a shrug.

"Don't worry Ray. Ayanna knows you aren't. I think." Cedric said patting his friend on the back.

"What do you mean you think? Of course I like girls. Well a girl. One girl. Singular!" Ray said, trying to figure out a way through his situation.

"Calm down Ray. So what if people think you are gay. It's not like it's a bad thing. The world is more open now." Alexi said in a more serious tone.

"Come to think of it, I recently got asked if there was anything between us. I said we were acquaintances." Eric said thinking back to his recent interview.

"They must have been trying to figure out if Ray was keeping a boy toy!" Ram said bursting out in laughter.

"Ramon Abad! You will kill this rumor!" Ray demanded.

"I don't control rumors Ray." Ram said with a shrug.

"We all know one word from you could reverse it." Ray said.

"You of all people know it doesn't work like that. You need a full plan. A plan to disprove everything, just like what we did for the rumors around Adrianna." Ram explained.

"We both know that you can get people to change their opinions in social media. You're like the media king!" Ray complained.

"Ray, enough games. You said that you and Alexi found something out?" Cedric asked, finally ending the banter. As much as Cedric enjoyed seeing the usually powerful and serious Ray being teased he still needed to get to the bottom of what happened to him.

"Oh right. The psycho revenge Carlos De Dios guy." Ray said remembering why they had dragged everyone to dinner that night.

Alexi sighed and shook his head. "Ray is clearly still too happy from his alone time with Ayanna."

Alexi had always been the most serious in person among the boys, he did enjoy some of their banter but he was not as easy going as the rest of them.

"We managed to track Hannah G.'s best friend from university. Luckily they stayed in contact up to a few years back. This was before Hannah decided to completely cut the friend off because she thought Carlos De Dios was looking for her to get revenge." Alexi explained to his friend.

"Right, yes. So I got to speak to her and she gave me the last address she knew Hannah G. lived in. From there we traced her steps and we saw she moved to Quirino Province." Ray said with a surprised tone.

"Quirino Province is big Ray. The odds of me meeting Hannah G. while I was there is very low." Cedric said.

"Around a 2% chance." Miguel said.

"Stop boasting nerd." Eric teased his brother.

"Wow Eric, that's such an ironic insult coming from the man who has a doctorate in psychology." Miguel said, rolling his eyes.

"I don't go around boasting about it." Eric teased his brother.

"The world really plays nasty tricks." Ray said, shaking his head.

"Enough with the commentary Ray. Tell us." Miguel complained.

"Ray met Hannah G.'s granddaughter and daughter in law. They are through her son with Carlos De Dios." Alexi revealed.

"So the child Carlos thought he lost was actually born?" Cedric asked.

"That's not the most interesting part. We found out what the G in Hannah G. is." Ray proudly announced.

"And?" Cedric asked.

"Garin. Hannah G.'s last name is Garin. She has a son that happens to have been your classmate in high school." Alexi revealed to the shock of everyone.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Cedric said in surprise.

"I kid you not. Carlos De Dios has no idea that his illegitimate son works for the person he hates the most." Alexi said with an evil grin.

"Does Chris Garin know?" Cedric asked.

"I actually got to speak to Hannah G. She said her son has no idea who his father is. I have to assume that she was being honest. From what you've told us and what we've seen of this Chris Garin, if he knew who his father was you would have had a much harder time during your poverty training. Uncle Emilio might have had to step in if Chris Garin knew." Ray said.

"You said you had plans for Chris. Is he part of your revenge plot?" Alexi asked.

"He is. But I'll need to change it. If Carlos De Dios finds out that Chris Garin is his son and that he works at Mor Co., I think Carlos will do something worse." Cedric said as he looked to the distance, deep in thought. "Did you find anything more about Carlos De Dios' assets? How did he manage to get back up after dad did away with him?"

"That's the thing that's bugging me. Both dad and I have been pooling our resources on this, nothing illegal of course, but we can't find anything. Cedric I think someone powerful is backing him." Alexi told his friend.

"It's a good thing then that we didn't come after him immediately, or that we didn't ask Katerina to take action right after we got the call." Ram said.

"Katerina wouldn't have been able to build a strong enough case. She told me during lunch that we didn't have concrete enough evidence to send him to jail." Eric said.

"So are you guys a thing again?" Alexi asked Eric in a serious tone.

"For the hundredth time Alexi, she's my lawyer and we're just friends." Eric said, shaking his head.

"I don't see what would be wrong with Eric and Katerina getting together. Their kids would be geniuses." Ram initially intended it to be a joke, but when he saw Alexi's reaction he suddenly backed off. "Or not. I guess not. I mean Veronica hates the whole she has to marry as planned."

"We all know it's not his fault." Eric said.

"Alexi, Ray, keep an ear and an eye out for Carlos De Dios. I'm worried our finding Hannah G. will lead him straight to her. I'll have Ian and Camilla keep an eye on Chris Garin, just in case Carlos tries to contact him." Cedric said, returning to their original topic.

"And what will we do when he does contact his son?" Ray asked.

"We need to be ready. He'll attack at Mor Co., if he could. It's good that we are at least a step ahead." Cedric said.

"Great. So shall we drink?" Ray asked.

"Not quite. I have another favor to ask." Cedric said with a grin that made Ray drink a whole glass of wine.