Never Judge

Cedric had slowly built a habit in the Reyes Group, and before he could realize it he had already been working there for a month. He had made sure to let people know that he was a husband who needed to earn more since his wife's family looked down on him. 

He wanted to attract whoever was behind the anomalies in the Reyes Group by being an easily corruptible target. Soon enough his hard work had paid off. He had managed to make friends with a member of the finance team that he thought was involved in the scheme.

It was lucky that Adolfo had to work during lunch that day so Cedric had lunch with Martin, the employee from the finance team. 

"It's such a pain." Cedric fake complained as they sat on their table. "My in laws are so difficult to satisfy. I already work at the Reyes Group, which is a thousand times larger than their family business, and they still aren't satisfied. They keep saying I should be earning more than my wife."

"So money is the main issue with your in laws?" Martin asked.

"Mostly. They would ignore my low born status if I could earn enough to wow them." Cedric said as he rolled his eyes. 

"Why did you leave Mor Co., Cedric?" Martin asked him, clearly their group did their own set of background checks.

"Ha. The truth? The Reyes Heir doesn't like me. Probably cause of all the rumors my wife caused. I got demoted and sent here so that they could keep me around and to avoid the noise." Cedric fake complained once again.

"Well then, I have a way for you to earn extra money and sort of get back at the Reyes Heir at the same time." Martin said in a low voice.

"Sounds too good to be true." Cedric said as he stared into Martin's eyes. 

"Meet me after work at the fastfood chain across the office." Martin said as they continued to eat.

After lunch, Cedric told Adrianna that he had something to do then he told his father that he had already found a way into the group within the company that was causing them the lost opportunities. He gave the details and told his dad not to have him followed, the group was very careful.

At the end of the work day, Cedric did as Martin asked and met him at the nearby fastfood chain.

"Do you see that sleek black BMW parked at the front?" Martin said pointing at Ayanna's car.

Cedric nodded and didn't say a word.

"That car belongs to Ayanna Reyes, the daughter of the Reyes family who at a whim can empty out a plane and hop on to any part of the world. Families like the Reyeses would never notice the few hundred thousand that we take from them." Martin explained before getting up from his seat.

Cedric followed him and they got into Martin's car that was parked outside. It wasn't some flashy car as Cedric would have expected someone that was earning hundreds of thousands on the side, rather it was a midrange car that most first time car buyers purchased.

When they got in Cedric was quiet. 

"I'm taking you to a meeting with one of our partners. They are one of the companies who have been benefiting from the projects we reject at the Reyes Group and hand over." Martin said while he drove Cedric to the outskirts of the city. "Since what we are doing needs to remain a secret we usually meet at our clients' homes." 

When Cedric and Martin arrived at the location they entered a mansion that Cedric had never been to before. Inside was a young man who looked to be around thirty to thirty five years of age.

"Ah Martin! Do you have any new projects for me today?" the young man asked.

"Mr. Ramos, yes. Here are the documents you'll need. The projected profits on these will be in the millions." Martin said as he passed a flash drive to the young Mr. Ramos.

"Good, good. New guy?" Mr. Ramos asked Martin.

"Yes. This is Cedric. Don't worry he's clean. We've done a thorough background check on him, you can trust him." Martin told Mr. Ramos.

Mr. Ramos nodded and proceeded to ask Martin some questions. 

After they had finished Mr. Ramos handed Martin a thick envelope right before they left. When they got into the car Martin counted the cash and handed Cedric ten thousand.

"For every project we give them they pay us a hundred thousand, if the project makes over a million we get a portion of the profits." Martin explained.

"Is Mr. Ramos our only client?" Cedric asked.

"No, we would be caught if it were only him. We have about thirty clients in different industries. Mr. Ramos is just our biggest one since he has the scale to take most of the projects we pass on." Martin explained to Cedric.

"Are there a lot of us in the group?" Cedric asked.

"Around thirty across different departments. The profits are split almost equally, a larger cut goes to whoever found the project." Martin explained.

"Why are you trusting me with all this?" Cedric asked, he still doubted that Martin fully trusted him.

"You need this, I know a man with a true driving force." Martin simply said.

Cedric chose not to prod any further to avoid raising suspicions, he was in no rush. Martin was right, the losses they were getting from what Martin and his crew were doing was just like loose change to the Reyes Family.

Martin offered to drop Cedric off at home, Cedric declined and said that it was quite out of Martin's way. Martin instead dropped him off at the bus stop where Cedric found Leon waiting.

When they got on the bus Cedric took an empty window seat as Leon took the outer one. Cedric pretended to sleep in the bus looking down so that people couldn't see them talking.

"Are we being followed?" Cedric asked Leon.

Leon's phone began to ring, instead of talking to whomever was on the other line Leon answered Cedric. "Yes sir." 

"I'll get off at the normal bus stop. Ask the driver to pick me up with Adrianna's car. They should let go after that." Cedric suggested.

Leon gave a slight nod and got down two stops after Cedric.

It seemed that the syndicate within the Reyes Group did not completely trust Cedric yet and were waiting for him to let his guard down.

When Cedric got to his stop he found Adrianna's car waiting for him and in the driver's seat was his wife. He made a mental note to scold Leon and Mia for letting his wife pick him up when she was pregnant and the situation could get dangerous.

"I'll drive." Cedric said as he opened the door to the driver's side.

"Sure." Adrianna had actually just overheard Leon giving the driver instructions and decided that it would be less suspicious if she drove the car that picked Cedric up. Adrianna got off the driver's seat and moved to the front passenger's seat.

Cedric kissed his wife as he observed a man that he knew to work at Reyes Group get off and snap some photos and make a call. He was clearly reporting that Cedric was not faking anything so far. 

Cedric dialed Leon's number and drove to the direction of their old home. After one ring Leon picked up his boss' call.

"Are we still being followed?" Cedric asked Leon.

"No sir. It seems the man from earlier was the only tail they placed on you." Leon confirmed. At that Cedric took a few more detours before finally heading back to Mountain View.