Never Judge

At the Reyes' Home, people were starting to arrive. Among those invited were Cedric's cousins and his childhood friends. Aside from these people, no one else knew Cedric's real identity.

"I guess Cedric is still choosing to keep a low profile." Raphael Chan, Miguel's father, mentioned to his son.

"Yeah. Even his wife doesn't know yet. We haven't even formally met her." Miguel laughed. 

Miguel was the least recognized among the 4 other princes. He had once bumped into Cedric and Adrianna in the mall one day, Cedric simply introduced him as Miguel, his childhood friend who was studying to be a doctor. 

At that time Miguel was already a doctor and had already started making a name for himself in his field. 

Miguel had come to the party with his parents, older brother, Eric, and younger sister, Nicole. Out of the three of them Miguel's father had chosen to change tradition and groom his daughter to run their chain of hospitals. 

Initially, he had wanted Miguel to do it but he was more focused on saving lives rather than making money. As for his older brother he had no interest at all in the business and had chosen to be an actor.

The next to arrive was Ramon, with his sister Veronica and their parents. As they entered, Veronica was complaining to her older brother about how much work she suddenly had because of Cedric's return, but when she saw Ayanna and Miguel's sister she quickly dropped the conversation and headed over to speak to the 2 other girls. 

Alexander arrived with his parents and two younger sisters, Katerina and Natalia. The two girls just as quickly ditched their parents to hang out with people their age.

The last to arrive was Raymund with his father and mother. Raymund was an only child and as a kid he had often bugged his parents to give him siblings, but as he grew older he was glad his parents never did have any more children. 

The atmosphere of the party was very relaxed and very happy. It wasn't at all formal since everyone in the room had known each other for decades.

The sisters of the group all chose to sit at one table chatting away. Despite their relaxed demeanor, all 5 of them had heavy expectations on their shoulders. To the outside world they were sophisticated, elegant, and geniuses in their own right.

Take Veronica for example; She is a well known interior designer and architect that managed to rise despite changing her name and choosing not to use her family name. 

However at that party at the Reyes house, they were scrolling through their phones looking at boys and shopping. 

"Look at this top Nicole, they are hitting the stores in Milan this week!" Ayanna showed her friend.

"Oh my! I need to have that. Do you think we need to fly to Milan to get it or can you ask someone in the branch office to buy one for you?" Nicole asked. 

Nicole Chan was the youngest child of the Chan family that simply defied traditions, she was the youngest daughter of the medical family and yet she was leading the charge in innovating the business end of the medical field. She was well regarded both in the business and medical field. 

"I asked my designer friend to ship 5 out, one for each of us." Ayanna giggled. Listening to Ayanna right now you wouldn't think that she was known as a business genius, despite not being the heir to Reyes Group she had given so much contribution to the company that people thought she had the Midas touch when it came to business. 

"Nicole! I think I met a guy for you!" Veronica announced. "His name is Ian-"

"And he's my brother's assistant." Ayanna interrupted Veronica "If you let Veronica drag you to meet this guy he won't have time for you 'cause he will be chasing my brother around all the time. He'll be a Marco 2.0."

"Oh come on guys, we all know Nicole has a type." Katerina Sebastian teased. Katerina looked harmless at first glance, but in reality she graduated from Harvard Law and topped the bar exam. She was also the most sought after lawyer and had never lost a case.

"Yeah but nothing ever happens." Ayanna teased.

"Ayanna, stop bullying Nicole." The usually quiet Natalia scolded. Natalia Sebastian, was one of the leading bioengineers in the world, her work was so secret that people didn't even know where her lab was.

"Hey girls, don't you do anything aside from shop? Stop wasting our hard earned money!" Ram teased from their table.

"It's my brother that wastes my hard earned money!" Nicole said, sticking out a tongue at Ram.

"And I make my own!" Veronica told her brother.

"Nice one, Ram. Now both of us got roasted." Miguel grumbled.

The group suddenly quieted down as Emilio Reyes stood up to make a speech.

"Family and friends, thank you all for coming. As you all know today marks the end of Cedric's poverty training and his return home. Welcome home, my son." Emilio said, raising a glass with a smile. 

"Cedric, however, has requested that we do not reveal to the public his identity just yet. As a matter of fact, I am sure you have noticed that someone we were all eager to meet is not here, his wife. So I ask everyone to respect Cedric's wishes and help him keep his identity a secret. Welcome back Cedric, and thank you because I can now play golf more often!" 

Everyone laughed at Emilio's joke. Among the 5 fathers present Emilio was the only one left that was managing the bulk of his family business, the other 4 had their children helping out already. 

The night continued with much laughter and warmth. That night Cedric felt he had truly come home.