Never Judge

"It's useless." Ray said, shaking his head in frustration. 

"Ray, get some rest." Ayanna said as she massaged her husband's shoulders. 

Ray reached out and held her hand, he kissed it, and sighed. 

It had been a week since Cedric disappeared from the Lobo mansion. At first they had hoped that Cedric just needed some space to think. They thought that in a few hours Cedric would come back.

But things turned out differently, after finding the first message in Cedric's phone Adrianna refused to believe the message. 

Cedric, of course, knew that his wife wouldn't believe what he had sent and decided to have a second message delivered. This time it was through a young boy that Cedric met on his way out of the province.

Ray held up the letter that Cedric had written for him and frowned.

When Ayanna saw it, she hugged her husband, Ray was glad that she was with him. He didn't know how he would have handled Cedric's sudden disappearance if it weren't for Ayanna.

'Brother,' The letter read as Ray glossed over it once more. 'If you have received this then I am long gone. I knew that Ayanna and Adrianna would never believe that I wanted to leave, but I do. I'm a danger to everyone. Jam, my mom, even Mia, all of them died because of me.'

"You know that's a lie, right Cedric." Ray said, shaking his head. He wished he could have this conversation in person with Cedric and not through some stupid letter.

"I wish I didn't fight with him that night." Ayanna said. As she spoke Ray could feel her tears falling onto her neck. "Why is my brother such a girl!?" Ayanna complained.

"Ayanna, I miss him too." Ray said in an attempt to comfort his wife.

'Eric was right.' Cedric's letter continued. Ray was hoping that he had missed something. He had read this letter hundreds of times in the hopes that Cedric had left a clue as to where he was going.

'Eric said I wasn't letting myself feel, and he was right. I didn't want to feel, I needed to be strong. I wasn't wrong Ray. I needed to be the head of not just a family but of a whole damned conglomerate at the same time. Ray, we aren't old enough to have this thrust upon our shoulders, we are too young, too inexperienced. But who am I to complain, I have all the wealth I can ask for and the love of my life. Why am I still hurting so much Ray?'

Ray sighed as he read that part of the message, Cedric had shown more emotion in that one paragraph than he had since his mother died. 

"I didn't even see him cry." Ayanna said, seemingly knowing where Ray had stopped reading. 

"He felt that he couldn't." Ray told his wife, shaking his head. "Cedric felt that he needed to be the strong one, that he needed to carry everyone on his shoulders. He forgot that he had us."

"I'm worried about Adrianna." Ayanna said with a frown. "I know she said she would take over Cedric's responsibilities at the Reyes Group, but she seems off."

"Ayanna, her husband just went missing." Ray said as he tried to find words to comfort his wife.

"She's been sick and moody a lot. I've been trying to help her, but between my regular work load plus the additional that I had to carry since Cedric disappeared, I can't do much." Ayanna said as she let go of Ray and walked over to their bed.

"Do you think?" Ray said as his eyes grew wide in shock.

"How I wish!" Ayanna said with a laugh. "But, no, she already took a test. If she got pregnant my brother would come back in a heartbeat."

"Isn't dad helping as well?" Ray asked Ayanna as he folded the letter and placed it back in the safe.

"Dad is, but we didn't expect that Cedric was doing this much work!" Ayanna sighed. "Dad was shocked when the assistants came in with a list of everything Cedric had planned to do. He really was expanding the company at an alarming rate."

"At least no one is trying to create a mess now." Ray said with a shrug. 

"I'm not too sure about that." Ayanna said with a frown. "Before Cedric left to deal with Aiden, he was watching over a new businessman in the tech field."

"The one he suspected of being uncle Miguel's son?" Ray asked. He had talked about the issue more than once with Cedric, but they didn't have any definite proof that the man was a member of the Chan family or that he was after Cedric and his friends.

"Yeah, when Cedric left to go after Aiden he became active, attacking Mor co. on all fronts. Then a few days after Aiden died he stopped." Ayanna said with a frown.

"It worries you?" Ray asked.

"Yes. It feels like the calm before the storm." Ayanna said with a frown. "I just hope that when the storm does start, my brother comes back. We need him back."

"I'll go talk to Ram and check if he discovered anything." Ray said as he kissed his wife on the lips. "It's impossible for Cedric to avoid every camera. Someone must have snapped a photo of him, somewhere, somehow."

"You won't find him unless he wants to be found." Ayanna said, shaking his head.

"I'm hoping that his attempt to get a grasp of his emotions will get the better of him and he will slip up." Ray said with a shrug as he grinned at his wife.

"I'll tell Adri and Yoyo that you will be late for dinner then." Ayanna said as she hugged Ray tightly. 

Since Cedric's disappearance, Ray and Ayanna had moved back into the Mountain View Mansion in order to keep Adrianna and Yoyo company. 

Ayanna constantly worried about her sister in law, it felt like Adrianna just kept getting sick and losing weight since Cedric disappeared, and it had only been a week. 

"I'll try to come back sooner." Ray promised as he walked out of their room.

Ray was surprised to find Yoyo standing outside his door when he got out.

"Yoyo, why are you alone in the hallway?" Ray asked the little boy as he picked him up, looking for the child's nanny.

"Uncle Ray, I miss daddy." Yoyo said as he cried into his uncle's arms. 

Ray patted the boy and held him tight. He didn't know what to say, he missed his best friend too.

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