Never Judge

"Hola." Cedric said in response as he grinned. "Estoy sorprendido de que llamaras. (I'm surprised you called.)"

"¿Hablas español? (You speak spanish?)" The man asked in a surprised tone.

"Si. (Yes.)" Cedric responded with a smile.

"Entonces sabes por qué te llamo. (Then you know why I'm calling.)" The man told Cedric in a deep and rough voice.

"Si. Te pedí que llamaras. (Yes. I asked you to call.)" Cedric responded in a confident tone.

"Me impresiona que hable español, Sr. Reyes. (I'm impressed that you speak Spanish, Mr. Reyes.)" The man at the other end of the call said. "La mayoría de los empresarios se limitan a contratar a un traductor. (Most businessmen would simply hire a translator.)"

"Creo que ya han adivinado que no soy la mayoría de los empresarios. (I think you have now guessed that I am not most businessmen.)" Cedric said with a smile.

"Es cierto, no muchos se habrían acercado a nosotros con valentía. Ustedes son diferentes, muy únicos. (That is true, not many would have boldly approached us. You are different, very unique.)" The man said with a laugh.

"Tienes algo que me pertenece. (You have something that belongs to me.)" Cedric said as he went straight to the point.

"Mr. Reyes, you of all people should know that people can't belong to other people. We are just keeping your wife's friend safe until her husband can come fetch her." The man said with a thick accent as he shifted to English.

"And what about her family?" Cedric asked as he probed their reasons.

"They are free to go. It was a misunderstanding, we thought you were trying to get them out of the country." The man said.

"What did her husband do to the Esteves Group?" Cedric asked.

"He used to be a loyal soldier, someone we trusted. We sent him to deal with a little thorn on our side from your country, and he came back corrupted, but of course we didn't know it at the time." The man told Cedric, catching him off guard.

"Why are you telling me this?" Cedric asked.

"Because we know that you are a logical man." The man told Cedric. 

"What happened then? After he switched sides?" Cedric asked as he wanted to hear more of what happened between the Esteves Group and Julia's husband.

"The man was plotting something, something big, so Aaron Ting took money from us and moved it to that person." The man recounted. "We had trusted him way too much. We knew he was moving large amounts of our funds, but we thought it was all part of his plan."

"Then Julia left." Cedric said as he recounted Julia's story.

"Yes, when his wife left he went over the edge, he took so much of our funds and ran away with it. We thought at first he went with his wife, but we watched her and nothing seemed off." The man explained.

"Where did he go?" Cedric asked.

"We don't know, that's when we lost him." The man told Cedric. "All we know is that the money he took from us was used to kill and harm people, we don't know how or why, we just know that that was where they intended to use it."

"Can't you give me the name of the person he sent the money to?" Cedric asked.

"No, but the wife's family knows how to contact him." The man said in an annoyed tone. "We want him here with us within the next month or Julia Tiu won't be making it home alive." The man threatened as he dropped the call.

Cedric stared at his phone as he processed the information he had just learned. 

"You can speak Spanish?" Adrianna asked as she gave Cedric a confused and shocked look.

"Si. (Yes.)" Cedric said with a wink. "Mom's side spoke Spanish most of our childhood."

Adrianna nodded as she learned something new about her husband.

"What did he want? And what happened?" Miguel asked, his concern painted clearly on his face.

"They thought that we were trying to take the Tius away." Cedric explained. "When they realized that we weren't planning that, they left them alone." 

"And what about the husband?" Miguel asked.

"He betrayed them for someone he was supposed to be spying on." Cedric said as he recounted the explanation. "They thought Julia had something to do with it since she vanished roughly at the same time as he betrayed them"

"Couldn't they tell you the person's real name?" Miguel asked.

"They only knew him as Aaron Ting, it seemed that he had really well forged documents." Cedric concluded, he knew that a group like the Esteves Group couldn't be tricked so easily.

"What could have convinced that man to switch sides." Ian said as he thought of the situation. "It must have been quite copeling."

"Jonathan, do you remember how the man looked?" Cedric asked Julia's younger brother.

"Yeah, a little bit." Jonathan said with a shrug. "He was wearing a cap, but he was clearly taller than me, around Dr. Miguel's height, he was also Chinese looking with a British accent."

"That's not enough to go by." Adrianna said with a frown as she practically gave up any hope of finding Julia's husband.

"We still have this." Cedric said as he showed Adrianna the blank card with a number that Jonathan had given them. "Ian, do you have the phone yet?" Cedric asked.

"Here." Ian told Cedric as he handed him the burner phone. 

Cedric quickly dialed the number on the card and waited for it to ring.

After a while, the phone stopped ringing as if the call had been dropped.

"What happened?" Adrianna asked.

"He dropped the call." Cedric told her with a frown. "Wait, let me call again." Cedric said with a determined look. 

He had no plans of giving up after the call was dropped the first time.

Again, he typed the number and pressed the call button.

This time, after a few rings the call was answered.

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