Never Judge

"Do you think they will react to this?" Ian asked Cedric as they watched a heavily disguised Bella make her way out of the police station's back door.

"Depends how you act in turn." Ian told Cedric as he typed a message on his phone.

It read, 'I am sending you a gift, as far as Mr. Reyes knows, she is dead.'

"Really? You're gonna go with that?" Cedric raised his eyebrow as he looked over to Ian's phone catching a glimpse of the message he was sending.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to eavesdrop and to respect other people's privacy?" Ian groaned as he pressed send.

"It's you." Cedric simply responded, making Ian roll his eyes at his friend.

"Are you ready? You need to at least act like things aren't going to plan." Ian reminded Cedric.

Cedric nodded as Ian told the driver to take them to R Tower.

When they got to the office, the pair went their separate ways, with Ian heading towards the Lim Corp offices.

Cedric on the other hand continued throughout the day as if he didn't know that something tragic and sinister in nature had happened.

In order to make the matter as convincing as possible, Ian had his bodyguards find a corpse that resembled Bella. The body was then dressed and made to match the effects of poisoning.

None of Cedric's men had been involved, they wanted things to seem as authentic as possible. Only Cedric and his driver knew about what had happened, all others including Leon were kept in the dark.

It was during lunch break that Leon came bursting into Cedric's office, his expression was one of anger rather than distress.

"I'm having lunch." Cedric told his head of security as he took a bite out of a sandwich he had prepared from home.

Despite having become the richest man in the country, Cedric still prepared his own lunch occasionally.

"You didn't warn me you were going to pull something off like this, sir." Leon said as soon as the door closed behind him. He may have been mad at the risks Cedric and Ian were taking, but he wouldn't expose their plan.

"Do what?" Cedric asked as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"The prisoner, Bella, she is dead." Cedric was wide eyed in fake shock as his jaw dropped with Leon's words.

"You're too good an actor." Leon said as he handed Cedric a tissue and a glass of water.

"Thank you. How did she die?" Cedric asked as if he knew nothing about Bella's death.

Leon gritted his teeth as he listened to Cedric lie so effortlessly.

"Don't pretend you had nothing to do with this, sir." Leon looked at Cedric in annoyance, he didn't appreciate being kept out of loop with this plan. It was far too dangerous to go about without Leon involved.

"What was written as the cause of death, Leon?" Cedric asked again, this time looking Leon in the eyes, daring him not to answer.

"Poison, she had a false tooth." Leon groaned. "Is she really dead?" Leon asked Cedric.

Cedric simply smiled and shook his head.

"Ian had to give them something, all we need to do right now is to play our part." Cedric told Leon. "You're doing quite well, actually."

"Do I need to remind you how dangerous this is?" Leon asked as he sighed and sat down.

Cedric simply shrugged as he continued to eat.

In another part of the city, Ian was having lunch with his young sister Sam in an upscale private restaurant. He felt that today there was a need for him to show the Raja's a more extravagant side to the Lim family.

"Your phone is ringing." Sam pointed at the phone Ian had set aside.

Ian thanked her as he glanced at who was calling, it was an unknown number, clearly it was the Rajas trying to contact him.

"Is it them?" Sam asked, Ian had told her earlier that day about everything involving the Rajas. She was quite eager to find out more.

"Yeah." Ian said as he answered the call and placed it on speaker.

The restaurant they were in was quite popular for having very good sound insulation in their private rooms. It was the reason why Ian chose this place.

"I see you've received my gift." Ian said before the caller could speak up.

"It was quite a surprise for me when my fiance, whom I thought I had lost to Mr. Reyes' men, walked into our home. Quite impressive." The man at the other end of the call praised.

"Your fiance?" Ian was quite shocked to find out that Bella's fiance was the spokesperson of the Rajas.

"So you didn't know who she was to me?" The man asked in a curious tone.

"I honestly had no idea." Ian chuckled, who knew that Bella would be an even bigger prize than he thought.

"I must say, you managed to fool even Mr. Reyes' head of security. Everyone knows that's near impossible." The man told Ian.

"I've worked with Leon for years, I know the man well enough." Ian explained as Sam raised an eyebrow at him, curious about what was happening.

"Why give us more, Mr. Lim?" The man asked as his tone turned serious. "Why hand Bella over and go beyond what you need to do to prove that you are indeed on our side?"

"My grandfather and father did not waste decades groveling and hiding for our rise to be half baked." Ian said in a forceful tone.

"We assure you, this isn't some half baked return." The man said as he tried to sooth what seemed to be Ian's rising temper.

"The fact that my family was risked is a sign that it was not thoroughly thought of or investigated." Ian's tone turned poisonous.

The man was about to answer when Ian cut him off and spoke.

"Tomorrow, 8pm at Isla Restaurant." With that Ian dropped the call and smiled at his sister.

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