Never Judge

"We need to go, now!" Cedric shouted as he burst through the doors of Nicole's villa on Kashmere island.

"What? Why?" Ian asked as he helped Nicole pick up the children.

"The servants will have everything packed and sent to the capital, we need to leave, Eric has been shot." Cedric said as he and Ian's family piled up into the cars.

Cedric and Ian rode in one as not to distress the children while they discussed what happened on the short drive to the airport.

"Not everyone was in the house when it burned." Cedric said in a disheartened tone as Ian stared at him in disbelief.

"Impossible, we made sure everyone was dead before we left." Ian argued. "Even if they managed to get out of the house, their corpses should have been on the island or at worst in the sea."

"Tell me, what exactly happened, because two individuals were not accounted for." Cedric told Ian.

"We poisoned all of the drinks, it's one of those new poisons Natalia created. They would feel drunk and sleepy at first, making them head back to their rooms and within an hour or two their organs would start to fail." Ian explained to Cedric how they had executed the plan.

"Is there any way someone could have escaped the poison and its effects? An antidote maybe?" Cedric questioned as they tried to figure out exactly what had happened.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Ian asked, his temper starting to run short as he began to wonder if they had slipped up at any point and forgot to drug a member of the Rajas. "It's Natalia's work, there is no antidote unless Natalia gives it to them."

Cedric pulled out his phone and began to dial a number.

"What are you doing?" Ian questioned as he realized who Cedric was calling.

"We need to know if that poison was sold by Natalia to anyone else, if she did, then they may have an antidote." Cedric explained as he placed the phone on speaker and it began to ring.

"Ced?" Natalia asked as she picked up the call, her tone was frantic.

"Natalia, the poison you gave Ian, do you have any other customers for it?" Cedric asked, not wasting anytime.

"No. Well, does the government count? They have access to most of my research." Natalia said as the cogs began to turn in her head.

"Fuck, shit." Cedric cursed. "Thanks, I think I know what may have gone wrong. Are you in the hospital?"

"Yes, Miguel is here, he is doing his best, but I'm not sure Cedric. I don't know what to tell Kat." Natalia told Cedric over the phone as she began to panic.

"Just tell her what happened. She left ahead of me on my plane, she should be arriving soon." Cedric told Natalia as she tried to calm her down. "How bad is it?"

"Really bad, I don't know how Eric is even holding on, it defies all logical reasonings." Natalia said with a sigh.

"If anyone can get through this, it will be Eric. We'll see you soon. Thanks Natalia." Cedric told the young woman as he dropped the call and took a deep breath.

"They had spies." Ian hissed. "But why not save all of them, why just save two? And who are the two?"

"I think they found out too late, they could only save a few and not all. If Natalia made an antidote, then it wouldn't be enough to save all of the Rajas." Cedric calmly said. "I know it's all speculation at this point, but that's the most probable scenario I can think of."

"How did they know where the island was? We were so careful to make sure that the island was undetectable." Ian told Cedric.

"They were possibly able to map it out over time and send the location to someone in case of emergency." Cedric concluded.

"Who was it Cedric, who made it off the island?" Ian asked in a poisonous tone.

"William Trent and Jim Walker." Cedric said in one breath knowing that out of all the Rajas, they were probably the most dangerous.

"Fuck, Jasmine told me they had been plotting behind my back, but I thought it was just her ramblings." Ian hissed as the car pulled up to the airport on Kashmere Island.

"And you did nothing about it? That doesn't seem like you, Ian." Cedric said as he looked at his friend and former assistant. Throughout the years that they had been working together, Cedric knew that no matter how faulty the source, Ian always pushed to investigate any intel.

"Of course I had someone look into it, but we found nothing." Ian told Cedric.

"You did what you could, Ian." Cedric said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We knew that there was a chance the plan would fail, we always knew there was a risk."

Ian closed his eyes and leaned back on his seat, sighing in frustration.

"I'll have people search for them." Ian told Cedric as he began to plan their next moves.

Cedric nodded.

"I'll send some men as well to help. For now, we need to focus on Eric." Cedric told Ian as a bodyguard opened the car door and ushered them into one of two planes.

"How is he?" Camilla asked as soon as they got on Cedric's plane.

"It's not looking good." Cedric admitted as he poured each of them a glass of whisky. "Natalia said he is holding on, he is a fighter, Eric."

"They don't deserve this, they deserve better." Ian said from the side.

"Who are we to decide who deserves what?" Guan Ming asked as the airplane doors were closed. "Are we god?"

"We play god often enough." Ian said, clearly frustrated by the situation.

"Eric is strong, he will get through this. He still had to marry Katerina and meet their child, he won't give up that easily." Cedric said, shaking his head. "Miracles can happen, this could be one of them."

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