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"You were quite dramatic yourself, Ian." Cedric said, rolling his eyes as he walked over and took his seat behind his desk. "So they don't know that you aren't working for me anymore?" Cedric asked as he powered on his laptop.

"Why do I need to tell them?" Ian asked as he leaned forward and drank his now cold coffee.

"They would change their opinion of you for starters." Cedric told his friend as he scanned through the files that needed his attention. 

"Their opinion doesn't matter to me." Ian said with a laugh. "Plus it's fun seeing them stress out about Nicole having to provide for me."

"You're a rich man on your own now, they should really stop treating you that way." Cedric said with a sigh. Like Ian he had suffered from his in-laws looking down on him. 

The Chans were nothing like the Hernandezes, but Cedric was quite sure that Ian wasn't having an easy time either.

"Nicole's parents aren't a problem, they've never looked down at me, as a matter of fact I think they even like me." Ian said with a victorious grin. "It's only their approval that I'm after and no one else's."

"Yeah, historically the Lims have always had a higher standing than the Chans, their wealth only goes back four generations." Cedric said as he typed on his laptop, not bothering to look up at his friend. 

"But we lost everything." Ian said in a sad tone.

Cedric stopped typing and looked up at Ian, he felt bad for his friend. The Lim family had suffered one misfortune after the next, they had trusted the wrong people and had been dealt bad cards by fate.

"You're getting things back." Cedric said as he walked over and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "One day the Lims will be back where they belong."

"That's quite tough, seeing as I will have to beat out some of our friends." Ian said with a laugh.

"Dad believed you could, that's the whole reason why he hired you." Cedric said as he took a seat next to Ian. 

They rarely spoke about the painful past that Ian and his family had to endure, Cedric knew that it was a tough topic for his friend. It only ever came up when Ian opened up about it, which was quite rare.

~Check out Ian's story in my novel, RISE OF THE DISGRACED HEIR. It takes place years before Never Judge, we meet a whole different Ian and a different version of some of your favorite characters. ~

"Sometimes I wonder if uncle Emilio expects too much of me." Ian said with a sigh. "Yes, I am a capable businessman, but I'm no genius like you."

"I'm book smart, you're more street smart." Cedric said with a shrug. "You are what you need to be, and I know you are a genius, you work for me." Cedric bragged.

"Okay, enough trying to make me feel better, we know that's not gonna work." Ian said with a laugh.

"At least I tried." Cedric said with a shrug. "But seriously Ian, you need to talk about this more, does Nicole even know about what you've lived through?"

"She knows parts of it." Ian said with a sigh, shaking his head. "I don't want to burden her with the pains of my past. She doesn't deserve to feel sad, all I want is for her to be happy."

"Your past is part of her future, and your children's future." Cedric reminded Ian. 

"I don't want her to feel the need to help me get things back, Cedric." Ian said with a sigh.

Cedric was aware that no matter how hard he tried there was little to no chance of convincing Ian to open up to Nicole, Ian was a martyr at times. 

He willingly suffered so much for his family just to give them a better life, to give his siblings a better future. It was that dedication and tenacity that brought him to the Reyes Group.

"Don't forget Ian, my father also sees this as a debt he owes your father. For the years the Reyeses didn't reach out to the Lims." Cedric reminded Ian in a more serious tone. "My father has very little regrets in life, and not being there for your father is one of them." 

"I know Cedric. My dad literally told me the day I got my job." Ian said with a frown. "He chose not to reach out to the Reyeses, but your father still puts it on himself for not noticing what the Lims were going through. We both know that no one is to be blamed in this and yet both our dads feel like it's their fault."

"My father's debt is my debt, don't ever forget that Ian." Cedric said with a determined look in his eyes.

"Not this time Cedric." Ian told his friend.

"Then let me help you as your friend." Cedric asked. "Not as your boss, not as the head of the Reyes Clan. But as Cedric Reyes, the assistant who had to listen to all of your heartbreak, that had to eat lunch with you every single day."

"Fine." Ian said, surrendering to his friend's nagging. 

"Great, now we need to prepare for my meeting with Camilla and Benedict." Cedric said with a grin as he walked back over to his desk to continue working.

Ian smiled at how far he had come, back when he was still in University he didn't have any friends, as a matter of fact he had gotten into the wrong groups and done the wrong things.

He also was bullied and even risked losing everything just because he had pitied himself. He was a lost boy growing up. Someone who had been used to the comforts of the rich lifestyle only to lose everything in the blink of an eye.

But he changed, he woke up one day and turned his life around. He fought everything to be where he was right now, and he could feel that he was so close to achieving his goals, so close to bringing the Lim family back to where they had belonged. 

"Are you still daydreaming?" Cedric teased as he noticed the blank look on Ian's face.

"Yeah, no. I'll just go and talk to Dave and Mae." Ian said as he got up and left Cedric's office.