Never Judge

Cedric and Ian were shocked to see Mien standing and in tears as Dave tried to hold him back. 

Max too seemed quite distressed as Leon hovered nearby.

"Mien, please, calm down." Mae begged as she placed a hand on her friend\'s shoulder. 

Mien shook it off, earning him a scolding from Dave. 

"Don\'t you dare treat my girlfriend that way!" Dave warned in an intimidating tone, catching everyone by surprise.

"Thank god you\'re back." Katerina called out as she noticed Ian and Cedric walking back.

"What is going on here?" Cedric asked in a stern tone, making everyone back down. "I leave for five minutes and all hell breaks loose. Someone better explain things to me now." Cedric demanded.

"He said- he said-" Mien said as he tried to get the words out but he was at a loss for words.

"Mae?" Cedric asked his assistant. 

"Max said that Mien was most likely Fernando\'s son." Mae explained to Cedric and Ian.

"Terry and Lara couldn\'t have kids." Max added. "Lara had no siblings, and Terry only had his sister. That means that Mien is most likely my brother\'s son."

"Impossible." Mien muttered as he kept his eyes on the ground.

"Mien, you can always run a DNA test with them or with. . ." Mae choked as she tried to mention Fernando\'s name. She didn\'t know if she was supposed to say Fernando or his corpse, it was all so confusing.

"Mae, it\'s alright." Cedric said as he gave his assistant a reassuring nod. 

"Mien, we checked the records, your real name is Mattias Benitez." Ian revealed, making the old lady gasp.

She began crying hysterically and saying things in the local dialect that Cedric couldn\'t understand.

Cedric watched as Katerina gave him a concerned look as she listened to what the old lady was saying. She tried to soothe the old lady but the woman remained quite distressed despite Katerina\'s attempts.

"She said, Mattias Benitez is her grandson\'s name, she keeps asking how we know his name." Katerina said with a frown. "Ced, she thinks her grandkids are dead, that\'s why she\'s acting like this."

"Can you explain to her?" Cedric asked as he looked at Max.

Max nodded as his eyes lingered on Mien. Cedric was not surprised that Max was curious about this long lost nephew of his, but there were things that they needed to fix first.

Cedric watched as Max spoke to his mother in a calm tone. Katerina, who was seated next to the old lady would also chime in when Max forgot something.

"Mien, I know this is a lot to process, but it\'s the truth." Cedric told Mien as he looked the young man in the eyes.

"I need to talk to my mom." Mien said in a distressed tone.

"Don\'t worry, after this, you and Mae can go and give her a call. Mae will be there to help you arrange for anything she might need to get there." Cedric said as calmly as he could. 

"Thank you." Mien said with an awkward smile. "I never thought I was adopted, then now, all of a sudden apparently I met my real dad without knowing him. I haven\'t even had the time to process the fact that I was adopted and now this."

"We will help you, don\'t worry." Cedric promised.

Cedric nodded and glanced at Max as he held his mother\'s hand. The old lady was not looking at her son, she was looking at Mien who was across the table from her.

The old lady suddenly got up, causing everyone to panic as she almost fell back down on her seat. She slowly made her way to Mien and held his face in her hands and said something.

"She called him grandson." Katerina quickly translated.

"Mattias." The old lady said as tears fell from her eyes.

Cedric could tell that Mien did not know how to react, he was at a loss. So much had happened to him in the recent days that he had no idea how he was supposed to react.

He looked to Mae who then just nodded at him, as if telling him to simply trust his heart and trust his instincts. 

After what felt like a really long time Mien suddenly hugged the old lady and began to cry as well. 

"I never thought I had a family aside from mom and dad." Mien said as he sobbed with the old woman. "I never expected to have a grandmother or an uncle."

Katerina smiled and quickly translated for the old lady.

Cedric watched as she hugged Mien even tighter as she heard what he had said.

The woman began to cry out once more as she held Mien tightly in her arms.

"My mom is crying about how she wishes she knew Mattias was still alive. She mourned him and his sister and their mother." Max explained. "When they were younger, my sister-in-law would always take them to visit my mom. She was so happy to have them around."

"I\'m not sure if my mom, my biological mom I mean, and my sister are alive." Mien told Max. "I didn\'t know I was adopted until a few days ago."

Max quickly translated Mien\'s words for his mother as he gave Mien a sad look.

"I\'m sorry I can\'t tell you more about where your mother and sister could be now." Max told Mien. "As I mentioned to you, I went looking for them, but you were all gone. I\'m assuming your mother split you guys up so that you couldn\'t be found."

"But why?" Mien asked. "Why did we have to be hidden? What was Fernando\'s, no, dad\'s secret that had to be hidden so badly."

"It has to have something to do with the Chan family." Cedric said with a frown. 

"Will you tell them?" Mae asked as she gave her boss a curious look.

Cedric nodded and took a deep breath, everyone in the room was involved one way or another with the Chans and it seemed like everything was related at this point.

"We were actually looking for Fernando when Mae met him." Cedric revealed something even Mien did not know. "We are trying to find out if Andrew Chan survived." 

"He did." Max suddenly said as he walked over to the box of letters he had given Cedric earlier.