Adrianna had been waiting for Cedric for an hour, she couldn’t reach him on his phone. Although she didn’t mind him working late she knew he would get an earful from her mother when they got home.

Soon she saw the car approaching, she sighed in relief. 

​​

“I’m sorry Adrianna, I got held up at work and didn’t notice the time.” Cedric apologized. 

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to mom later. You know how she gets.” Adrianna sighed.

“Why don’t we eat out today? I got promoted, so it’s my treat!” Getting promoted was an understatement for what happened to him today, but he had no plans of telling his wife or her family just yet.

As if on cue, Adrianna’s phone began to ring, it was her mother.

“Let’s hold off celebrating your promotion, my cousin got engaged and her father invited us all out.” Adrianna told Cedric. He drove them home to pick up Adrianna’s mother Gracia, and her father Charles.

“Who is Asia’s fiance, mom?” Adrianna would soon regret asking her mom.

“His name is Mark Chu, he is the son of a very wealthy businessman. They own a chain of drugstores that already has branches in other countries!” Gracia said proudly, as if Asia was her daughter. “Why couldn’t you marry a man as capable as Mark, Adrianna?”

“Mom!” Adrianna scolded.

“And you! My lazy husband, you could at least contribute more to your family. Instead here you are just a professor! I thought you were going to be a doctor when I married you!” Gracia scolded her husband.

The rest of the ride was spent with Gracia praising Asia’s fiance. According to Gracia, Mark Chu was young and rich, he had booked the whole restaurant to celebrate their engagement and had given Asia a ring worth hundreds of thousands. He was set to inherit his father’s business in a few years.

Cedric couldn’t help but grin, if only his in-laws knew who he really was, they wouldn’t be so impressed with Mark Chu. 

At a traffic light, Cedric asked Ian to get all the information about Mark Chu, Cedric had met a handful of rich heirs and he knew they liked to brag. Before they even arrived, Ian sent him an email with all the information he needed on Mark Chu. 

After dropping Adrianna and his in-laws off at the lobby,  he parked the car. He quickly skimmed through Mark’s dossier and realized that Mark’s father didn’t even want this engagement to happen. 

He chuckled to himself, the snobby Hernandez family was going to get snubbed by someone else soon.

When Cedric entered the lobby of the restaurant he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

“Cedric! Cedric!” 

Cedric turned to find Raymund Laurence waving at him. Raymund was the eldest son and heir of the notorious Laurence family, who were involved in both legal and illegal businesses. 

Raymund and Cedric grew up side by side, and Raymund was very much aware of the poverty training Cedric had to go through.

“Hey Ray! I thought that Chu kid booked the whole restaurant?” Cedric asked.

“Ha! He only booked a function room. Hey I heard you’re coming back?” Ray asked.

“Yeah. But I’m not going public about it yet.” Cedric explained. 

“Well if you need any help, you know you can ask us.” The “us” Raymund was talking about were the notorious “5 princes.” They were all sons of rich influential families who were groomed to take over someday. Unlike their counterparts, they took their studies and businesses seriously and had all been given significant roles in their own families. 

Everyone knew who 4 were, but no one seems to have met the 5th prince, the extremely low profile son of the Reyes clan.

“Swing by the function room Mark Chu booked a little bit later. I think his dad will come by.” Cedric said with a grin.

Raymund simply nodded and went on his way.

In the function room, Cedric took his seat beside Adrianna. It seemed the whole Hernandez clan came out to meet this soon to be in-law of the family. 

Adrianna’s cousin, Asia Hernandez was the youngest daughter of her father’s eldest brother, she was tall and pretty. Although Asia was only 22, she wore makeup that made her look more mature than she actually was. Like most of the Hernandez’s she had fair skin and black hair. 

Upon seeing Cedric arrive, she dragged her fiancé to brag to Adrianna and her family.