Chapter 40

Adrianna and her friends were stopping at almost every store in the mall, she bought clothes, shoes, and bags. She was even insisting for Cedric to buy clothes that were more fashionable, but Cedric preferred his ordinary work attire over the coats and ties Adrianna wanted to buy him. On top of that he had a closet full of new clothes both at his parent's house and at the office, he rarely even wore any of them since it wasn't his style.

The girls were trying on some clothes when they heard Natasha scream from outside the dressing room. Julia, Sofia, Adrianna, and Cedric rushed to check on her, luckily she was still fully dressed and seemed to be alright.

"We were so worried Natasha, why did you scream?" Adrianna asked with a sigh.

"The 4 princes and their sisters are here in the mall too!" Natasha blushed, ashamed at her excitement.

"We've already met them before, why are you so excited?" Adrianna asked.

Cedric hadn't realized that his sister and their friends would be going to the exact same mall. He thought it was such an interesting coincidence since Ayanna's favorite shop wasn't even in this branch. In reality Ayanna had asked Camilla and Ian where Cedric was going so that they could "accidentally" bump into him.

"Cause, Eric Chan is also with them." When Natasha said this Adrianna's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Where in the mall are they?" Julia asked, unable to hide her excitement.

"Well, based on the photos posted 5 minutes ago, they are at the Men's section. Cedric this is all your fault! If you agreed to let Adrianna buy clothes for you we would have bumped into them!" Natasha scolded Cedric.

"Natasha, you didn't want us to go to the Men's section either." Adrianna said, rolling her eyes.

"Look even if you guys tried to run after them based on the location in posts, this mall is so big. The odds of you bumping into them is really low." Cedric knew that even if they didn't chase them the group they were dreaming about would find them.

Cedric already had his suspicions that Ayanna even knew where they were planning to have their dinner. It wouldn't be too difficult for her to get someone to ask every restaurant in the mall to figure out where Cedric and Adrianna were having dinner after shopping.

"As much as I don't want to admit it, Cedric is right." Julia sighed, she too wanted to get a chance to meet the 4 princes and Eric Chan, but the odds weren't in their favor.

"Julia, which of the 5 princes is your favorite?" Natasha asked.

"I think Raymund Laurence is the most charming!" Julia said with a blush.

"What? Haven't you heard the rumor that he's gay?" Natasha giggled.

Behind them Cedric wanted to laugh, he hadn't heard this rumor yet.

"He isn't gay!" Julia defended her hopes to meet and fall in love with Raymund Laurence.

"Julia, think about it, he's really good looking, he's really rich, and from what I've heard he's really smart. And he has never had a girlfriend. He doesn't even have paparazzi photos with any girls!" Natasha recounted all the points that were enumerated in the forum that was trying to point out that Raymund Laurence was gay.

"Cedric knows him, is he gay?" Adrianna quickly asked Cedric.

"I don't know him that well." Cedric was sure Ray wasn't gay. But he wasn't going to save Ray from rumors like this.

"How about you Adrianna, Cedric aside, which of the 5 princes would you choose?" Julia said in an attempt to shift the attention.

"I'd still choose Cedric." Adrianna laughed.

"Not one of the choices, please say you'll choose the Reyes Heir!" Sofia nagged.

"Definitely not him. It's his fault my husband has to work late nights all the time. Plus he's too cold!" Adrianna said. When Cedric heard this he wanted to laugh, if only Adrianna knew she was describing the same person.

��What do you mean he is too cold?" Natasha was curious with what Adrianna had just said.

"Remember, I met him for the Elisia Mall project?" The girls nodded in reply, their full attention now on Adrianna.

"Well he just gave off this cold aura. He didn't talk at all and compared to his friends he just seemed stiff the whole time. Who would want to be with a guy like that? Cedric don't you ever dare turn into someone like your boss." Adrianna commanded Cedric.

At that time Cedric was just so worried about seeing her in person as his persona as the Reyes Heir that he couldn't speak. All he could do was just stare at her and when she was presenting their plans he was just so proud and in awe of his wife that he didn't know how to react anymore. He knew that day, if he revealed to Adrianna who he really was she would feel like she didn't get the project because of her skills, but rather because she had fallen into the kind of person her family wanted, someone whose connections could be maximized to their benefit.

From their early days together Cedric knew that Adrianna was more capable than people believed, whenever they saw her beautiful face they began to assume that she was not capable of anything other than looking pretty. Cedric witnessed how professors in university dismissed her ideas because they only saw her for her beauty and not for her intelligence. He wanted Adrianna to show the world that she was more than just a pretty face.

"Earth to Cedric, are you there?" Adrianna's voice drew Cedric out of his thoughts. He just smiled at her and nodded.

"Come on, I'm exhausted. Let's go eat!" Adrianna interlocked her fingers with his as they walked to The Hangout.

The Hangout was one of Adrianna's favorite restaurants, it had a more relaxed ambiance and the restaurant was designed with school memorabilia from the top 4 universities in their country. It was really targeted to attract alumni of those schools, but soon enough people who also dreamed of going to any of those schools began to frequent the place as well.

When they got to The Hangout, there was a large crowd of people snapping photos and trying to take a look inside.

"I wonder why people are trying to take photos, do you think something happened inside?" Sofia said as she tried to take a look inside.

"I hope not. I was really looking forward to eating here today." Julia frowned.

"Maybe there is a famous artist inside. These people look like fans." Sofia guessed based on how the people were acting.

"Hey Julia, isn't that man over there your dad's assistant?" Adrianna pointed to a man in his 50s.

"Yeah! Hey Mr. Anthony?" Julia waved and walked towards the man.

"Miss Julia, so nice to see you." Mr. Anthony was still trying to get a look inside The Hangout as he spoke to her.

"What's going on here?" Julia asked.

"Well, The Hangout cancelled all their reservations today for a private party, according to business rumors the Reyes Heir might be in there. Your dad wants me to get a meeting with him." Cedric raised an eyebrow at what Mr. Anthony said.

"What? They didn't even send a message." Adrianna was mad. She was already having such a bad day and this Reyes Heir makes it worse by booking the whole restaurant.

"That's impossible. We all got cancellation messages and a free dinner." A girl in the crowd said. "I'm just here to see the 5 princes. They walked in not too long ago."

"Adrianna, why don't you try talking to the manager." Cedric already knew what stunt his sister was trying to pull. He was pissed since it could end up exposing him to his wife and her friends.

The manager came out and asked for Adrianna's name and reservation number. She went back in and after a while came out with six bodyguards.