Chapter 80

The boys all went back to Cedric's villa to accompany him and have some drinks.

"She would have called off the wedding if she knew who I was." Cedric said with a sigh.

"You weren't allowed to tell anyone anyway, you would have lost the inheritance." Miguel said, he was already drunk and was sitting on the floor.

"Bring up more bottles!" Ram shouted to the staff who brought up bottles of scotch and cognac.

"She doesn't even believe that I'm me! She took the news about Eric better than finding out who I am!" Cedric shouted.

"You told her my secret before yours!" Eric said.

"Technically I told her about mine first but she thought it was a joke." Cedric sighed.

"Let's just drink! Cheers!" Ray said, pouring more drinks into everyone's glasses.

"Would you have given up your inheritance for her?" Miguel asked.

"For Adri? If she asked me to give it all up now I would, for her." Cedric said.

��That's stupid." Ray spat as he gave Cedric another drink.

"I can make money, we have made money, our little company Invest Export Group is doing well, it's larger than even Island's Inc., but the person you love and you want to spend the rest of your life with, that's harder to find. Look at the five of you! None of you are married!" Cedric told his friends.

"Marriage is over rated. Why settle for one when you can have many?" Alexi teased.

"I'll never understand your playboy ways, cousin." Ray sighed.

"What would happen if you gave up your inheritance?" Ram asked Cedric in a more serious tone.

"Well, Ayanna will have to go through a harder but shorter poverty training. It's happened before, and well she would basically have to give up everything for eight years. Her diploma and her identity will also be stripped away. She won't have a place to stay and she'll be thrown onto the streets with just the clothes on her back. She won't be allowed to take anything." Cedric explained with a frown.

"Ayanna is a strong woman, she would survive it." Ray said, thinking about Ayanna.

"It's not a question of if she could, it's if we are willing to let her go through that. Ayanna will come back a completely different person. I don't want my sister to have to go through that." Cedric explained.

"If you could go back in time, would you have told Adrianna?" Eric asked Cedric.

"Would it have made a difference? If I had told her, she would have broken up with me because of who I was from the start." Cedric explained.

"I don't understand Adrianna. Who doesn't want to marry a guy like us?" Ray asked.

"A girl that was brought up to be a trophy wife. Her family always expected her to just make a good match and not do well on her own. She was always referred to as the treasure of the Hernandez family." Cedric explained to his friends.

The boys ended up passing out in Cedric's villa. The next day when they woke up Cedric noticed a message from Adrianna on his phone.

Adrianna Reyes: Cedric, a big part of me still doesn't believe that you really are the Reyes Heir. I need time to process all of this. Either way you lied to me! You should have told me when we got married. It hurts me so much that you've been pulling strings behind the curtain! I thought I was actually good at what I was doing, but it was just you! I still love you, but I don't know if you are still the you I fell in love with in the first place. I can't be some rich man's trophy wife, I can't be in some politically arranged marriage, I don't want to be a woman who only achieved everything she has because of the man she married. Don't try to come home. I'm returning to the capital. Ayanna is helping me get back.

When Cedric saw Adrianna's message he felt his whole world crumbling around him. He ran out of his villa to Ayanna's and knocked on the door.

Ayanna opened the door after a while.

"She's already left. She left last night." A sleepy Ayanna told her brother.

"And you let her go!" Cedric shouted.

"What do you want me to do Cedric? Keep her prisoner here? You have no right to do that!" Ayanna scolded her older brother.

Cedric turned and punched a wall.

"Ced, go home. Sober up and take a bath. Adrianna needs her space. She loves you for you, don't worry, she'll come back." Ayanna told her brother helping him walk back to his villa.

When she and Cedric got there, the first sight she saw was a naked Alexi walking in the hallway.

"Alexi you asshole! Put some pants on!" Ayanna shouted, throwing a shoe at Alexi who ran away.

Later that day when Cedric had calmed down he left the island with his parents and sister. Veronica hadn't finished his house yet so Cedric went home to his parents' home.

He tried calling Adrianna again when he was in his room, but she refused to pick up. So he sent her a message instead.

Cedric Reyes (17:24.34): Adrianna, honey, I'm sorry I lied to you, but this is the family I was born into and I love them very much. I am not like how all the rumors say or how all those novels you have read say a young CEO should be. I'm nothing like Alexi or Ray. I have no one else except you. I love you for you and I am the same person.

Cedric Reyes (20:03.10): Honey, I'm still me. Please forgive me.

Adrianna ignored Cedric for a week, and Cedric had been living at the Reyes House the whole time. Since his Audi was at the Hernandez house he was forced to take his Rolls Royce Ghost to work, he came in and out in his disguise and he managed to trend different social media platforms again. Everyone was wondering why they were seeing so much of the Reyes heir all of a sudden. There were many theories around, one was that he was getting ready to reveal his true face. Another was that he was chasing after an international model and wanted to prove that he was popular too. The most logical theory was that he was just getting tired of sneaking around and just decided to show up in his car and wear a disguise going into the office.

Of course all of these theories and rumors were far from the truth. He was just fighting with his wife and was kicked out of the house. With no car or clothes from home Cedric just decided to walk around as the Reyes heir.

Cedric spent hours staring out of his office window towards the Island's Inc. building. When he first took over Mor Co., in order to make sure that no structures would be built and block his view of his wife's office Cedric had bought all the properties that could block his view. He made sure that the building heights remained low and his view was unhindered.