“Cedric Reyes, long time no see. I didn’t expect you to marry a social climber, but then good for you. You’ll be able to get out of whichever hovel you work in.” Gabriel was already furious at this point and didn’t remember that he had seen photos of Cedric and Adrianna circulating on social media.

“It’s none of your business.” Cedic said as he picked Adrianna up and carried her bridal style.

“Ced, I’m ok. You don’t need to carry me.” Adrianna complained.

“Hey Cedric, I was talking to you.” Gabriel shouted.

He tried to pull Cedric back but as he took a step forward Tom and Jo blocked him.

“You know, you’ve become a grade A Ass.” Jo said pushing his former friend to the ground.

“Yeah, in the past you just ignored us, but this time you’re actually physically assaulting a woman.” Tom said.

“Guys, let’s go. This party is boring.” Cedric was still carrying Adrianna and his injuries from the fight earlier were beginning to hurt.

Tom and Jo followed Cedric out. He asked them to accompany Adrianna to the hotel’s nurse to be checked out.

Adrianna tried to refuse but Cedric wouldn’t take no for an answer. Once they had left Leon made himself visible and stood behind Cedric.

Cedric took out his phone and sent a message to the 5 princes’ chat.

Cedric Reyes: Tell the manager of the Constellation Resort in Quirino that I’m on my way to his office.

Ray Laurence: Alright. I’ll give him a call.

Alexi Sebastian: Why didn’t you tell us you were there?

Cedric Reyes: I was just supposed to attend a gathering, but things escalated.

Alexi Sebastian: Next time give us a heads up.

Cedric Reyes: I will. Oh by the way, remember your uncle’s driver?

Alexi Sebastian: Yeah, the one you recommended?

Cedric Reyes: Give him hell.

Miguel Chan: Woah! Did he attack our sister-in-law or something?

Alexi Sebastian: @Cedric Reyes got it. @Miguel Chan grow up. He probably did.

Cedric Reyes: Thanks guys.

“Get me a face mask.” Cedric told Leon. The bodyguard asked a member of the team to send one to the lobby. Once Cedric wore the mask he took out the glasses he kept in his pocket.

Cedric and Leon took the elevator to the manager’s office in the basement.

When the manager received the call that the owner of Constellations Resort was on his way to meet him he threw everyone into a cleaning frenzy, by the time Cedric arrived in the administrative offices of the hotel the offices were in a much better state than it initially was.

“Mr. Reyes, welcome. How can we help you?” The manager was a tall young man. He was the complete opposite of what Cedric had expected.

“You’re the manager here?” Cedric asked.

“Yes sir. I was personally hired by Mr. Laurence and Mr. Sebastian.” The man replied.

If Ray and Alexi had approved of this guy it must mean that he was good. In the past 5 years Cedric together with his friends built the Invest Export Group. It was a mixture of different businesses under one name, one of which was Constellations Resort. While his friends were busy in university, Cedric was taking part time jobs and using that money he built the company from the ground up.

“My name is David, sir. Sir, please, take a seat in your office. As per your instructions you have an office in all Constellations Resorts.” The young man led him to the office that we already cleaned.

An assistant offered him coffee as he inspected the room. The office was in the same style as the whole hotel, reflective of the local pre-spanish colonial culture of the country. Since no one used this office it was quite bare and had no personal items in it.

“I came from a function here today.” Cedric took his seat and crossed his arms.

“I hope everything matched your standards sir.” David said quite calmly.

“Yes. The service was good, but the guests were unsavory. Can you deal with them?” Cedric stood up to take his leave.

“Which room sir?” David took out his phone to quickly take note.

“Aries.” Cedric said as he left.

Back at the Aries function room, many of their classmates were trying to calm Gabriel down.

“Gabriel, those three are good for nothing. They are nobodies to you.” A woman said as she stroked his arm in an attempt to comfort him.

“Yeah man. That Tom just works here.” A male classmate said.

“Plus you know so many bigshots. I’m sure they don’t know any.” Another chimed in.

“Plus that wife of Cedric’s, she’s such a bitch. She’s not even that good looking.” Everyone nodded in agreement to boost Gabriel’s mood.

“Let’s not let people like that ruin the night, Gabriel.” Gabriel nodded at his classmate and smiled once again.

“Waiter! Please give every table a bottle of whisky.” Gabriel announced. He had received a very generous salary and bonus the past few years so he could afford to treat his guests.

While they were drinking Gabriel’s phone rang. It was his boss, Mr. Joshua Sebastian.

“Mr. Joshua.” Gabriel answered the call.

“You son of a bitch!” Joshua shouted at the other end of the call.

“Sir, is something the matter?” Gabriel asked.

“My nephew just discovered that you have been taking bribes!” Joshua was furious when Alexi had told him that his driver was taking bribes from people to give a good word to his boss about them. Joshua was surprised at his nephew’s discovery, since it was Alexi that had recommended Gabriel in the first place.

Gabriel could not deny it. Denying it would seem like he was accusing one of the country’s most trusted congressmen of lying.

“You’re fired Gabriel.”

Gabriel took a deep breath. He could manage. He had a lot of money saved up from all the bribes, on top of that he often took some of Joshua’s smaller gifts and sold them. To the Sebastian’s, those gifts were small tokens, but to people like Gabriel each item was in the thousands so it was quite a significant amount.

As the merriment continued in the Aries room the manager suddenly entered with the security team.

“I received a call that you would be unable to pay for your bill tonight.” David said as he stood in front of Gabriel. He had found out that this man was the one that would pay for everything and that he had caused quite a scene earlier on.

“I’ll be able to pay. Here, take my card.” Gabriel handed the manager his card.

David asked someone to swipe the card. To Gabriel’s shock it was denied.

“It seems you won’t be able to settle your bill.” David said as he threw the card on the ground.

Gabriel’s face paled. He was embarrassed in front of his whole high school batch. When they had heard that Gabriel’s card was denied they slowly began leaving the room.

“The police will be here soon. On top of not being able to settle the bill we heard that you assaulted a guest earlier today, you will also be charged for that.”

Gabriel felt like the world had suddenly abandoned him.