Chapter 33

"I'm sure he'll start noticing your existence again, Jo. You work in a different country. In his eyes you've got a lot of money." Tom teased. Although his words were meant to be a joke there was much truth to them. Gabriel would only speak to or notice people he believed were on the same financial and social level as him.

"He might notice Cedric here. Ced is the assistant to the president of Mor Co. I'm sure you meet as many bigshots as Gabriel does!" Jo said.

Cedric laughed.

"My boss doesn't meet a lot of people outside the office. Plus I don't really handle discussions with those bigshots." Cedric explained to his friends.

"Who is Gabriel?" Adrianna asked the boys.

"Well Gabriel used to be like us, one of us. Then he got a good paying job and suddenly started acting like he was better than us." Tom was mad at Gabriel for how he treated them, after all it was Cedric that had initially helped him get the job.

"It just reached the point where he was ashamed to even associate with us." Jo said, completing what Tom was explaining.

"Adrianna I think you'll find it quite funny to know that Gabriel is the driver of Mr. Joshua Sebastian, cousin to the president, uncle of one of the 5 princes. That's why he thinks so highly of himself now." Tom told Adrianna.

"So he's just a driver?" Adrianna's face was painted with confusion. To people like her a driver was just a driver. Just as Cedric was just an assistant in her relatives' eyes.

"See Ced! I told you your wife is from a completely different world compared to ours!" Tom teased.

"And where is your wife?" He asked Tom. Tom had married his highschool sweetheart and had three children.

"At home, with the kids. It's her turn to miss a class affair. I'm glad I went this time. The two of you have never attended before." Tom was smiling at how well his timing was.

"It's my first time coming home after 5 years. Prior to that I was busy studying. You can't blame me." Jo explained.

"Hey look guys! It's Gabriel!" A girl from the next table said quite loudly.

If it had been back in highschool, no one would even notice if Gabriel did backflips into the room, but since he was working for a well known person everyone wanted to be his friend now. As Gabriel passed their table Jo whispered to Adrianna.

"See what I mean now?"

Adrianna frowned. In her eyes there was nothing spectacular about him, and Cedric's classmates were acting as if one of the 5 princes had walked into the room.

Cedric excused himself to go to the men's room right before Gabriel was about to give a speech.

When Gabriel stood up to speak, his eyes were quickly drawn to Adrianna. Just as everyone had noticed, Adrianna was not one of them. She belonged to the kind of people they dreamed of being, or the people they dreamed of working for. Gabriel wondered who had brought such a person to their gathering.

As Gabriel welcomed everyone in the room, Cedric had the misfortune of encountering Chris in the men's room.

"You!" Chris dragged Cedric to a corner with the help of his friends.

Chris quickly punched Cedric in the stomach. Cedric winced in pain.

"Guess what loser! I got demoted because of you. So now I'm gonna take out my anger on you." Chris sent a knee flying at Cedric.

Cedric however managed to catch the knee before it hit him and he pushed Chris back. Chris' friends were in shock. Cedric had always been the wimpy kid in class. He was always bullied and pushed around, how was it possible that he was now fighting back.

However before any of Chris' friends could do anything they were knocked out cold by a man who had just entered the men's room. Seeing this Chris tried to run, but the man incapacitated him as well.

"Mister Reyes are you alright?" The man asked as he checked if his victims were truly unconscious.

"Yes. Thank you. Who are you?" Cedric asked the stranger.

The man suddenly pulled out his phone and made a call.

"I've got 3 men, I managed to subdue them, but the boss is hurt. I need a clean up team and a paramedic here." He said quickly before dropping the call.

"Do you work for me?" Cedric asked.

"Yes sir. Your parents hired me five years ago to protect you. Thankfully the past five years have been quiet. My name is Leon." The man said as he inspected Cedric for any injuries. "Luckily you took those self defense lessons a few years back. I don't think I would have gotten here in time if you couldn't defend yourself."

"I realized needed to at least be able to defend myself if I was going back. The Reyes family might be powerful, but we are not short of enemies." Cedric explained.

Soon a few more bodyguards arrived together with a doctor and a nurse.

The bodyguards took Chris and his friends away while Leon stayed as the doctors checked Cedric.

"Sir there is some bruising, but I'm confident that nothing is broken. I'd prefer if you would go with us to the hospital for a check up, but knowing you, you'd probably decline." Cedric was puzzled by the doctor's insight into his preference. It wasn't that the doctor was wrong, but rather that the doctor was right. Cedric wanted to stay and go home with his wife. If he suddenly disappeared it would be suspicious.

"We've all been following you for five years sir." When Leon saw Cedric's puzzled expression he immediately knew what his boss was thinking.

"You don't need to explicitly hide from me anymore Leon. I feel safer knowing my parents sent a bodyguard to protect me. Is there one for my wife as well?" Cedric asked.

"No sir."

"Alright. I'm sure you know other well trained people. Give a list to Ian. I'll make sure he knows who you are." Cedric offered before heading back out towards the reunion.

While Cedric was dealing with Chris and his friends Gabriel decided to make a pass on Adrianna. After welcoming everyone he went to her table.

"Hi Miss. I think you might be lost." Gabriel said as he took a seat next to her.

Adrianna couldn't help but have both a puzzled and disgusted expression.

"This isn't heaven, my dear angel."

Suddenly he was slapped in the face by Adrianna.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Do you think you could just go around slapping men?" Gabriel was furious at Adrianna's actions. Instead of replying to his question Adrianna took a glass of wine and threw the liquid at his face.

Gabriel was much angrier now.

"Look woman, you might think you're such a hot shot, but you aren't. Don't you know who I work for?" Gabriel asked as he grabbed Adrianna's hand.

Everyone's attention had already turned to Adrianna and Gabriel the moment Adrianna threw that slap.

"Which of you brought this whore here?" Gabriel shouted furiously.

"Don't you dare call me a whore." Adrianna shouted.

"You're just a social climber, whore is more appropriate for people like you." Gabriel hissed as he shoved Adrianna away.

Adrianna was in high heels at the time and was about to fall down when right on cue Cedric arrived and caught her.

"Don't call my wife a whore." Cedric said as he checked if Adrianna was hurt.