Never Judge

Chapter 430 - 430

The scene that played on Cedric's screen started off quite normal. Natalia was in her lab with a few assistants, they were going about their business analyzing compounds and several chemicals. Then he noticed that they began packing up their things, it was probably late at night and they were going to head home.

"This was at the end of the day." Natalia explained. "It was already around 12 mn."

"Wow, you guys work late." Ray said as he observed the video on the screen.

"Yeah, Alexi always complains about how we are too noisy when we pass outside his room." Natalia said with a laugh.

"This part was left untampered." Adolfo explained to the group. "A few moments later." Adolfo says as he presses fast forward and nothing changes. It remains an empty room.

"We've seen this." Alexi complained. "According to Natalia's friend, this was untampered and was clearly the correct film."

"He was wrong." Adolfo said in a colder than normal tone.

"Adolfo, you don't have to be so harsh towards him." Natalia complained. Clearly there was some kind of history between Natalia, Adolfo, and the Ken fellow that Natalia had initially gone to to study the tapes. 

"Wow, you call me harsh, you were way worse on him." Adolfo said with a grin.

"Can the two of you please fight later?" Miguel complained. "Your love hate relationship is not helping, and Adolfo, seriously, shouldn't you be nicer to Natalia while her brother is around?" Miguel said with a naughty grin as he gestured towards Alexi.

Alexi simply smiled and raised an eyebrow at the younger man.

"It's not like that Miguel!" Natalia complained. "Can we just get back to the matter at hand?"

"I don't hear Adolfo complaining." Alexi couldn't resist but teased Adolfo and Natalia.

"As much as I would like to continue this conversation, I think Natalia is right. We need to focus our attention on this." Katerina said with a nod.

"So hot." Eric whispered, loud enough for Cedric, who was seated next to the couple to hear.

He saw Katerina smack Eric on the head making him laugh.

"Continue." Cedric said with a nod as he looked towards Adolfo.

"Natalia, I know you want to think the best of Ken, but he tampered with this tape. It's his signature." Adolfo said with a sigh. "He told you it wasn't tampered because it was his work. I already told you this."

Natalia refused to look at Adolfo making him sigh.

"This is the actual tape." Adolfo said as he pressed play again.

It was the same room and it was still empty. Then the lights were switched on.

"This happened at 3 am." Adolfo explained. "I'm guessing that at this time everyone in the house was already fast asleep."

"That day, I was home." Alexi said tentatively. 

"I was too. I slept at home since we finished late. Normally I would go back to the state house to be with mom and dad, but I didn't want to bother the security team and cause a ruckus." Natalia explained.

"Don't look at me. I was at my house." Katerina said as Eric smiled slyly beside her. 

"Ugh, disgusting Eric." Miguel said as he noticed the look on his older brother's face.

"Trust me, you and Veronica are much worse." Eric teased back. 

"So this person is possibly an intruder?" Cedric asked. 

"The Sebastian compound is very secure, just to get in you have to go through both state and private security. How can some stranger waltz right in?" Natalia asked.

"It could have been an inside job." Adolfo suggested.

"Impossible, everyone who works on the property is fully vetted. We do extensive background checks on them." Katerna said, shaking her head.

"Everyone has a price." Cedric said with a sigh. "All it takes is either a bribe or a threat."

"Wait, we shouldn't just jump into conclusions." Ray said as he quickly tried to pull everyone's attention back.

"Yes, we should watch the rest of it." Cedric said with a nod.

Adolfo nodded and pressed play once more. He played it at normal speed this time, at first the room was empty but slowly a figure walked in, it was a woman, but her back was turned on the cameras. 

"Who is that?" Natalia asked. "She looks so familiar." 

"She doesn't look like any of the maids." Katerina added as she watched quite intensely. If there was a security breach at their home she needed to fix it together with her siblings. 

"She's looking through my experimental serums." Natalia pointed out as the woman walked over to a chiller. "That's it! There is the serum!" Natalia shouted, taking everyone by surprise.

"Which serum?" Alexi asked.

"The serum Miguel said he saw Jen injecting into Nicole! That's it! I'm sure of it. But what is she doing?" Natalia asked as she saw the woman taking out a vial from her bag.

"She's swapping them." Miguel said as they observed the image.

"That's why I didn't notice!" Natalia said as she looked at how similar the vials were. "Now I need  to go back and check each of the vials. Who knows what she placed in there. It would sabotage all of my experiments!" Natalia exclaimed.

"Natalia, you can do that later." Katerina scolded her younger sister. "Right now, focus."

Natalia simply nodded and returned her attention to the video that was playing on the TV.

"Do you think she knows there is a camera? She isn't turning around." Ram said, expressing his suspicions.

"She probably did, and something must have gone wrong. Because if this was just the case then she wouldn't have to tamper with the film. We can't identify her this way." Cedric said as they watched the woman continue to move around Natalia's lab.

"She took other things. Other serums." Natalia gasped. "Those aren't safe." 

"Natalia, what are those?" Adolfo asked as he saw Natalia's face pale.

"Secret government research I was doing for your dad." Natalia said.

"Look! Look!" Ray suddenly said, pointing at the screen. The woman was turning to face the camera. 

It was Jenifer Pelaez, Alexi's fiance.