Never Judge

Chapter 5 - 5

Edward Chu, Mark Chu's father, was not happy with his future daughter-in-law. None the less the rumors were true, Mark had gotten Asia pregnant and he wanted to take responsibility. 

Edward initially wanted Mark to marry one of the daughters of a more powerful and influential family, unfortunately that chance was now gone. His only hope for a political marriage was for his daughter, Katrina, to marry into a better family. 

As the Chus walked into the room, Mark felt proud, his family was better in almost all aspects than the Hernandez's. Their business was much better, and they even had the backing of one of the top families, the Laurence family.

"Katrina, you look lovely today!" Asia praised her soon to be sister-in-law.

"I know, thanks." Katrina replied quite coldly. She never really approved of Asia and her brother dating from the start. To Katrina, Asia was too tacky and tried too hard.

"Sister-in-law, will you come with me to choose my wedding gown?" Asia asked Katrina.

"I might be busy." Katrina said, turning down Asia's offer.

"Grandpa! I'd like to introduce to you Mark's family. This is his father, Edward, his mother, Vivian, and his sister, Katrina." The old man stood to welcome the guests that had newly arrived.

"It is an honor to have our dear Asia marry your son, Mr. Chu." Grandpa Hernandez said as he shook Edward Chu's hand.

"You have a lively granddaughter, Mr. Hernandez." 

"Father, I invited Mr. Raymund Laurence to join us today as well. He said he would come over for a while." Mark said quietly to his father. He knew his father would not approve, but he would never scold his son in public.

"Ah, the Chu family is truly great being able to invite someone as important as Mr. Laurence to join us tonight." A man in his fifties said in a loud voice. "I am Fredrik Hernandez, Asia's father, and this is my wife, Cecilia." 

"Of course, Mr. Raymund Laurence is a friend of Mark's. They grew up together." Edward Chu was wise and knew not to turn down compliments even if he did not like this family. 

The truth was Edward Chu was always trying to get his son and Raymund Laurence to hangout but their group of friends were so closed off that aside from the 5 princes and their families, no one else was welcome to join.

"Come, sit with us. We will have the food served when Mr. Laurence arrives." Fredrik Hernandez invited the Chu family to sit at his table.

At the back of the room, Cedric was staring at his phone. He just asked Raymund if it were true that he would be joining the party. His phone soon buzzed when Raymund replied.

Yeah. I was initially going to turn down the invite, the Chu's are not really that important but when I saw you I decided to have some fun tonight. Leave me a seat at your table bro! We're gonna make them panic.

Cedric couldn't help but laugh at Ray's reply.

"You look like a crazy man laughing at your phone!" Gracia scolded.

"Mom! Stop it. Please." Adrianna said coming in defense of her husband.

"You had every chance to marry a better man Adrianna! You are a thousand times prettier than Asia and yet you settled for someone like this boy! How shameless of him to live off you! His salary isn't even half of what you make at Island's!" Gracia continued her scolding as if there weren't any people around them.

"Mom. Other people will hear you." Adrianna said in an attempt to calm down her mother.

"There is no one else on our table, no one wants to sit with us!" Gracia said in a lowered but furious tone.

It was true, during any gathering before Adrianna and Cedric were married many people chose to sit with them, most were young men hoping to court Adrianna. Even when she was already dating Cedric, many of their family and friends believed that Cedric and Adrianna would break up eventually. However, everyone was disappointed when the couple got married. Their wedding was ridiculed even more by the Hernandez's since no one from Cedric's family had gone to the wedding. Since they were so ashamed of the union, the family only allowed for a civil wedding and not a church wedding. 

"Looks like a special guest has arrived." Adrianna's father suddenly said as he watched Edward Chu and Mark Chu exit the function room.