Offer To The CEO

Sunday, continued ...

When they returned to their hotel suite, Hou Yi had arranged a simple tea for them, and they sat on the couch eating it. Hou Yi turned to Anna and said "I am sorry about your mother today."

"Yi I should remember that she views me as the problem. As far as I can remember I have only met her parents about ten times in my life. There is no other way to describe it but say they belong to a cult. There mentality is the man is the head of the household and must always be obeyed. He controls what his wife and female children can do, so if he says no work or education they cannot do this. Female are taught from birth to submit to the demands and controls of the head of the household."

"I only realised how bad it was when I acted for a client who sued the group. She was eight months pregnant and being badly beaten by about six or eight men from the group. A passing stranger rescued her and took her to hospital for treatment. As a result she suffered six broken ribs, a broken leg, bruises all over her body, it killed the baby and left her blind in one eye, among other injuries."

"When her husband, who set up the attack realised that she was in hospital he attended there and tried removed her from all treatment because she was his wife. What saved her was that the leg was in traction at the time because of how badly it was broken. Due to how bad the beating was, with support, she contacted the police, who obtained an intervention order to protect her while she spent four months in the hospital recovering from the attack."

"On her release she refused to return to the marriage and sort a divorce. She original had a free legal service was handling her matter, but given the church's attitude and involvement they realised it was above what they could do, so we agreed to assist on a pro-bono basis to get her a fair and just property settlement and for her to see her children."

"Her husband claimed, because of their marriage, the agreement that she was forced to sign on turning 16 by the church that stated that all her assets and include were property of the head of her household and their religious beliefs she was entitled to leave the marriage with nothing, and could not see their children again."

Anna paused for a second and took a deep breath to continue. "Given the church's ongoing justification of all her husband's actions we brought them in as a party to obtain a just outcome for her. I did not know that my maternal grandfather was a church elder, until we went into a court ordered conference to attempt to reach a resolution."

"The first things out of my grandfather's mouth at the conference were that he was the head of the household I belonged to, and that I was required to drop all proceedings immediately and have our client compensate the church and her ex-husband for bringing the proceedings."

"It got worse, he then went to grab me, stating he was having me return to his household immediately, that I would submit to his demands, compensate him for all the money and assets that I had deprived him of, and that I would be married to another church member within forty-eight hours who would make me pay for all my disobedience. He then re-stated that all my assets were his."

"ANX immediately saw that I was removed from the room and the case, to protect our client. However we were lucky as we got our client a family law property settlement, she has the children living with her and their father can only see them fully supervised, and she achieved a large compensation settlement from the church."

Mum lived with that attitude until she was 25 years old. Her first husband was arranged by her father and he followed those beliefs."

"When he died the elders permitted her to go away and grieve. It was during this time she met my father, who had recently lost his wife. Even though he was not of their religious beliefs, my grandfather accepted dad as dad was able to convince him that he would follow their beliefs, but which as far as I know he never did. It is no wonder that I got the reaction I did on Tuesday and today. She will never change. At least everyone else supports me."

"Anna, just relax. Do not worry about your mother. We have so much to do tomorrow. Go relax, have a bath or shower and head to bed. I have to teleconference with Assistant Wang about some matters. I am actually feeling guilty about having him go in on a weekend, but it cannot be avoided, as there are things not organised that need to be, given on how short of notice we left."