Offer To The CEO

Monday, continued ...

At the same time as the supervisors were being escorted out. Amanda Mei stuck her head in the door "Madam Hou, is it OK to come in."

Anna was much more calmer now that she had seen a friendly face with her said "Yes. And Amanda when I am here working it is still Anna, not Madam Hou. I need someone here, who was willing to talk and treat me normally before, do the same and I trust you to do that."

"Yes you are, you are the Lady Boss of the company, and I have to respect that."

"Amanda, I am giving you a direct order, and you are the only one getting this privilege, here at work, it is Anna, or if you cannot manage that Miss Anna. You made the effort not only to apologise for your error, but become involved with me, before you knew who my husband was. That gives you the right."

"Miss Anna, I just wanted to warn you, earlier today before the press conference Lawyers Deng and Bei were saying how they wanted to get you fired, but now are saying that they want to make sure that they become your friend here. I hate to speak ill of someone, but I would suggest that you simply watch out for them. They have either acted against or been nice to and then dumped on other staff to get them out of here."

"Thank you Amanda. At some stage this week, I am going to take you out to lunch, without them, to thank you for making someone feel welcome."

With that Amanda Mei left, and Anna logged onto the CEO intranet. The conversation box with Hou Yi popped up, with a message. 'Anna, let me know when you will be free. The psychologist who is willing to help us is free this afternoon, and would like to talk to us together and then you alone.'

Anna replied 'Given me an hour and I should be free. Will message you to let you know I am on the way up.'

Anna simply focused on work, and the time flew by, and she noticed the chat message from Hou Yi, reminding her to come up. Again, she closed her up her laptop, and locked it up, and then secured her office as she went up to Hou Yi's office.

As she was about to enter Hou Yi's office, she heard "Yi, you are evil" being squealed out by some woman.

Hou Yi then responded, "You know it."

Anna opened the door and found Hou Yi sitting at his desk and an unknown woman on the couch, throwing scrunched up paper at each other. All Anna could do was laugh at the look on their faces having been caught out having fun and shut the door behind her.

Before she moved far from the door, the woman, who Anna realised seemed familiar, got up and walked over giving Anna a hug. "Hi I am Phillipa Chen, but Yi here calls me Pip, which he knows that I hate. Take a seat, and maybe that idiot can take a seat with you."

"You dare call me an idiot, Pip squeak."

"Yi, remember I know where the photos of you being a idiot at University are, particularly that one where you did the nudie run. Do you want me to get them out?"

"Fine" ground out Hou Yi as he sat down on the couch next to Anna.

"Anna, as you most likely guessed I met Hou Yi at university, so firstly as his friend if you want the embarrassing photos, ask I will quite happily supply you with a copy." With that she laughed.

Phillipa paused, then continued "In all seriousness, Yi asked me to come and meet with you. You know a little of my story, as Yi has for 10 years protected my secret…"

Anna interrupted "You are the person he helped?"

Phillipa continued "I am. However, while that event was traumatic, and still causes me problems today, it shaped my career. I was studying psychology, but it made me focus on responses to Domestic Violence in my undergraduate and post graduate studies, through to my doctoral degree."

Anna interrupted again, "I know why I can place you. You are Dr Phillipa Chen, one of the world's leading experts in treatment of victims of Domestic Violence. I attended a lecture you gave about 12 months ago in Melbourne at a National Conference about Domestic Violence Responses. I was highly impressed at what you had to say."

"I recall that conference, it was focusing on integrating services to support Domestic Violence victims. Actually, Yi called me ten days ago, and asked me to come and see if I could help you. He knows he can trust me to keep secrets, and importantly not talk to the media. Now, before you ask I has not spoken to me about anything, all he did was hand me copies of all the court documents, so I could have some idea about the situation in your words."