Offer To The CEO

Monday, continued …

Anna paused and thought deeply as to what she could do. Clearly these girls needed to have their story heard. She believed it, and she knew that there would likely be enough circumstantial evidence to back up their stories. And as she thought this would be deadly to Lu Corporation, the entertainment division being used by the company CEO, and friends/acquaintances as a recruitment place for pedophilia activities.

"Mary and Sophie the lawyer in me wants to tell you that the you need to talk to the police and have then dealt with by the courts. You need to stand up and say that it was unacceptable, and I will not let another person be hurt as I have. That is the hardest decision to make, when someone you trust abuses that trust. My story I would have to say is well known, and it was only with the support of my husband that I actually felt I had the strength to say no more."

"Let us be the strength for you to do this. Thinking about it, at the moment it would be challenging for me to accompany you to the police station and I would not want my background with the Lu family to jeopodise you getting justice. Let me talk to Amanda Mei, who I trust. She is a lawyer herself. No I need you to promise me you will not way anything, she is better positioned to help you. A member of her family at sixteen was r*ped by on multiple occasions at an event. She understands your situation better that I do, and can give you the help and support you need."

"However, please do not feel that you have to do this. It has to be your choice, as the process that you will have to go through will be challenging. You will have to tell your story again and again, and if those involved want to contest the charges you will have to deal with them in court. Lawyers are the same the world around, they will challenge you on every point, try and rip your stories apart, while accusing you of being the persons who caused this. They will say that the men involved are the victims of your behaviour while making you out as the evil people here. That we cannot protect you from, but we can support you in the process."

Mary and Sophie burst out in tears and Joan turned to her friends saying "Madam Hou is right, it has to be your choice. I have been telling your since you told me go to the police. Think about it being the younger sisters of some of our school class mates. Would we want them to have to experience what you have been through. If their family found out about it, how could we look them in the face knowing that we could have tried to prevent it from happening again in the future."

Mary and Sophie looked at each other again and slowly stopped crying. Anna turned to them "Do not feel you have to make a decision today. You can wait until you are ready to make a decision and we can help you."

In a quiet voice, Mary looked at Sophie and said "No. I have made the decision to say something to someone. I cannot stop now, I need to go forward otherwise having been this brave to now will account for nothing." She paused before continuing "Joan and Madam Hou are right Sophie. We have been willing to tell someone and we could not look at people we knew in the face if their younger family members were hurt, if we did not say anything."

Sophie silently was still crying. "But how can we tell our patents. They trusted that we would be safe, and this happened. They will blame us, saying we pursued this career and it is all our fault. They are conservative, and you know how out town treats women who are hurt, they blame them rather than the men who are responsible for it."

"Sophie, we cannot worry about that. We will be able to say we took a stand, when we were safe and acted to try to prevent anyone else from being hurt. If our families disown us for that, then they cannot accept the truth, and they would never accept us in the future anyway." Quietly but determinedly came Mary. "I cannot make your decision for you, but I know what is right and I am going to do that."