Offer To The CEO

Tuesday, continued …

"Well, my parents Hou Jang and Du Anling. They met when my father went to the Lu household for a business meeting with Lu Jinhu's grandfather. My mother was the daughter of the family's housekeeper and it was around the time Lu Jinhu's parents has become engaged. His father bullied and harassed my mother."

"When my father walked in for the meeting, he saw Lu Jinhu's father assaulting my mother, so he stepped in to prevent it continuing. What my parents tell me is for both of them it was love at first sight. The business meeting however ended quite badly, but my father slipped my mother a contact number for her to use at any time."

"Three days later my mother ended up using that number. What happened was my maternal grandmother was doing work in the household and my mother had locked herself in their room. Apparently, Lu Jinhu's father broke in and sexually assaulted my mother. From what I can gather, this was not the first of the last time he did this, but every time his father, Lu Jinhu's grandfather, believed his son innocent of the charges.

"My grandmother and mother always believed that if my grandmother had not walked in on the attach, my mother would have been raped. My grandmother helped my mother leave the Lu household for hew safety, with my mother extracting a promise from her mother, when she came for, she would leave. As soon as she reached safety and found a phone my mother dialled the number my father gave her. He collected her within an hour and took her to the Hou Ancestral Home"

Hou Yi took a deep breath and then continued "They were married within days and got my grandmother out of the Lu house soon after that. My mother's escape and marriage started the ongoing animosity between our families. I was born 10 months after my parents got married. Despite attempts they never had any more children."

"I was educated here for my primary and secondary education before being sent to the United Kingdom to obtain a Bachelor of Economics degree majoring in economics and business. Then I obtained an MBA. My father wanted me to do this in the UK and my grandfather wanted this from an Ivy League University in the United States."

"I opted for Monash University in Melbourne, given Australia and the Asia-Pacific were Hou Enterprises was expanding and growing in. I figured this would be a better choice for the company. I earned my MBA when I was 23 years old and returned home to start work in Hou Enterprises, initially working under my father for 12 months, before being appointed as Co-CEO with my father for another 12 months."

"My father retired after that and remains a non-executive director of the company. My grandfather is still the company chairman and will likely remain so until he dies or hands the position over to my father or me. Since I became the sole CEO of Hou Enterprises, the average profit has been an eight percent annual increase."

"My close family is my parents, paternal grandparents and my paternal uncle's widow. My maternal grandmother died three years ago. My grandfather had two younger siblings who have died. When my great grandfather died, they sold their shares in Hou Enterprises to my grandfather, as they both wanted to leave the country."

"One settled in the United States and the other in the United Kingdom. They had children and grandchildren, but we are not close. There is also more distant relatives, but again I am not really close to any of them. Friend wise, we can simply say that I have told you that I have a couple here and some from my study, but have not really spoken to you about them, or about you to them."

He took another deep breath. "That is my basic information I know my family will expect you know, along with the threat to hand the company over to the Lu's if I was not married by today and presented them with my bride tonight, they will also expect you know about my romantic history. I have only had three serious girlfriends, but I have had other sexual partners. Any partner who came into this apartment, never came into this suite, as this was always designated to be my bride's room only."

"My first girlfriend was from my undergraduate days, Jane. We were involved for 18 months. I had intended to propose to her on the day we ended the relationship. I arrived over an hour earlier than I had said for our date and heard her talking to the man she ultimately married. I though, she knew nothing of my family's wealth, but she had known from the start."

"She set out what she was going to do to this man, marry me, and then divorce me in a short time frame, getting a huge divorce settlement in the process. I left and returned at the agreed time, and while on our date that night, I dumped her, telling her I had no feelings for her while my heart was breaking."

"The second was Mary, who was studying for an MBA with me. We met in our first class, with the activity for us to tell the class about why we were studying for our MBA. As we had to disclose this on our application, we could not lie."

'We simply drifted apart, however she remains one of my close friends and is married to another Steve Kent. Steve knows about our history and has no issues with it. In fact, I am godfather to their three children, and they trust me enough that they have asked me to be the children's guardian should anything happen to both."

"The final relationship ended 18 months ago and was about 12 months long. It is the most hurtful of the three, as while Jane was simply a gold digger, this woman had designs on the company for her lover, the CEO of a company in City A where she lived."

"As we had busy lives we did not live in each other's pockets, so it never worried us if there was a couple of weeks between us seeing each other. I had to go to Paris for a business meeting, so made the effort for go via City A, to briefly see her before I would be away for a couple of weeks. When I dropped in on her, I could not believe what I walked in on. I dumped her there and then telling her lover what he could do with the proposed business deal. I left City A as quickly as I could. She is now married to the Mayor of City A."

"As I have said there have been other sexual relationships, but nothing long term nor serious. None of them has been in this room. If they were hear we always used a guest room, as this suite has always been designated for my bride alone."

"As I have told you Yang Lin was the daughter of family friends. She agreed to marry me if I had no one else today, but you know where that ended. Yes, she visited the apartment a few times, but we never had a sexual relationship, nor was she allowed into any of the bedrooms. The only time I slept with her was about 12 months ago, and I had to be drunk to do that."