Offer To The CEO

Sunday, continued …

As he finished the discussions with Anna's obstetrician and her admission paperwork, Hou Yi's phone rang. He was on the caller ID it was James.

"Hello James"

"Yi, why did you and my sister, by the way who is not answering her phone, upset my wife," came the angry response over the phone. "Put my sister on the phone."

"James, calm down. You will have to deal with me, Anna is being re-admitted to the hospital."

"What the …" was the stunned response.

"James will you let me talk. I am in the hospital awaiting her transfer to the ward. She is way overstressed and collapsed, but hopefully Anna will be released in less than twenty-four hours. As to Alecia, in cutting a long story short her statement to the police sparked a series of investigations."

"DNA evidence was some help, which I have just found out came from Lu Jinhu who was blackmailed into taking her outside and putting her into the hands of his father who was responsible for the attach on Alecia. That blackmail came about as the woman we all think of as Lu Jinhu's mother is in fact his step-mother and a few years ago his birth mother came back into his life."

"Every time his father wanted something, he would threaten Lu Jinhu with the safety of his birth mother and her second family so he would give in to protect them particularly his youngest half-sibling who has been battling childhood cancer. Lu Jinhu for once stood up to his father and refused to hand over footage of the attack on Alecia to his father who had intended to use it to blackmail your father-in-law and me for business purposes."

"I suspect that is not the first time he had done this. Lu Jinhu, when the police interviewed him decided not to go down with his father and handed over the footage and agreed to cooperate with the police and prosecution. If, and if he is charged, they will be much lesser charges given his cooperation."

"However, the one-off attack on Alecia is the least of his crimes. Lu Jinhu's father can only be described as a paedophile who targets teenagers between 14 and 19 years of age, often employed by his company's entertainment division."

"Anna knows some of this but given how much she has been targeted I have tried to shield her from some of it. However today, when she found out most of this she has started to collapse mentally. Added to that we were at the police press conference to inform of the charges when she collapsed, so I brought her here. While the babies are OK, the obstetrician is admitting her for observation to ensure that her vital signs are better."

"Damn it, Yi, you knew something was happening, and you laid it on Alecia without talking to me first. I would have asked to be available for her rather than stuck on a placement shift. Some brother-in-law you are and I though as Alecia's godfather you would have protected her."

"What we knew before today had nothing to do with Alecia's case. That information has only come to light in the last forty-eight hours and the police did not tell me. From what I can gather did not even tell Tan until this morning. Tan decided that the news would be better coming from us, as he had to deal with Junior and Ton, and telling them what happened."

"Do you have any idea what is happening with court? Damn it, I need to have Anna explain to me the court process, she understands that stuff."

"James unlike most criminal cases here where the victims prosecute it with their own personal lawyers, given the number of victims and the fact that there are likely a number of more charges to come, the national prosecutors service will deal the matter. Basically, they will offer him two choices, agree to a written summary of all the charges, and a penalty which will be much less than if he requires the charges to be proven and ends up getting convicted."

"We have no idea what he will do, and whether or not Alecia will be required to give evidence against him. If he stays true to form, he will contest and the court will have to make decisions how to proceed given the number of charges he will have. They will break them into batches based on how the evidence attaches to them."

"The matters involving Alecia, Anna and myself are separate and independent from most of the charges themselves, and I would guess they will run those matters first, before the others which are interlinked. We just have to wait and see what happens."

"So, she is going to have to give evidence?" asked James. He had seen how devastated his wife was when he arrived home, and the thought of her having to give evidence about her attack was something he did not want to contemplate.

"If he contests, yes. And here there are no restrictions on questions about a victims s*xual activity when the charges involve s*x offences, and that will mean that he can delve into Alecia and your marriage and your own s*xual history as you are her husband. That you must be prepared for that, as will Alecia."

"Keep stressing me out."

"Do not worry, until we know what is happening. I can promise I will keep you up to date with that."

"Yi, changing the subject, when my darling sister is settled, can you have her call me please?"

"If you promise not to add to her stress."

"Will do."

After some more small talk, Hou Yi ended the call and went up to the VIP floor and was shown into Anna's room. Hou Yi made his way over to the bed, and Anna quickly settled into his arms and drifted off to sleep.