Offer To The CEO

Thursday, continued …

When they arrived at the hospital Anna and Phillipa were quickly shown into Anna's obstetrician's office, where Anna quickly felt ignored by the two professionals talking about her mental health and its impacts on her pregnancy.

It was not until they were around ten minutes into their conversation that the realised Anna was not involved at all. Phillipa turned, and said "Anna, are you actually going to join us in this conversation?"

"Phillipa the two of you seemed to be enjoying the conversation without my input, so why should I interrupt you?"

"Damn it, Anna, this is serious. Do I need to call Yi?"

One look at Phillipa made Anna realise she was deadly serious, and she knew Hou Yi would go into a highly protective mode, stopping her from doing anything. That would drive her crazy, as she knew she needed to keep busy.

"Phillipa, please do not call Yi."

"Well get involved in the conversation.

With a pause to see that Anna was paying attention Phillipa continued "As I was saying, in some respects you are lucky because of your professional background. Once you admitted what was happening you were able to process the situation quickly, reaching the point that women who have been victims of abuse like you years to reach. However, you lack some of the resilience those women have as you have not had their struggles."

"We saw the consequences Saturday when you had an emotional and physical crash. Your pregnancy, despite what you and Yi might think, makes you more vulnerable than most. In a perfect would you and Yi would have waited a couple of years before you fell pregnant to give you some time to stabilise where you are. That, however, is not the situation that you are in"

"Anna, talking and observing you reinforces to me your fragility. We cannot isolate you from upsets, and setbacks. That means we need the support systems in place for you. Those systems include dealing with your past and the current risks. You and Yi are centre of that system, but you have to be aware that you are at more risk of developing mental health issues post childbirth."

"Madam Hou, the psychologists and psychiatrists I have spoken to for advice had the same concerns and recommendations as Dr Chen."

"Damn it, I need support, not being told the potential issues I could face. You are sucking all the pleasure out of being pregnant for me."

"Madam Hou, we have to be careful. We already knew that there was the potential that you could develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder given what happened here and in your past relationship. Then there was collapse on Sunday from stress. The pregnancy was already high risk because of the assault on you, not we add another risk factor to it for you."

"You know I want to leave here…"

With that Phillipa pulled out her mobile and immediately dialled Hou Yi and placed it on speaker. As soon as Hou Yi answered, Anna heard "Pip, what can I do for you."

"Yi, you know I hate that name, but your wife does not want to cooperate here…"

"Anna!" came the sharp response over the phone. "Do I need to come over…"

Anna realised that Hou YI was angry, and meekly responded "Yi, I promise I will. Stay at the office."

Phillipa took the phone of speaker and had a brief discussion with Hou Y before ending the call, all the time Anna was shooting her daggers.

As soon as the call was ended, Anna responded "That was mean, my lady. If that is what you do to your friends, what do you do the staff, an god forbid us when you inherit your grandfather's title, you will be insufferable."

"Anna, Anna, you know you will not win on this. Your husband, by best friend will not let you do anything that risks you. Now cooperate with us, or I will have him ban you from Hou Enterprises from now until at least twelve months after you give birth. And your in-laws will support me in doing that!"

Anna knew that she would not win the discussion so decided to participate in the discussion to enable a plan to be put into place, but more importantly ensure that she would not spend the next twelve to eighteen months at home, going crazy because she was not busy.

As they were leaving the hospital, heading to meet Du AnLing and Leng Xi for shopping, Phillip turned to Anna and said "I am sorry that I pushed Anna, but I am worried. Please take it is me being concerned. Please let me know if you are OK?"