Offer To The CEO

Sunday

Just after 10am, Anna received a telephone call from Amanda. She had been quietly sitting in the lounge reading online novels trying to cope with how stressed out she was feeling. She was realistic, that she would only have another three to four months at work, before going on Maternity leave.

Hou Yi, however had been driving her insane already since their return from Australia, and Anna was refusing to talk to him. Apparently, he contacted ANX and asked them to slowly reduce her workload to limit the stress. The problem was there had been a firm wide email to advise of this, and she was on the email list.

Hou Yi, however, when she confronted him was in total denial of what he had done. All he could do was try and explain his actions away. None of the explanations were acceptable to Anna. The worst thing was yesterday, when he called in the reinforcements of his family. They were harder to deal with.

Anna took a few calming breaths as the last thing she wanted to do was have another argument with him. She did not feel good Friday night or yesterday after the arguments. She headed towards Hou Yi's study and quietly opened the door. When she walked in, surprisingly, rather than finding Hou Yi hard at work at the desk, he was sitting on the couch, staring off into the distance. It took a few minutes for him to register that Anna had entered the room.

Once he realised Anna had entered, he looked directly at her and quietly said "Anna, I am sorry. I should not have interfered."

Angrily Anna responded "You Damn well should not have interfered. I am capable to do my job and provided there are no health risks I intend to work as late into my pregnancy as I can."

"Anna, we already know how lucky we have been, given the start to this pregnancy. I just wanted to make sure that you had the calmest end to the pregnancy that you could…"

Seeing the look in his eyes, totally regretting what had happened, all Anna could say was "Yi, talk to me, do not damn well act behind my back. Talk to me. We are husband and wife. You treated me like a contract employee, rather than the person you love. You know how damn much Lu Jinhu messed with me though his dictatorial actions. I love you, but there is no damn way I want that in my marriage."

Hou Yi stood up and gently pulled Anna into his arms and gave her a kiss before saying "I am sorry, I just wanted to help."

"Yi, you know I explained the ANX rules regarding pregnant lawyers. After six months we must have medical clearance to continue to work, which must be supplied until we enter our eighth month fortnightly and then weekly. I checked the Hou Enterprises employee guidelines with Human Resources for pregnant staff. Only after my seventh month do I have to start to supply medical evidence that I am fit to continue working. Stop trying to manipulate the rules, and let me do what I am good at, otherwise…"

Quietly all Hou Yi could say was "You will kill me." He gently laughed, and then continued "Anna I am sorry."

"Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll … You own me a big apology Yi, and that includes some over the top spoiling." With that Anna gave him a gentle kiss, before pulling away "Yi, Amanda and Tan have asked if we could head over to their apartment for lunch as they need our help with something. Amanda suggested we come over early, so I am going to change for us to head over."

Before Hou Yi could do anything more, Anna quickly moved out of the study and headed up stairs to their suite, with Hou Yi following her.

Twenty-five minutes later, despite Hou Yi's attempts to persuade Anna back into bed for some exercise as he took to calling it, they were heading downstairs to head to Yao Tan's apartment.

When they arrived, Hou Yi wondered why Tan had asked them to come over but figured that he would explain things. As they were entering in the elevator to head up to Tan's apartment, He noticed other cars pulling up, as their driver moved away from the entrance to the building. Before he could see who was exiting the vehicle the elevator doors closed.

A few minutes after they were shown into the lounge area in the apartment, Hou Yi's thoughts were interrupted by noise and has he looked up, the first person he noticed was King. He turned to Yao Tan and said, "And this is why you said nothing."