Offer To The CEO

Saturday

A knock on their suite door awoke Anna and Hou Yi.  They heard Butler Ge say, "Young Master and Madam, CEO Yao called, and indicated he, Madam Yao and the boys are on their way over and should arrive in around thirty minutes."

Hou Yi sat up, and quietly said "Damn. I forgot that Tan said they would come over today to see about sorting out Alecia and James' apartment. I hoped he would have been reasonable about the time given it is not even 8am.  It must be some petty revenge of his given our gift of the apartment."

"Yi what did you expect. You have given his daughter, yes, she is your goddaughter and my brother a multi-million dollar apartment as a wedding gift.  All you are allowing him to do is pay for its decoration.  He will use every opportunity to mess with you when it comes to this."

Anna pulled herself out of Hou Yi's arms and hurried into the en-suite to get ready, leaving Hou Yi still in bed, stunned at his wife's blunt comment.  He laughed as she headed into the walk-in robe as he could see the funny side of the situation.

Twenty-five minutes later, Anna walked out of their suite leaving Hou Yi behind.  As she arranged for breakfast to be served on the terrace, she reminded the staff to have Yao Tan, Amanda and the boys shown up and for breakfast to be arranged for them.  As the staff brought out orange juice to her Yao Tan, Amanda and the boys were shown out to the terrace.

As they sat down, Anna spoke "Do you realise that you have …"

"Annoyed me like anything, Tan. When we spoke yesterday, you said that you would be here about 10:30am. What time do you call this?"

"Revenge time," came out a laughing response from Yao Tan. "Yi, you said 10:30am, not me I just said we would be here this morning."

Ton, seeing the exchange decided that it was funny. Ever since Alecia and James had gone to Australia and Uncle Yi announced what he was giving them his father had been upset with him. As he said to himself Uncle Yi deserved what dad was doing, as it was spoiling Alecia.  At the same time he realised how much he had been missing her.  Junior was fun but ultimately selfish and there was no counterbalance that had always been there with the three of them. Alecia was like their dad, Junior too much like their mother, and Ton could admit he was a mix of both.

Alecia always encouraged him to follow his dreams and ambitions regardless of what she and Junior wanted. Junior, however since Alecia had gone was more and more pushing his dreams onto him, and he had realised that this was not what he wanted. He needed to consider his future.  Both he and Junior had some sporting talent, but as he had realised since Alecia had been away it could never be a career, it would always be something for fun.  Junior could not see that.

Ultimately, as Ton knew his passion was art. Yes, he was good, and Dad made sure he had great mentors he would not, for years, be able to make a living from it. He needed a career path, to support him until his art career took off. Alecia when he spoke to her about this quietly last week had told him he needed to make his decisions himself, not to consider what she and Junior wanted.  She was right in that.

But, listening to the arguments going back and forth, while it was light-hearted, Ton knew that it would drag the day down, so he turned to Amanda and said "Mum, I thought Dad had realised that arguing with Uncle Yi was useless."

Anna and Amanda burst out laughing.  Ton had summed up the situation in a few words. Once she stopped laughing Amanda spoke "Ton, your father will never change. Alecia is his princess, as much as you and Junior see her as a princess. Someone to be protected. He just has to get over the fact that her life is different now, particularly from what he expected."

"But …"

"No buts my son. We are here to finish getting the apartment ready for Alecia and James as they are meant to be back on Thursday. I do have to agree with your father I would have preferred their apartment was closer to us, but this was your Uncle Yi's choice."

"True. It just happened that the space was available, and I have converted it to an apartment for them, and more importantly it will allow them to start their life here without you Tan being there constantly checking on your princess, which if she was closer you would have been."

"Damn you Yi. She needs me nearby."

"Grow up, she is married, and you agreed to that. Let her and James have their life. We are all nearby if they need help."