Offer To The CEO

6 A realisation of their mutual betrayal

Anna Jones realised that there was someone there, trying to help her, and turned to look at him.She asked "Who are you?"

"I'm Hou Yi. And you are?"

Anna while still crying and having difficultly focusing on Mr Hou replied "Hello Mr Hou, I'm Anna Jones."

"Please call me Hou Yi or Yi, otherwise I will think you are looking for my father or my grandfather."

"Alright Hou Yi."

Hou Yi immediately realised that the accent was Australian.He knew the accent well, having studied in Melbourne for 2 years when younger and was regularly there for Hou Enterprises business.This again took his thoughts back 6 months to the Australian Lawyer's office and the woman he fell for at first sight.Maybe he was not too far from the mark.But as immediately as he thought this, he dismissed it as it was such that it was too good to be true.He wondered to himself was her state connected to the fact that he had seen the Lu's walking away from the Civil Administration Bureau, as it otherwise seemed to be to convenient to have run into a westerner here today.Rather than jumping to conclusions Yi realised that he did need to find out exactly what was happening.

As he did not want to frighten Anna, he kept as calm as he could and asked "Do you need my help?"

This set Anna off into a fresh wave of tears.Who could help her now.Her life was destroyed.Lu Jinhu and Yang Lin had bragged about how Jinhu had ensured that she had nothing but debt, with little way to address it.She then realised that just before they left Jinhu had just purchased a new BMW, that was registered in his name as she had her 8 year old Holden Captiva, that she had purchased second hand.While guessing, she believed that Jinhu would have ensured that the debt for it was left with her, like the seven hundred thousand dollar mortgage on the apartment which he had transferred to himself and the loan from her family so they could meet the bank's lending requirements.Oh my God, she thought, Jinhu had likely left her with debts of around nine hundred thousand dollars or more, with nothing to secure it and only her wage to pay it back, most likely leaving the only option for her to be declaring bankruptcy, which would see her lose her career.This made the tears come down harder.

Hou Yi looked at the sobbing woman and wondered what was happening.Calmly but more strongly he said, "Have a drink, and then take a few deep breaths and tell me what has gone on so I can see what I can do to help."

Anna, looked at Hou Yi and all she could do was blurt out in a rush "My so-called fiancé Lu Jihnu, married Yang Lin today, as had been planned by their families, and all he could do was take pleasure in breaking my heart and telling me he had ripped me off for everything I had."

Hou Yi could not believe what he was hearing.A Yang Lin had married Lu Jinhu.He knew that his Yang Lin had agreed to marry him, as apparently the person she loved was unavailable.While it was a business arrangement to help her parent's company, they had agreed to give their marriage a chance to see what happened.He was realistic that the person his Yang Lin was in love with might become free, and she would ask him for a divorce, his love was in Australia and he was unlikely to ever see her again (despite the nagging feelings about the woman in front of him).They had both felt that a somewhat arranged marriage could work.However, he stopped and thought about what he had just observed in the plaza outside the Civil Administration Bureau – maybe it was his Yang Lin, as her parents were friends with the Lu's.He then realised that in fact it had to be his Yang Lin, as her parents hated his family as much as the Lu's hated his mother and if they could stop him meeting his Grandfather and Father's deadline, they would.They all loved causing devastation to people they do not like, so as much as Anna was a victim, Hou Yi realised they had also made a victim of him, with almost no time to prevent an utter disaster for Hou Enterprises and its employees.

Anna, turned to look at Hou Yi, who despite some look of confusion on his face, she realised was sincere in wanting to help her.At this urging, she then made her self comfortable on the bench that he was urging her to sit on.The urgency she initially sensed in his desire to help her, somehow seemed to be going away, and he did not seem to need to hurry to where he had planned to be.She lifted the bottle Hou Yi hand handed to her an took a few sips of water, before screwing the lid back onto the bottle, and then took a few deep breaths asking, quietly "Could you please sit down"

Hou Yi, needed to really understand if what she was saying was the truth, and sat down beside her, and asked "Could you explain to me what has happened, so I can see what I can do to help you."