Offer to the CEO

Thursday continued ….

Anna tapped him on the shoulder, disrupting his chain of thought "James you were off in a world of your own.I have the numbers."

"Anna, can I borrow your phone, otherwise I will be making an international call on my phone.Your mobile is a local number.Or is there a landline somewhere in this place in a private room I can use?I seriously think Alecia should get out of here for a few months, and I want to talk to her father and her about it."

"James, I have already spoken to Tan about this being a possibility and he was going to talk to Alecia's psychologist and the police to confirm if it was appropriate to happen."Anna paused, and seeing the determined look on James' face she knew she needed to let him make the calls otherwise he would not be satisfied."Follow me James, Yi's study has a landline.I need to make a couple of calls myself."

James followed the slow-moving Anna on her crutches, into a Study.As he was doing this, he thought this was going to take a while and realised that at least with Alecia he needed to have the discussion face-to-face.James said said "I need to make these calls and meet up again with Alecia and possibly her father.Is it possible for you to arrange for someone to take me where I need, so you can go and join everyone else?"

Anna knew that James was serious, but also right.Alecia needed to be handled carefully, and dealt with face to face."I will arrange that.You go ahead and make your calls while I make mine.When I am done, I will knock before I come in, so that I do not interrupt you."

Anna pulled out a piece of paper and located a pen, and wrote down the two numbers before leaving the room.James shut the door behind her, and leaned against it, taking a few deep breaths.He questioned himself, once more, do I do this?As he realised nothing ventured nothing gained, and what did he have to lose, nothing.

He picked up the handset and dialed Alecia's mobile.Within three rings, there was an answer.

"Alecia it is James, are you free to talk?"

Alecia looked around her, and said, "Two minutes.The psychologist is just leaving home and I am heading to my room."

"I will wait."

There was a few seconds of silence, and James heard a door slam shut.

"I am free."

"That was not two minutes."

"Well I ran, as I wanted to talk to you."

"How are you?"

"Do you know, I feel a little stronger within myself by having said who did it.I avoided it as I was scared what Dad, and everyone would think.Your sister was great, she really could see I was hurting..."

"Has anyone told you who did it?"

"No.She, Uncle Yi, Dad and Amanda have kept it quiet."

"Please, do not kill the messenger.It was Lu Jinhu.From what I know and have observed, he forced his way into her life five years ago and into a relationship.Apparently throughout it he was physically and emotionally abusive, but neither she or my brother-in-law will tell me what he did."

"I just know from what I observed, Anna was frightened of him, but struggled to leave him.It was a chance meeting with my brother-in-law, I would say not long before or after he was involved in the attack on you, that it occurred, they got talking and she ended up splitting from him.There is more to the story, but to be realistic I do not know all the details, nor do I want to know them"

"Nooooooo..." cried out Alecia.

"Alecia, baby ..."

"What did you call me?"James knew less than a couple of minutes into the call he had slipped up.

"I called you baby..."

"I am not a baby" came a shockingly firm reply from Alecia.

"You did not let me finish what I was saying.Can we leave that for a minute?"

"Fine."James could almost see her pouting on the other end of the line.

"Do not blame Anna.She met him when she was sixteen at university, and I am guessing he targeted her for some reason."

"Oh.Now getting back to other things, why did you call.Did you want to talk to me about something?"

"What do you mean?"

"I felt your reaction when I was sitting on your lap."

"Alecia, you should not know about that, despite what he did."

"James, I am not an idiot.We have had s*x education classes at school, and some of my friends have boyfriends and they talk.Plus, I do have two brothers, who are unable to help themselves about talking loudly about things."

"But, but. but ..."

"Be honest please James.Everyone for the last six months has treated me as some fragile piece of china that would shatter if pushed.As the psychologist told me today, while I will never get over what happened, I had got to a point about a month ago that I could cope with what had happened."

Alecia took a deep breath and continued "All I had to be was in a position that I was ready to discuss the details and indicate who I knew who was involved, despite how much I was and still do hurt.I have been able to do that so all I must do is get through the criminal cases that will come.The maybe, everyone will step away from being too over protective.I do not need you, the person ..."

A few seconds of silence filled the line.