Offer to the CEO

Monday, continued …

Anna and Yao Tan watched as the Officer Mu and another police officer escorted CEO Lu from the foyer of XF International.XF International's security staff, after Yao Tan's direction escorted the remaining police officer to their office to obtain the CCTV and audio of what happened in the foyer..

Yao Tan looked at Anna, and asked "Do you still want to go for lunch?"

"I said we would for your birthday, now come on let us go."

They slowly moved across the foyer and outside into a waiting car.After they settled in and the car was pulling away headed to the restaurant that Yao Tan directed them to head to, he turned to Anna "You are scary Anna.I thought my wife was good at twisting people's words and confusing them, but there you had him so quickly."

"Tan, I am a litigator.Amanda is more a corporate lawyer.Yes, I have and can do corporate law, wills and estates, the majority of my time is always spent in litigation matters, both criminal and civil.I am use to thinking on my feet and use to listening to words and twisting them.Words are my forte and I can string people along with the best to get out what I need."

"But also it means that I am a good listener.I have to listen to what is being said, decipher what I am told and ask questions to get out the information that I need.But that also means that there are times, like when I was talking to those girls earlier that I have to let them tell their story without interruption.That means for abuse victims like them that they become empowered."

"I would not want to face you across the court room."

Anna laughed at this, and then silence descended across the car.

Anna knew that despite CEO Lu starting out by trying to target Alecia, Yao Tan had remained reasonable calm.She sensed that he was about to erupt when Alecia was being targeted, but he had the sense when she started to twist CEO Lu around to stay silent.

Ten minutes later, the car pulled up outside a building, and Yao Tan climbed out, helping Anna out and onto her crutches.As he slowly moved away Anna observed that they were in a much less upmarket area of town than she had expected."Where are we going?"

"I figured that you would want to take me to my favourite restaurant.When the triplets were young, this was the only area that I could afford to live, despite it being considered a bad area.despite having a job and my parents willingness occasionally to care for the children, my decision to raise them meant I had to balance out things.I needed somewhere inexpensive to live so that everything I earned was not taken in babysitting."

"It also ensured that I minimised my travel as other affordable areas would have meant I would have traveled over a hour a day each way to work.That would not have helped the triplets.The owners took pity on me giving me a half price meal a month, plus babysat the triplets for me on occasions to allow me to work late or study.They are still great friends, but refused my invitation to come to the party on Saturday as i is their busiest day.When you offered to take me out, I decided here was the best place."

A couple of minutes later they reached a small shop front and entered.As soon as Yao Tan as seen, two older people came from what could only be considered to be the kitchen area, and them immediately came over giving him a hug."Mama, Papa, lovely to see you."

"Happy Birthday.And this is?"

"Mama, Papa, this is my friend Anna.She is the wife of my friend Hou Yi."

"Welcome, come and sit down.We will bring you your usual."

"Make that for two, and some of that lovely iced tea as well."

Within ten minutes they were sitting quietly eating a meal.As they were finishing, the owners thatreturned to the table, this time with a small cake and a wrapped gift."This is from us."

"You should not."

"We have not seen you and the children for a while, Tan."

"Mama, Papa, you know that was a lie.My wife and I were here less than two weeks ago, and I usually come here at least once a fortnight for lunch, so stop trying to manipulate me.And you know what teenagers are like.The last thing they want to do is what their parents want them to do."