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Friday, continued …

After leaving the Emergency department of the hospital Hou Yi glanced at his watch and noticed that they needed to quickly head to the church for the rehearsal. He knew from the arrangements Christ Church was close to the hospital for they were only a couple of minutes late.

Having been explained that Anna had to go to the hospital, the minister was not worried that they were a few minutes late and started to walk everyone through what would happen during eh ceremony tomorrow. He was careful to make sure it was what Anna and Hou Yi wanted. Twenty minutes later, once everyone was satisfied, they headed back to the Lady Bay Resort, where the rehearsal dinner had been arranged.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.readwn.comfor visiting.

Siting at the table watching everyone, Hou Yi and Anna could see that despite the cultural and language barriers everyone generally seemed to be getting on. The only person who was not enjoying the night was Anna's mother. She was simply sitting in a corner, ignoring everyone, shooting daggers at Anna, Hou Yi and Alecia.

Alecia and James had stepped out for a few minutes but Hou Yi quietly told James that they were about five minutes from making the announcement. They wanted a brief break from everyone and promised to be back quickly.

A couple of minutes after James and Alecia had left the room, having realized that James and Alecia were not immediately coming back in Meredith Jones came over to her daughter and son-in-law. Quietly under her voice she spat out to Anna "You are ruining lives; your life having dumped a man who knew how to treat you right and have helped ruin your brother's life by introducing him to that w*ore he married. She deserves to be thrown out in the trash."

Hou Yi sick of the behaviour of his mother-in-law every time Anna was in her vicinity, quietly said "Mrs Jones, my parent and grandparents always made sure I knew to respect my elders. I told you last time that I would not stand for abuse of my wife, and I will not. I am Anna's choice, so you need to learn to accept that. If you cannot you will not play a part in our lives going forward or the lives of our future children. And I know that James has already told you he will not accept you abusing his wife …"

"W*ore you mean" spat out Meredith.

James and Alecia had come back in and walked over as they could see that Meredith was starting to vent herself at Anna and Hou Yi. James turned "Mother, we have had this discussion. You may not agree with Anna or my choices for our lives, but you will respect them. If you cannot you will not play a part in our lives. Now, leave your daughter alone."

"I am sick of this mother, and we will have a lengthier discussion about this next week. You know my position and I warned you about doing this particularly this weekend. You have driven Adam, Ben and Susan from relationships with you. Now, you have done it with Anna and I. We will tolerate you as we love dad but forget about a relationship."

With that James, grabbed his mother's hand and dragged her back to where she had been sitting. Alecia turned and quietly said. "Uncle Yi, do not worry. We have this under control, and we have your friend Anna, Miss Georgina who has agreed to sit with her in the church and keep her under control tomorrow."

Alecia turned and walked over to James. At the same time Hou Yi realized that Anna was starting to get tired again, and stood up, picking up the microphone that had been placed on the table in front of them.

Once he had everyone's attention he started speaking in English "Welcome everyone. It is good to see our family and close friends here tonight for a relaxing dinner. Of course, we will be back here tomorrow night, after the ceremony for a reception, but tonight is about taking a chance to get to know people."

"Anna and I, are grateful for everyone who has travelled to be here and cannot thank you enough for making the effort to do so. It would have been easy for you to wait until we had our second ceremony next year back home, so your effort is appreciated. We also have a few thank yous to make tonight, so that they are not forgotten"

"The biggest thank you has to go to Rosemary, Rebecca, my mother and aunt, along with my Assistant Wang Long and his wife, who have been the people who have taken on the responsibility for the arrangements for tonight and tomorrow, as well as assisting with arrangements for those who travelled here to Australia. Most importantly, they have put up with both of us, particularly Anna when, as she described it, she has had bridezilla moments in the last couple of weeks."

"As the people that are the closest to us are here, we have an announcement to make. Some of you know this but we have in the last few days started to quietly make this public where needed. More formally it will be announced in the future, but," Hou Yi reached down and helped Anna stand-up "we want everyone here to hear it from us tonight as it will make tomorrow even more special for us, is that we are expecting our first child."

Anna was glad Hou Yi had agreed to maintain the position that they were only expecting one baby not two, particularly as they knew that they may not have two babies born living.