Offer to the CEO

Monday

Having had a brilliant Saturday night and Sunday with her friends, Anna awoke early wrapped in Hou Yi's arms.  Despite her requests he refused to allow Jang to sleep in their room last night.  She took a few minutes to reflect on their discussion about what she had talked about with the judge dealing with Lu Jinhu's children.  It was clear that he did not want her involved in that type of work as he feared for her safety.

She loved her life here and was still grateful that ANX gave her the opportunity to keep up her Australian Legal skill set through dealing with some of Hou Enterprises Australian work, but that was not enough.  The one thing Hou Yi did not know was that she had completed all her local training to fully qualify here and was awaiting the final approval to practice to come through. 

The exemption that the local authorities had given her to help Lu Jinhu's children showed her she needed to be doing court work.  That was her passion in the law, not being a lawyer who simply sat in an office.  Taking this opportunity, not only would allow her to help children but would allow her to create a working identity separate from Hou Enterprises and Yi.  Her love for him and their family, was not something that needed to define every characteristic of her life.  Plus, to her it would have the benefit of allowing her to feel more connected to her new home.

Yi was worrying about every little thing, and still wanted to protect her, but she needed to be strong.  Thank goodness Du AnLing was willing to back her up.  As she had said repeatedly and reinforced on Friday being a lawyer was part of who she was, and Yi fell in love with the whole, not individual parts of her.  She reminded her that, if she did not take the opportunity, she would always regret it, but if she took the opportunity and regardless of whatever she did she would always be comfortable with the decision.

She was right.  If she failed to take the chance with Yi when they married, she would not be as happy as she was, nor would she have this life.  Importantly Sunday, as they were chatting despite neither Phillipa or Lexi knowing what she was talking about both told her to follow her dreams.  Phillipa also added that Yi had married her knowing how important the law was to her and in dealing with Lu Jingho despite him not being totally responsible for his downfall, he always stayed within the law.  Phillipa joked that this would have been highly difficult for Yi as when it came to people, he loved he always wanted to do everything to keep them safe.  That meant that he would always respect her career choices.

As she sat quietly wondering how she would raise her d_e_s_i_r_e to take the job with Hou Yi, she had not realised that he had stirred beside her.  As he watched his wife, Hou Yi realised something was troubling her.  Did she want to take the job opportunity?  Did he scare her off from saying yes?  Was he being selfish?

Pausing before he spoke, Hou YI realised that with everything that had occurred in the first months of their marriage he wanted to protect her from any harm.  That, however, as he realised in thinking was his own selfish needs, not considering what she wanted and it could be impacting on what made Anna herself.

Sitting up, he said "Anna, what is it? You know I want you to have everything you want, a life, our family and a career. All I want is you safe."

"Yi, how far have we come in the last fifteen months? How far have I come? We have the perfect life here, but ever since Jang's christening I have felt like a piece of me is missing. The funny thing was, while I was interested in going back to work, I wanted to fully enjoy my maternity leave. Helping Lu Jinho's daughters over the last couple of weeks has made me realise I have found what I need."

"Jodie knew I was happy as the other day when we caught up, she said I was almost my previous self.  That is while she was cursing me for getting her out here and then going on maternity leave.  Then she dropped on me since I have been on maternity leave working with different staff has challenged her.  But as she said, I was a litigator, and what made me happy was being in court, rather than simply stuck in an office."

"So, you have made a decision?" Hou Yi tried to keep the worries out of his voice, as he knew Anna had to make a decision that made her happy, otherwise he would end up trapping her in an environment she did not want, and that could harm their marriage in the future.

"I have, I want to take the opportunity.  Part time, when I go back to work, as I can continue to work at Hou Enterprises as well.  The commercial work is a challenge and I do want to keep doing that…"

"You know I will have no problem with you working part-time if ANX are OK with that."

"Thank you, my love.  Jodie said that she would be happy to remain working for me, despite the change in what was planned for her, as that allows them to continue to build up savings to give them options when they return to Australia."

"You have to promise me something…"

Anna could see that Hou Yi was worried, and she had to see what he wanted.  "What is it?"

"Rather than having independent offices for that work, I will make some space available at Hou Enterprises, and you have to have bodyguards with, for your safety, particularly when you are dealing with people outside an office environment." That was a reasonable balance.  It allowed Anna to do what she wanted but made sure that safety was not risked.

"Yi, that is unacceptable.  I have my professional responsibilities, and I cannot have bodyguards hovering around me.  Plus, how will that make the children feel."

Feeling frustrated Hou Yi said "Anna, give me something to be comfortable with your decision."

Anna noticed that this was hard for Hou Yi to accept, but he wanted to allow her to pursue her career.  "Compromise.  The office space would be wonderful.  I can also create opportunities for Hou Enterprises staff who want to be involved in such work.  When I am visiting client, bodyguards can come but they must give me space for my work.  I will be dealing with people who are hurting, and they need to trust me.  Once that trust is there, they can make the decision how close the bodyguards can get."

While that was not what he wanted, Hou Yi could see that Anna was working to compromise without going against her version of professional ethics.  "Fine, but if the bodyguards get concerned about your safety you need to allow them to be close to protect you."

"Yi, I am not stupid.  I would override my position if I felt unsafe, but in doing this you need to let me be the lawyer, who if you are realistic, you fell in love with."

"That I am not worried about…"

"Yi, do I try and change you being the businessman I fell in love with.  I know you have a ruthless side, but in being ruthless you stay within the law, as in the end you are honest and law-abiding.  I would not change that, so…"

"Do not expect you to change.  There is no way I want you to change who you are.  But I failed to ensure you were safe when we married, and we know the consequences of that."

"Yi, I do not blame you, so do not blame yourself." With that Anna leant over and gave him a quick kiss.

Pulling back Hou Yi said, "You need to make sure ANX will be happy with you to do this.  If they are fine with it, I will not stand in your way provided you do what you have agreed to, and promise if you fall pregnant in the future, you will step back from it to protect…"

"Any future children.  That is a given.  There is no way I want to go through what we did when we lost Aaron."

As he went to lean into kiss Anna, Hou Yi's mobile rang, with Assistant Wang's ringtone, and he leant over to answer it.  Quickly finishing it, he knew he had to head into the office to deal with an emergency, rather than being able to remain with Anna for a few hours in bed.

-------------------

From the Author.

If you are not reading this original novel through or the apps, you are reading pirated material, published illegally in breach of the author's rights and those provided to under the contract for the work.

For those who access this novel through legitimate means, thank you for the ongoing support of this work.