Phillipa continued "I have to apologise for going back on my word, as I realised when the two of you walked in there was something bothering you. Hopefully we have dealt with that, now here comes the hard part. Anna"

"What do you want me to say."

"Tell the truth about …"

Anna, shrunk back into the chair, not being ready to admit the realities of things in her relations.h.i.+p with Lu Jinhu.

Hou Yi observed this, and based on Anna's reaction and what she said last night, he paused and quietly asked "He has physically hurt you on multiple occasions, not just the couple I know about?"

With that Anna burst out into tears, which to Hou Yi confirmed that he had, and all he could do was move over to Anna, pick her up in his arms, and sit down with her on his lap letting her cry into his chest. He realised that this was raw for Anna. It was breaking his heart to see his wife in so much pain. If he could take the pain of this admission for her he would.

Hou Yi looked over to Phillipa, who was simply sitting there, silently asking her for help. She shook her head to the silent message he was sending and was almost saying let her go for the moment.

About 5 minutes later Anna, finally started to settle down and was not crying as hard. Hou Yi took her head in his hands, lifted it up to look at him, and using his thumbs wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Sweetheart, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You know you are safe with me. Do you want to talk about it?"

Anna, saw in Hou YI's eyes, all he wanted to do was keep her safe, and that in telling him what had happened, she would be safe.

Anna took a couple of deep breaths, and realised as she was doing it, she was sitting on Hou Yi's lap. The last thing, however, she wanted to do was move. Despite not being certain on how she felt about Hou Yi and their relations.h.i.+p, she knew at that time if she moved it would impact what could happen to them in the future. That was something she wanted to happen. What that future was, she did not care.

In a very quiet voice Anna said "I was not ready to admit it. He hit me to get his way. If I refused to do what he wanted, whether that was simply something around the house, going out to do what he wanted, or agreeing to whatever s*xual activity he wanted."

Anna started to shake in Hou Yi's arms, and he started to rub a hand down her back, which made her calm down. d.a.m.n that b*stard, Hou Yi thought, I wish I had not held back last night and actually hit him, as it would have made him feel better both then and now.

Anna continued "The worst thing was that it was not a punch like last night that really hurt, except on one occasion. The hits, were, unless it related to s*xual activity, was slaps on the hand or on the shoulders. Not to hard but hard enough to send the message which I soon got the message. If me refusal to cooperate was relating to s*xual activities, he always. .h.i.t me on the backside, and then would claim it was part of those activities."

Anna took a breath, paused, looked at Hou Yi, and gained the strength to continue "None was very hard not causing any real bruising. There was only one time that I refused to cooperate with him, he hit me, and I still refused to cooperate. He told me I had one warning and that I needed to cooperate. I still refused, and then he was savage."

"He hit me so hard, I fell down and broke my wrist. Lu Jinhu told me at that time, it was my fault, and that I now knew the consequences of refusing him. It was over 18 hours later, after I had engaged in the s*xual activities he wanted, and he had slept that I allowed me to get medical treatment, and I think that was only because I had work, the following morning."

"He accompanied me to the hospital and made it clear that if I told the truth about how my injury occurred, then I would face worse. There was no way that I wanted to go through that again, so I cooperated with what he wanted, when he used that so called gentle physical violence as I knew the consequences."

By the time that she finished telling this, the tears were coming down her face stronger than before. Hou Yi, simply urged her to lean into him and cry as she needed to. Phillipa came over and quietly told Hou Yi, she would collect something to drink from the staff, and come back in.

About 10 minutes later, after Phillipa's return, Anna finally stopped crying, she was handed a drink, and a cloth to wipe her face with.