At Hou Enterprises

As James was heading over to Yao Tan's apartment, Hou Yi received a call from Anna.

"Yi…" came the one word from Anna, and he knew immediately something was wrong.

"Sweetheart, what is it?"

"Darling, you would not believe it. That b*stard …"

"Your ex I am presuming. He has no access to the outside world, so what has he done? We need to call the police?"

"Yi, when he was over here around Christmas time last year …"

"He was. I remember seeing him in pa.s.sing at the function where Alecia was... S*it you are telling me he did that to that lovely little girl?"

"She told the police he was involved, along with his father. There was also a third unknown person present."

"I should have killed him last night."

"Yi, that solves nothing. Alecia would only talk it James and I were present. She claimed to the police James was her boyfriend and sat with him for the whole interview. James is so angry with me, for bringing Lu Jinhu into our lives and what he did. I blame myself." Anna burst out crying on the other end of the line.

"Anna do not blame yourself. Despite the age difference I guess James feels a need to protect Alecia, and will blame everyone given that simple reason. He is growing up, and I guess he figured out what Lu Jinhu had been doing to you but felt he could do nothing to protect you. He now feels he can protect Alecia as he wants to do that."

"Darling, you always have perspective."

"Sweetheart, your brother is not dissimilar to you. Now what are you up to?"

"James has headed over to Yao Tan's apartment to speak directly to Alecia about going to Australia for a few months The police and her psychologist have agreed it is the best for her that to do that not only to get away from what happened but to allow the police to complete their investigation without fears for her safety. I am going to catch up with everyone else for the rest of the day."

"I'll talk to Tan when he is here for our meeting regarding Monday's press conference and will see you tonight. I love you."

"Love you too." And with that Anna ended the call. Two minutes later she arrived at the restaurant that everyone, other than James and Hou Yi were waiting for her, to have lunch and enjoy the rest of today together.

Meanwhile a knock occurred on Hou YI's office door, and in was escorted Yao Tan. Thank goodness that Anna had alerted him to what had happened and who was responsible as the devastation he could see on his friends face. He quickly closed the door behind him and urged him to sit down. Hou Yi knew business was the last thing on his mind.

All Hou Yi could say was "Anna let me know the basics of what happened. Do you want to talk?"

How do you talk to a friend who found out a business rival hurt and humiliated his daughter simply for some form of gratification.

"Those b*stards deserve to die and I am going to do it. They had no reason to hurt my little girl."

Hou Yi could see that his friend would do it and very soon. Lu Jinhu being under home detention for as long as he was would be safe until he calme down, but CEO Lu was a different story.

"Tan I totally agree with that sentiment. For as long as Anna and I have been married, I have wanted to kill Lu Jinhu, but then I thought of my wife. I quickly realised that doing that would destroy my marriage as I would be disrespecting a key part of what made Anna her, the law. It would have achieved self-gratification but I would not risk my marriage."

"What makes him think him and his father believe they can get away with their actions is their money. Taking that away takes longer than the immediate self-gratification of violence protects Anna more than that would and respects her. Lu Jinhu and Yang Lin made a fatal mistake with Anna believing they could use their power to manipulate the police to hurt her. That resulted in them being charged and now are convicted criminals."

"That one action has given us the opportunity to deal with them. Not only through the withdrawals from deals involving Lu Corporation with other companies, but our plan to take down Lu Corporation's entertainment division, and exposing them further as exploiters. That will drain money from them and make dealing with what they did to Alecia more difficult."