376 Not Just another Friday - Part 1

Friday

Anna awoke wrapped in the arms of Hou Yi and could not help herself but start to move slightly, which immediately awoke her husband.

As he sat up Hou Yi knew from the look on Anna's face something was troubling her."Anna, what is it?"

"Yi, I am concerned about …"

"James and Alecia?" he ended the sentence with.

"Yes.This is happening so quickly.I just do not know if it is the right thing."

"Anna despite what we have told everyone, our relationship is no different.Before you literally knocked me off my feet and we spoke and agreed to marriage, we had only met briefly in passing, firstly at your office and then in the Australian Embassy.I knew on sight that you were the one person I would spend my life with, have children with," and with that he placed his hand on her stomach before leaning down and kissing it."Grow old with.You feel the same about me.Why not could it happen to your brother?"

"Yi, I can see he cares for her, but she only turns seventeen tomorrow.What is she changes her mind in a couple of months and breaks his heart?Then there is the language barrier, I have taken years to become fluent to appropriately interact with people here, but they can tell I am a foreigner who learnt the language in adulthood.All James can struggle to say is Hello, do you speak English, please, thank you and goodbye.How long is it going to take him?"

"Anna, stop worrying.James knows his mind, and you have to trust him to make the right decision for himself."

"But he has not qualified or started his career."

"Anna, he will have his career, Alecia will make sure of that."

"But, what about her?How in the world will she deal with my mother, who as you know still refuses to deal with me as I 'abandoned' the man she believed treated me correctly.She will make life impossible for a vulnerable girl like Alecia."

"Sweetheart, you are worrying too much.Of the triplets Alecia is like her father.She is determined, stubborn, intelligent, and has an extremely good business brain.The boys, so Tan says, are more like their mother, people who want to pursue their dreams rather than being grounded in reality.What happened at the hands of those two …"?

"Narcissistic, egotistical men?"

"Not quite the words that I was looking for, but they will do.At their hands, which still scares her because she feels vulnerable to them because they have threatened her and forced her to become sexually active in the most abhorrent and vile way.That will not change for her and be her point of vulnerability.However, she is otherwise OK. "

Pausing, Hou Yi continued "Apparently Alecia gave her father two choices.Option one was to agree to their marriage and maintain a relationship with them, their future children and Alecia would work in XF International.Option two was to refuse and they would simply wait twelve months, and she would not have a future relationship with her father.As Alecia is the only triplet wanting an involvement in XF International, Tan does not want to drive her away."

"When Tan's father retired, they re-organised their investments to allow them to travel the world without a worry, coming back for visits about four times per year.The communicate electronically with their grandchildren.Part of that investment re-organisation established trust funds for each of the triplets that they can get access to as early as reaching twenty-one or marrying and meeting other requirements."

"Part of those requirements is about their ability to manage money, and they have been tested as they were given six million dollars.They boys used it for their sporting dreams and have little to show for it.Alecia waited for a few months and with my help has invested that over the last six months turning it into about eighteen million."

"The Trustees will likely give her access to that trust fund after her marriage, the boys at the moment will be unlikely to get access to most of it until they turn the final access age of thirty-five.Those skills will ensure that whatever money she and James have it will be enough to properly support themselves and their family."

"What?!?"

"Alecia is quite the savvy investor, and she is likely to end up taking over XF International.And in being realistic, your mother is a pussy cat when it comes to how Tan is with Alecia, especially given what happened.She convinced him to agree to the marriage, and he has.Plus, she will not have to live with your mother."