บท 46: Telling Anna's Parents

Tuesday, continued …

Anna Jones dialled her parents' home number in Warrnambool, Australia.

The phone rang 3 times, before there was an answer "Jones residence, Meredith speaking."

"Hi Mum, it is Anna. Is Dad there"

"Hi sweetheart, yes he is, do you need to speak to him."

"No, I actually need to speak to both of you. Are you able to put the phone on speaker?"

"Sure. Let me just call your dad. I need to keep this call short as it will be costing you significantly."

"Mum do not worry about the cost. Just call dad, and I can tell you what you need to know."

Anna and Hou Yi heard some quiet noise in the background and then Meredith calling out "Stan come in here. Anna is on the phone and wants to speak to us."

Hou Yi could see Anna was nervous. He leaned over, squeezed Anna's hand and said, "Just go with what you told Officer Mu, and everything will be OK."

A few seconds later, they heard two loud voices "Hi Sweetheart," which indicated the phone on the other end was on speaker.

"Hi Mum. Hi Dad. Sorry to disturb you."

"No worries sweetheart, what is going on" came Stan's voice, which sounded worried.

"Mum, Dad, I have to let you know something. Could you please sit down and let me speak without interruption please?"

"Anna, I will do what I need."

"Mum, please do not be difficult, just listen. I know it was not a secret that I had some reservations about getting married to Jinhu but I agreed to marry in front of his parents. However, there is a lot more to everything."

Anna paused, and took a calming breath before continuing. "You know before Jinhu asked me to marry him I had been questioning our relationship, but when I said yes, I recommitted to it, dismissing my concerns. Six months ago, things started to slowly change for me when I literally ran into some one at the office."

"It made me start to question if Jinhu was the person for me, and given the commitment I had made, it left me in conflict. Due to work, I was in contact with this person who sensed my concerns. He became someone who listened to me talk about this, among other things. The major piece of advice he gave me was that I needed to resolve my concerns before we married."

"I passed by this person by chance in the Australian Embassy here when I went in to complete the paperwork necessary to marry here. Just this sighting was enough for me to know I could not marry Jinhu. We were I contact, and from our discussions I knew I had to marry him or my chance for happiness would be gone. I had spent days agonising on how to end the relationship with Jinhu before moving forward with the relationship that will secure my happiness."

"Before I could do this, Jinhu dumped me to enter into an arrange marriage. Rather than having to wait to marry the may I know will bring me happiness throughout my life, we seized the chance to get married today. I did not say anything before ending it with Jinhu, as I believed he had the right to know before anyone else. My husband's family do not even know that we have married, as we will go and tell them later.

"What sweetheart!" came two voices, over each other on the other end of the line.

"Mum, Dad, I decided not to marry Jinhu, and married the man that I know can secure my happiness today, Hou Yi." Anna at this time was struggling to keep the tears from flowing.

"Mr Jones, Mrs Jones, my name is Hou Yi. Please pardon me interruption, but Anna, is struggling here to contain her emotions. I fell you in love with your daughter on sight six months ago, but as she had committed herself to Lu Jinhu, all I wanted to do was be there to support her. I was not going to see the end of her relationship for my own selfish reasons if that is not what she wanted."

"She told you what happened at the Australian Embassy, and when we spoke afterwards, she immediately told me that she could not marry Lu Jinhu and knew that her happiness would be in marrying me. We agreed to marry but decided not to do anything until some time had passed from her informing Lu Jinhu."

"Today, she found out he entered an arranged marriage, so we decided there no reason for us to delay getting our marriage certificate/ I arranged for the formalities of this to be filmed as neither of our families were present and I will have a copy forwarded to you to see."

"Please do not think I have disrespected you in not calling you before we obtained our marriage certificate and asking your permission, but a chance presented itself today, so we simply seized it as we did not want to waste a day apart."

"While we do not regret it we want to have a formal marriage ceremony in Australia so it is easier for Anna's family and friends to attend. While my family would prefer it here, they will accept out decision."

"Anna, I cannot believe it. You should have spoken to us. You have run from one situation to another," came an angry Meredith Jones on the phone.

"Anna, I am so disappointed in you. You have no respect for a relationship, and should have spoken to us," came an even angry Stan Jones.

"Mum, Dad. I know what I am doing, and I am happy," said Anna, who then burst into tears given how angry her parents were.

"Mr Jones, Mrs Jones. We viewed that you needed to know about our marriage today firstly, before we have even told my family. Your anger is upsetting Anna, and I will not allow that. She is my priority to protect from all hurt, even this anger. My assistant will contact you tomorrow to confirm the email to send the footage to. He will also discuss the preliminary arrangements for our formal wedding ceremony. As I want Anna to be happy, she knows that it will be her dream wedding, that I will pay for."

"You cannot tell us about how we deal with our daughter," yelled Stan Jones.

"Enough," said Hou Yi in a determined voice. "That is it. Anna is in tears as you cannot accept what makes her happy. We will give you some time to calm down and call you in a few days to talk further." With that Hou Yi terminated the call and gathered the sobbing Anna in his arms.