Chapter 309 - Will the press bury him? (1)

19 April, Matthew's Villa, City K

Leaving Lexi in their suite, after a quick shower Matthew changed into a work uniform and headed downstairs to the breakfast room, where newspapers were waiting. As he was about to enter Warrant Officer Wang handed him his morning briefing folder, quietly saying "I rearranged the newspapers with what I think is the most interesting story on top, before the remainder are in your usual order."

As he was handed a cup of coffee, Matthew sat his briefing folder off to the side and picked up the top newspaper on the waiting pile to read. Unusually today this was one of the tabloid newspapers, with the splashed unimaginative headline 'Accident or Judgement?' and a photograph of an accident scene.

Looking below the photograph, Matthew started to read the article 'Despite the views of certain members of the public, this media organisation does have a heart. Eight years ago, we had the full story of the accident in the above photograph, but made a decision that the protection of a eighteen-year-old widow and her three week old infant son justified us from publishing at the time the basic information about the accident, not the lurid details that we found at the time and have subsequently added to through investigations.'

'Some would say that we thrive on revealing lurid details, but we are an organisation that provides the opportunity for those directly impacted or their next-of-kin to respond before revealing them. A fine line, we admit, but people or deceased persons next-of-kin have the right to have their voices considered before we publish. Asking a distraught widow to comment about what we knew at the time was unacceptable and crossed even our ethical standards. Ironic, people would say, but we do have them.'

'Yesterday several events occurred, and we were advised by the widow and her closest family that, provided that we kept to the truth and remembered the potential impact on the child they had nothing to say nor would they take action to prevent us from publishing it.'

'The accident in this photograph was that which killed Andrew Yao, the then husband of the Jax Corporation Heiress, and now internationally known fashion designer Lexi Yao. Just over three weeks prior to the accident Lexi had given birth to the couple's only child Dominic.'

'While the story from Jax Corp was that Dominic Yao was a premature baby, the truth was Lexi Yao was pregnant at the time of her marriage and was fighting her parents about marrying her distant cousin. As the law stood at the time of her marriage seventeen-year-olds did not have to sign their marriage certificate with their parents, but they usually did as a sign of their commitment to the marriage. Lexi Yao did not, indicating that the marriage was simply because she was pregnant. As the media release at the time of her pregnancy being announced it was an unplanned pregnancy, but the baby was well wanted. While rumours abounded at the time, none of them have been able to be proved and will not be repeated here.'

'On the day he was killed, Richard Yao had been to see a well-respected Divorce Lawyer and intended to divorce Lexi Yao and seek custody of their infant son. Not a surprising fact, given that the marriage was clearly to legitimise Dominic'

'The accident itself was the culmination of a number of incidents in the area that it occurred involving teenagers out for thrills in causing car tyres to puncture and see what happened. Their actions, which they were dealt with by the courts caused all four tyres to puncture on the car being driven by Richard Yao resulting in the accident that killed his female passenger instantly, him shortly afterwards and resulted in the driver of another vehicle being in a wheelchair for life.'

'That person has confirmed to us that he receives monthly payments to assist him in the name of Dominic Yao. We have found out that that money initially came from Chester and Andrew Yao and over the last eighteen months has come from Lexi Yao, all who have no blame to carry but treated an innocent with the upmost respect.'

'Chester, Andrew and Lexi Yao, and Lexi Yao's current husband newly promoted General Matthew Rong, the younger brother of JL International's president Phillip Rong, when contacted for comment yesterday stated clearly as long as we honestly reported the incident but acted to ensure Dominic Yao was protected they would not stand in our way of reporting the truth.'

'Conversely Richard's parents made it clear that they would sue this paper for any reporting this maligned their son, along with issuing threats about the safety of our editor and those involved in reporting this story. This attitude, along with the attitude of implicitly disclosing protected court proceedings yesterday on the courthouse steps tells us that they only care about one thing themselves and the image that they want in the community.'

'We are a fearless news organisation, and while we will provide the next-of-kin of the woman killed with Richard Yao until lunch time today to respond we intend to run a truthful article detailing all the evidence we have about Richard Yao and the events up to his death. We will not give into any intimidation to prevent the truth being told.'

'The truth is, Richard Yao throughout his marriage had a mistress, and we will be revealing her name tomorrow. This mistress, in part was why Richard Yao agreed to the marriage. She was unable to have children of her own, and the two of them intended for Richard Yao to obtain custody of Dominic and cut his biological mother from his life. Further, Richard Yao had within hours of his death had s*x with his mistress.'

'Our feature article tomorrow, will also detail exactly what was observed at the accident scene and what forensic investigations determined afterwards. But the question for you, our reader on being presented with the evidence will be was this purely an accident or was it judgement being delivered on Richard Yao and his mistress? You decide.'

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