Page 161 of Roberto

“I’m so sorry,” I apologized to my manager. Then I stomped over to the men and hissed, “Howdareyou come here!”

The older one said in a low voice, “Your father wants to speak with you.”

“He could have called!” I rage-whispered.

The thug ignored my temper tantrum. “You can come quietly, or we can make a scene. Which do you prefer?”

I opted to accompany them quietly – one on either side of me, like they were transporting a prisoner.

Which, in a sense, they were.

As we left, I stared at the floor in mortified silence…

And tried to ignore the fact that all my co-workers were watching me get marched out of the office by criminals.

The two men drove me to my parents’ house in a Rolls Royce.

Once we arrived, they escorted me past the household staff to my father’s study.

The room looked like something out of the British colonial period – which it was. Every wall was lined with shelves of leatherbound books. The vanilla scent of old paper hung in the air, and a grandfather clocktick tick tickedin the background.

My father was sitting behind his desk, dressed in a suit and tie like always, reading over some papers.

When the two men knocked, he looked up. His expression immediately darkened.

“Wait outside,” he ordered.

The two men closed the door behind them.

“Sit,” he said coldly, pointing at a chair across his desk.

I sat down. “If you wanted to talk to me, you should have just – ”

“Quiet,” he snapped.

“I don’t appreciate you sending two of your thugs to embarrass me at work – ”

“QUIET!” he shouted, the veins in his temples standing out.

I froze in my seat, suddenly seven years old again.

With sick dread, I realized this was about something more than my father’s usual controlling nature.

He found out,a little voice whispered in my mind.

No – that’s impossible –

I was so careful!

But then my worst fears were confirmed.

My father began sliding photographs across the desk, one by one.

They were shots taken with long lenses through windows, or grainy pictures snapped with cellphones in low light –

All from fetish parties I’d thrown over the last two weeks.

In one photo, I laughed as I wore a black bra, panties, and thigh-high boots under a leather trench coat.

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