Page 167 of Roberto

She’d screwed me royally –

Not to mention all her colleagues, who wouldn’t have a place to work after tonight.

“You are under arrest,” the detective intoned as he slapped cuffs on my wrist. “If you can’t afford a lawyer, one will be appointed to you…”

I had enough good sense to prepare for just such a situation long ago.

Every month, I paid a substantial retainer to one of the preeminent criminal defense lawyers in Hong Kong – a young hotshot who had his own firm by the time he was 30.

I left a message for him on his cell phone as soon as I was booked at the police station…

But he wasn’t the one who showed up.

Instead, an older man in a pinstripe suit and wireframe glasses walked into the private consultation room. I’d never seen him before.

“Who are you?” I asked in surprise.

“Your father sent me.”

Ice water coursed through my body.

I was about to scream for the guard when he held up a finger. “Hear what I have to say first.”

I stayed silent, but my heart was beating several times faster than normal.

“Your father does not want your name in the papers, given that the press will link you to your family… so he has arranged for the charges to be dropped.”

I stared at him, stunned. “How?”

“Unofficially, all it took was a phone call. Officially, the warrant will be found to have certain flaws which will invalidate the arrest. You’ll be released half an hour after I walk out of here. However, your father wants me to give you a message.”

I sat there in silence, waiting in terror to hear it.

“Your business ends tonight. Otherwise, you will be the target of future raids. They will continue to occur until the police either find something to put you in prison or you’re financially destitute. Take whatever money you’ve made and walk away.”

I felt sick to my stomach. “Does my father want me to leave Hong Kong?”

“No. He expressly forbids that.”

I stared at the lawyer in shock. “…what?! Why?!”

“If you are willing to marry someone of his choosing, he will overlook the last three years and allow you back into the family.”

Now it made sense.

The asshole just wants to control me.

He doesn’t want me to leave –

He wants me under his thumb.

He wants me to come crawling back to him.

Like the moment when I’d decided to become a dominatrix, my fear gave way to anger, purifying and hot.

“You tell my father he can gofuckhimself.”

The lawyer gave me the barest hint of a smile. “I’ll tell him you’re considering his offer. I would strongly advise you to do so.”

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