Page 166 of Roberto

I didn’t really notice, though.

I was busy running a thriving business. I had less and less time for a private life.

Three years after my father had disowned me, I moved into a luxurious apartment in the Summit. I bought myself a Bentley as a reward for my success.

Life was good.

And then disaster struck again.

It was a typical Saturday night at After Dark. I was making the rounds, ensuring that all my clients were being taken care of –

When police officers in riot gear kicked down the doors.

“HALT! YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!”

Customers screamed and ran for the exits.

The cops let them go.

They only seemed interested in me.

A new customer came out of a private room, dragging along the submissive he’d hired. She was handcuffed – and not in a fun way.

He flashed a badge in my face.

An undercover cop.

“You’re the proprietor of this establishment?” he asked me gruffly.

“…yes,” I said wearily.

“Your employee solicited me for sex for money. You are hereby arrested for engaging in organized prostitution.”

In Hong Kong, prostitution wasn’t illegal, exactly – but running a brothel was.

It was informally known as the ‘one woman, one room’ rule. As long as you were a one-woman operation, the cops left you alone.

In fact, there were high-rises in Hong Kong with hundreds of rooms rented by individual sex workers.

But if several prostitutes worked out of a single apartment…

Or a person offered sex-for-hire in an establishment like After Dark…

Then the owner of that apartment or establishment could be charged with organized prostitution, and the business would be shut down.

I glared at my employee, who stared at the floor in shame.

She had violated my number one rule: no sex with customers, at least not on the premises.

If she wanted to take someone home and charge them, fine – just as long as it wasn’t at After Dark.

But she’d wanted to make a quick buck…

And nowIwas going to pay the price.

She would get off with a relatively small fine –

And I would lose my entire business.

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