Page 171 of Roberto

“Or… you can continue on your present path. Which, with your father’s interference, will most probably lead to financial ruin, as you stated earlier.” He paused dramatically. “Your choice.”

Not much of a choice at all.

I felt incredibly uneasy about it…

But I felt a wholelot more uneasy about letting my father control my life.

If Lau could get me free of him, then there wasn’t a whole lot Iwouldn’tdo.

“Alright,” I said. “It’s a deal.”

“Excellent. If I might make one small suggestion…”

“What?” I asked warily.

“Consider renaming the business. We’ll put something boring on the filing papers – Hong Kong Holding Company B32 or something similar – and there won’t be any signs advertising your club from the outside. But for those who hear about it by word of mouth, the name should be a bit more elegant… a bit more European… a bit more…scandalous.”

“What did you have in mind?”

Lau smiled. “How about ‘De Sade’?”

“Like the Marquis de Sade.”

“Precisely.”

I nodded. “I like it.”

Lau beamed. “Good.”

The old man wasn’t nearly as stiff and stodgy as his grandfatherly appearance would lead you to believe.

Maybe this business partnership won’t be such a bad thing after all…

After I signed a few papers, Lau gave me a brief tour of the 70thfloor, including the accounting department.

“Once we open De Sade,” Lau said, “you’ll deliver the previous night’s receipts the following day. A good portion of the money the club takes in will be Bitcoin, by the way. That’s the way many of my associates prefer to do business these days – in cryptocurrency.”

Interesting.

I guess it made it more difficult for their governments – and their wives – to find out about.

After a bit more discussion about reopening the club, I left Lau’s office feeling jubilant.

I was absolutely thrilled that I had beaten my father at his own game –

And saved my business, all in one fell swoop.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized I’d signed away my soul to the devil himself.

70

Lau kept his word.

He signed a lease in a beautiful office building in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong’s nightclub district.

While the space was being remodeled, I started interviewing. I decided to keep only my very best former employees; the rest were candidates from all over Asia. I wanted ensure my new staff of doms, dominatrixes, and submissives was truly world-class.

Three months later, we had our opening night.

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