Submitting to my Ex Uncle-Chapter 179

Dominic had always loved the silence before a storm. In China, the silence wasn’t still. China was always filled with the heavy breath of ambition hanging in the air.

He stood before the glass wall of his hotel suite on the sixty-third floor, the entire city glittering beneath him like a restless sea. He didn’t move, neither did he blink. He just kept his hands in his pockets as if his stillness alone could anchor the world.

He had to reluctanly let Celeste go about an hour ago, when he saw how exhusted she was. He wished he was beside her, to help her wash up.

Grigor, who came in few minutes ago, and who was always a step behind yet somehow always ahead, was pouring himself a drink on the side counter.

His presence filled the room without needing words. If Dominic was iron, Grigor was smoke. Fluid, and slipping into spaces without asking permission.

"You didn’t tell her the full reason we came here," Grigor finally said, his voice low.

Dominic’s jaw flexed. "She doesn’t need to know."

"She’ll find out," Grigor replied, sipping his whiskey. "Women like Celeste... they don’t stay blind. They see the cracks in armor, no matter how polished."

Dominic turned from the glass, his eyes sharp. "And what do you suggest I do? Lay everything bare? Tell her this trip isn’t just contracts and conference tables, but bloodlines, old betrayals, and men who’d rather see me buried than seated at their head?"

Grigor smirked, a humorless twist of his lips. "I suggest you remember that she isn’t like the women you used to handle."

The words stung, but Dominic didn’t show it. Instead, he reached for his cufflinks on the polished oak table.

The cufflinks was silver, and engraved with the family crest. It was a symbol of power, of inheritance, and of weight.

"Tonight is important," Dominic said, fastening them in place. "And I need you to watch everything. The boardroom will be crowded, but the real conversation will happen afterward. In the shadows. With the ones who don’t sit at the table."

Grigor leaned back, regarding him carefully. "I’ll watch. I always do. But Dominic..." He set down his glass and stepped closer, his tone changing to something sharper, something heavier. "China has a way of exposing people. It doesn’t matter how good you think your mask is. Here, power is traded like silk, smooth and fast. And debts... debts last longer than blood."

The warning settled like smoke in Dominic’s chest. He hated that Grigor was right. He hated even more that his mind wandered—not to contracts, not to the men he was about to face—but to Celeste, back home.

He stared at his cufflinks longer than he should have. Grigor noticed. He always noticed.

"She has a way of making you hesitate," Grigor said softly. For the rarest moment. There was no judgement, or mockery in his voice.

Dominic pocketed the phone, his features hardening again. "She has a way of reminding me what I’m fighting for."

The suite door opened without a knock. Two men in tailored suits stepped in, their faces cold, and their movements too precise to be anything but rehearsed. Dominic didn’t flinch. Grigor didn’t even blink.

"It’s time," one of the men said in Mandarin, though Dominic understood perfectly.

The ride down to the lobby was suffocating in its silence. The city’s pulse grew louder as the elevator descended, every floor passed like a drumbeat.

Grigor adjusted his cuff casually, his eyes flicking between the mirrored walls and the strangers beside them. Dominic stood like a statue, but beneath the suit, his blood hummed.

The cars waiting outside weren’t ordinary. The cars were black, armored, and tinted too dark for any light to escape. The streets of Shanghai stretched endlessly, with skyscrapers clawing into the night sky. Dominic slid into the backseat, and Grigor beside him.

"Do you ever wonder if this will end differently for us?" Grigor asked suddenly, his voice too quiet for the driver to hear.

Dominic’s gaze stayed fixed on the window. "Differently how?"

"With a desk and papers, or with bullets and dirt."

Dominic’s reflection met his own eyes in the glass. "Doesn’t matter. The world will remember whose hands shaped it. Paper or blood, it’s all ink in the end."

The convoy cut through Shanghai’s arteries like a beast with too many legs, every turn precise, and every street emptied ahead of them as though the city itself bent to their arrival.

The closer they drew, the heavier the air became, until even the hum of neon seemed muted. Dominic’s jaw remained tight, his reflection in the glass unreadable. He looked like a king rehearsing stillness before stepping into a room of wolves.

When the car finally slowed, Grigor tilted his head ever so slightly, scanning the surroundings with the cold patience of a man who’d survived too many ambushes.

The courtyard they entered was a paradox. Power sat here, invisible but undeniable.

The driver opened the door, and Dominic stepped out first. The night air tasted like metal and incense, sharp and lingering. Grigor moved just behind him, silent, and watchful.

The building loomed, and its entrance guarded by men who didn’t bother to hide their weapons. Dominic’s gaze swept over them once, then dismissed them. Guards were pawns. Pawns weren’t worth his time.

Inside, the silence thickened. Long corridors lined with lacquered wood and gold trim led them deeper, until the sound of voices began to rise.

When the double doors swung open, the boardroom revealed itself. It felt like a stage set for war.

Sixty men filled the hall.

Half of them wore suits so sharp they could slice skin. The glitter of wealth was heavy in their watches, their cufflinks, and their ties pinned with diamonds.

These were the faces the world recognized. They were executives, moguls, and chairmen who built empires on contracts and stock markets. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The other half didn’t need suits. They wore power like a second skin. Some came draped in plain black, with their eyes narrow and ruthless.