Chapter 105: ’Cause It Don’t Feel Right When It’s Late At Night
[KATYA]
Katya couldn’t breathe.
For the first time since the weekend, he found himself wishing for a quick death. Maybe that would be way easier than dealing with whatever this was.
Oh, this was bad.
Very bad.
Like damaging bad.
And he had walked into the building with the confidence of someone who shouldn’t have been alive that long.
What the fuck were the Moskowskys planning to do with him this time? Honestly, he wouldn’t even be opposed to it because this was bad. The kind of bad that had the deities reconsider everything.
Katya stared at the phone in his hands; the lucky one he chose for the stash of thirteen he had been miraculously given by Sergei, and frankly, he wanted to disappear.
Change nationalities.
Forget that he ever existed in the city of Frolo.
Maybe he would be a farmer in some village away from the city. Or he would go to the towns beside the sea and wait out his days.
That was a way better fate than he had before he found out the truth.
’This is not just embarrassing... This is catastrophic,’ Katya thought to himself as the videos of the night he had minimal memories of played. And suddenly it all made sense.
Completely.
The Moskowskys were trying to do damage control, and frankly, Katya couldn’t even blame them. This was the kind of embarrassment that the history books would always remember.
How the new Moskowsky chairman had turned into something else altogether because of the senator. How the pregnancy and everything had unfolded.
Goodness, this was embarrassing.
This was the kind of shit that he never wanted to exist in the same timeline as.
Yet that wasn’t even enough.
Because the more he watched the videos, the more he unlocked memories.
Memories of him and Svetlana.
"I’m a terrible friend fuck," Katya mumbled as the phone in his hands shook. He put it on the table because he didn’t trust himself. Not this time.
What the fuck had he just watched?
What the fuck had he turned into over the weekend?
No wonder the media were early at the gates. Because they couldn’t come to 13 Emerald Street without Sergei murdering them. It was a good strategy, but now it was the haunting reminder that Katya had been a mess.
That his parents had most definitely seen the videos.
Katya wanted to disappear.
Fuck.
His memories were definitely weapons formed against him.
******
[Saturday night, 13 Emerald Street]
"I love baaabies, Svet... love so many, very many... many babies," Katya said drunkenly as Svet walked him into the house.
"I’ll kill you in the morning for this, Romanov," Svet complained as she led her friend to his room, her hold on him ever since wavering despite the way that she sounded.
"Milan is going to give him pretty babies," Katya chuckled drunkenly.
"Romanov..."
"I’m so useless, Svet... so very useless... all this money, all this wealth that is forced down my throat... and I have nothing to offer in return... maybe... maybe if I had a baby... I’d say, yeah, this.
"... this is at least the cost of whatever the hell this is. But your friend here... probably won’t ever have babies anymore," Katya laughed.
Svetlana stilled.
She had tried to keep her temper in check. To steady them both. Because honestly, Katya’s words did not just hurt Katya.
Even the people around him.
"When that unhinged barbarian realizes he married me for nothing? He’s probably gonna kill me for it, giving him a baby...an omega who can’t bear children..." Katya rambled.
Svet didn’t say anything.
Nothing she said would ever make it better.
"The contract didn’t say anything about babies, Romanov," Svet said slowly, like she was trying to make Katya feel better.
But Katya just snorted.
"I see the way he looks at me... like I’m an object he needs to lock up all the time... like... like a toy he can play with when he’s bored... he probably forced that contract on me because he thought...
"... he thought Yaroslav wouldn’t give him heirs fast enough... so he wants to get them... that’s why he doesn’t care that I’m his son’s husband. He married me anyway...
"... blackmailed me with family, the one thing I can’t have for myself... You know the guy. All proud and shit... he’ll probably kill me for saying no to him," Katya chuckled.
This time, Svet didn’t even breathe.
She just stilled, like this was the worst possible thing her friend could have been forced into, yet she didn’t ever have a way out for him.
"Well, cheers to being the baby-making machine for the Moskowsky household... nah, that doesn’t sound right... I could bear kids... hic... maybe I’m a free use object for the father and son...
"... they probably made the arrangement together...the competitive Moskowskys," Katya said, flailing his hands in mockery, as he stumbled ahead.
"I’m probably just a bet for them... who will knot me enough times to give them kids... maybe he even gave me to his father... that’s why he didn’t come looking for me for the past month... what a fate," Katya sighed tiredly.
"Romanov..."
"Don’t worry about me, Svet... I’ll be fine, I promise... besides, do you really believe that the barbarian really had me as chairman and gave all his assets on paper just because I’m an intelligent researcher, did you?
"... well, at least he promised not to take my mother’s heart back... so I don’t mind. Even if I have to be used by all the servants, they parade here.
"Who even needs a hundred and fourteen servants if they’re not planning to use them?" Katya added, clinging to the wall, pushing himself against it while pressing forward to his room.
Svetlana was close to holding him if ever he faltered.
"You know... yesterday... Yaro came for me. He... he cleaned me up, put me to bed... even slept with me. Maybe it was to see if I could get pregnant for him before his father used me... he left me in another bed, alone...
"... he never left me in bed before... ever. He was always there when I woke up, always. But I suppose he reached his limit... You wanna know the funny thing about what I learned today?" Katya asked as he turned to his friend.
They were at his door already.
"He told me to drop the formalities," Katya said.
"Who?"
"Vladimir," Katya chuckled.
"What?"
"Said he’d not take my mother’s heart back if I dropped all formalities with him. Who even does that? This is just a game for them... but you guys shouldn’t get hurt because of me.
"Go home, Svet, you have work on Monday. And I have to prepare to be killed tomorrow when the devil of Frolo realizes I challenged his dearest precious son," Katya laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
"Romanov..."
"It’s alright though. Besides, even if he forces himself on me, even if he has his servants do whatever they want with me... maybe I’ll get a baby. Maybe I’ll finally be useful to the Moskowskys," Katya said, before he walked in...
And locked Svet out.
"Go home, Svet... goodnight and see you Monday," Katya said, as he turned the lock.
****
"Somebody kill me now," was all Katya could think.
Especially when the door to Anya’s office opened, and through it came a very cold, stoic Sergei Moskowsky.
There was no saving him this time.
Katya was doomed.
