Contract Marriage: Married to My Ex-Husband's Alpha Stepfather [BL]

Chapter 146: Stuck On You, My Life Paused

[FROLO]

"F... Father... Did... Did you... Did you kill Katya?" Yaroslav asked, his voice panicky.

Sergei looked at his son, a thousand and one questions in his mind. He had been so ready to defend himself and say that nothing had just happened. The office had just gotten him in a terrible mood.

But the citrus scent they were both awfully familiar with was slowly fading.

Or maybe his already faded because Sergei had spent hours trashing the damn office. And now he had his son standing there asking him the most absurd of questions like this, as normal.

Then again, he couldn’t even blame the boy.

Everyone by now knew the Moskowsky chairman had gotten into heat.

It was only fair that the internal forums in Moskowsky buzzed with the scent that had engulfed a whole executive floor and had all the employees on that floor evacuated to other floors in the company.

Even Anya had evacuated.

That was how bad shit had gotten.

"What are you doing here?" Sergei asked tiredly and flatly, like seeing his only child interrupt his embarrassment wasn’t already bad enough.

He couldn’t even make out a proper sentence without coming off as a dick and worse without making his son get the terrible idea.

Maybe it was what they had to deal with, but what were the odds that this particular set of insanity was the kind that had everyone hooked onto something else altogether then?

"I... You... You look like shit," Yaroslav said as he rushed over to his father, the sudden relief that came with his father’s questioning something that made Sergei wonder if his son was stupid.

The facts were right there before Yaroslav.

And the way that Katya’s office was the only one left standing should have been hit enough, but no.

His son just had to have a few brain cells too loose.

"He left with his boyfriend," Sergei said boredly, like the sight of Katya holding onto Alek wasn’t something that pissed him the hell off. Like the fact that Katya had called him second and not first was not driving him a little crazier.

Maybe he needed to be normal, but did Sergei even know the first thing about normalcy then? Or was it the one illusion he flattered himself into because he was worried about how shit would turn out to be for him?

Gods, he was hopeless in more than one way.

"What happened to you? Why did you trash the entire floor?" Yaroslav asked Sergei to look at his son before he realized what his son was assuming.

That Sergei has been determined to trash this whole place, and Yaro had saved Katya’s office. It was a stupid analogy, but honestly, it was working in his favor. Perhaps shaving an emotionally clueless son was worth something, right?

Well, it would have been better if the father wasn’t just as emotionally clueless.

But then no one was trying to count the number of times the Moskowsky boys had gotten themselves into weird situations without any rational exits, right?

"I’m fine. Your husband isn’t here if he’s who you’re looking for. Leave. I’ll be okay," Sergei said dismissively.

Yaro stared at him worriedly.

To be fair, Sergei looked like he had been through a thousand and one breakups. It didn’t help that he still had a bat in his hand and that he was bleeding too.

He looked like shit, and the clothes he was wearing were not making him look any better. Instead, they pointed to a man who was trying so hard not to forget what life was like for him, right?

"I didn’t see you at the cemetery today... I thought... I’m sorry we lost Papa," Yaroslav said, his voice low and filled with sadness.

Sergei stiffened instantly.

Cemetery?

Then his eyes drifted to the half-destroyed calendar that had survived his hits on the wall.

Seventeenth of December.

The day he had lost Vitya.

Seventeenth.

He had not shown up at the cemetery like he always did.

Instead, he had rushed over to Katya only to be flipped off.

He had forgotten Vitya’s memorial date?

His Vitya?

Sergei felt sick even as his chest constricted and he could only manage a strangled sound, the bat in his hand dropping to the ground, smashing his bare toes.

Sergei didn’t care about that.

Not right now.

Sergei never forgot anything to do with Vitya.

That shit never happened.

What the hell was his obsession with Katya turning him into?

Defeatedly, the alpha fell to his knees on the floor.

Now he understood why his son wasn’t even shocked that he had trashed the floor. Because Yaroslav knew that Sergei was always unstable on Memorial Day. That Sergei could easily flatten Moskowsky holdings because of this one day.

His son thought it was because of his papa. His husband.

Sergei had never felt that ashamed in his entire life.

So much for forever and always.

"I’m sorry," the alpha let out weakly on his knees at the disappointment he had become.

How could he forget Vitya?

How could he leave his beloved alone on this one day?

Sergei’s heart tightened even more in his chest.

And Yaroslav?

He went on his knees in front of his father, hugging the man who had never been affectionate with anyone else. He knew his father had been going through a lot lately.

He knew his father was a mess more times than the old man cared to admit.

And sadly, Yaroslav knew that this was the one day that even Irina wouldn’t be able to help his father survive the day.

So Yaroslav gave up his desire to go after the senator and his husband. And he stayed with his father. Hugging the disheveled man. Hoping that their shared grief would make it better.

It never did.

But at least when they were together, they had each other to get through the day.

"I’m sorry I didn’t do enough to keep him alive," Sergei mumbled on his son’s shoulder.

Yaroslav didn’t let go.

He had never let his father go.

Not on days like these.

Not on these harsh days.

Anniversaries and birthdays related to Vitya were hard enough.

But this Memorial Day always broke Sergei into little pieces like the first time thirty years ago.

Yaroslav had been through this with Sergei enough times to remember.

Maybe that was also why when his father’s body shook against him, Yaroslav took out the needle in his pocket and injected his father in the neck.

It was the only way to keep the alpha sane.

The only way to make sure Sergei didn’t destroy everything he cared about. Because regrets usually never did much after Memorial Day passed.

"Rest, father. I’ll take care of things here," Yaroslav said apologetically when he noticed Sergei was too trapped in his head to register the drugs that had been introduced to his system.

And when the alpha’s body went limp against his, Yaroslav carried his father to the private elevator that led to the penthouse.

He needed to rest.

Well, at least that was the easy way to get through the day.

And he did tuck his father in later, before he decided to clean up the ragged penthouse.

It was terrible.

But it couldn’t be worse than Yaroslav’s findings in his father’s study.

There were surveillance screens all over.

And it was all on Katya Romanov.

"Fuck," Yaroslav cursed when he saw the extensive surveillance reports.

"He’s really going to kill my omega?"