Chapter 16: There’s No Way Out of Here
[YAROSLAV]
"Stop fucking shouting! You will blow off my ears!!" Yaroslav strained as his best friend kept shouting profanities in the room like an uncultured being.
And Yaroslav had already had enough of it. Especially seeing as he was in a damn referral hospital that wasn’t even having the best of services, or at least that was what he believed.
"Well, your crazy father already did that, didn’t he?" Nikolai shouted, ignoring the way his friend was writhing in pain.
"Father wouldn’t do that," Yaroslav argued.
Nikolai stared at his friend like the bullets had definitely affected his way of thinking.
There was just no way that this man, who had been shot twice by his own father, whose ear had been cut clean and stitched back, was talking about his father being sane.
Sergei Moskowsky was anything but sane.
He didn’t walk around looking composed. The man was a time bomb that was bound to explode at any moment, and this time, Yaroslav had been caught in between.
Or maybe it was the very reason for all this, wasn’t it?
Perhaps Yaroslav needed a reminder.
A mirror to help him see what he was missing out on.
And in a fit of rage, Nikolai grabbed a mirror from one of the doctors who had been explaining how the surgery and stitching had been done, and shoved it in Yaroslav’s face, even as they stepped out.
"Look at your face and tell me that your father wouldn’t burn people down," Nikolai said angrily.
He had lost billions in the plant explosion. And it would have truly been considered an accident if one of his men wasn’t intentionally left alive with the message that said there would be more coming from where that was from.
It was a threat, and it had barely even been a day since Yaroslav had been hospitalized. Everything was so fucked, and Nikolai wasn’t sure he was ready for whatever the fuck was bound to come for them.
Sergei was a maniac.
They had always known it.
But this was the proof of it all.
Yet even then, Yaroslav refused to lean into the possibility that the devil of Forlo had attacked the business of his bets.
It made no sense at all.
"You’re angry, Nik, my father would never go that far," Yaroslav said, his denial obvious.
Maybe because he refused to believe that the man who had taken care of him for years and years was the same one who would ruin his life.
It made no sense to him.
It just didn’t.
Sergei Moskowsky was a monster; everyone already knew that. But with his son, he had never been. Granted, he was strict and made sure Yaroslav toed the line, but Sergei had never hurt Yaroslav intentionally.
He had been the Beta’s Protector ever since Yaroslav’s father died of cancer while Yaro was still a junior school student.
Sergei had been his protector.
His anchor.
Yaroslav refused to believe that his father had done that. That shit affected Yaroslav directly, and there was just no way.
"Are you even listening to yourself?" Your father shot you. He sent you to Frolo Referral Hospital instead of the best facility the nation has.
"He blew up my plant, and you still think that he is not capable of that??" Nikolai asked, clearly not ready to feed into the bullshit anymore.
He had lost a lot, and Sergei was the reason for it all. And seeing his best friend here in denial was a tad pathetic because, at the end of the day, there was no telling what could happen along the way.
This was just sheer madness.
"That’s enough. Instead of being here, you should conduct an investigation and see who really blew up the plant. Besides, so far, everyone says that it’s an electrical fault.
"Perhaps consider wiring the place correctly," Yaroslav said tiredly as he rested his head on the pillow.
He was too weak to even.
His thigh still had that hole in it, and the bullet was lodged in his bone because the doctors apparently didn’t have the capacity to remove the bullet.
Not because they did have the skills, but because their orthopedic surgeon had suddenly been transferred to another hospital.
Yaroslav knew what this meant, but he refused to lean into it. Because leaning into it would mean a war with the only parent he had ever known.
The only person who had protected himform the very beginning. The only person who had his back always.
Yaroslav couldn’t accuse Sergei like that.
That man was his father.
And he refused to change that relationship.
"You’re unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. I come to you with facts, a message from the devil himself, and you still insist that it wasn’t this doing?" Nikolai sighed frustratedly.
There was not much he could do against Sergei, not if Yaroslav didn’t help, and they both knew it. Perhaps that’s why Nikolai resorted to leaving because his friend was clearly high on morphine and not thinking straight.
He would come back.
Later.
When the man was a little well, because having a conversation with this version of Yaroslav was just making his morning worse than the previous day had been for him.
"He’s right, you know," a familiar voice said, and Yaroslav and Nikolai turned to look in their direction.
"Anya..." Yaroslav breathed his voice filled with so much hope as he looked at the woman who had just walked in.
She was one of the very few people his father allowed around him, and one whom his father listened to almost all the time.
Anya being here had to be good.
Because it meant that his father had sent an aide to him. After all, the devil of Frolo was a busy man, no?
"Right about what?" Nikolai asked, not in the mood for pleasantries.
His whole day had been ruined, and there were so many lawsuits headed his way. If he was going to endure all that, the least he could do was find some answers.
If not for himself, then for the people who had been affected.
But if he did prove that it was Sergei, what comfort would that bring to the bereaved?
"It was Sergei. He burned the plant down," Anya confirmed.
Yaroslav stiffened while Nikolai glared at Yaro as if to tell him that his suspicions had been right.
The devil of Frolo never hid from that he did, perhaps that was why Anya’s coming with a confirmation wasn’t as surprising.
Because deep down, anyone who knew them already knew that that had to be Sergei’s doing. It was not right, sure, but who was going to challenge the one man who had nothing left to lose?
"No. You’re lying. He’s my father," Yaroslav said, whimpering in pain as he struggled to sit up.
He had ached a lot, and the meds weren’t doing much. Earlier, he had asked the nurse about the damage, but the nurse had just told him that the dosage was right.
But then again, Yaroslav had been in such settings more than once, and he had been treated for worse than two gunshot wounds.
He knew when there wasn’t enough medicine.
A part of him wanted to say that the hospital’s amenities were cramped, but he, too, knew that they were not.
Sergei may have been the devil, but he cared just enough to win people whenever he felt like it. And this hospital was right at the center of good pr, which he never needed most of the time, because the devil of Frolo was feared rather than loved.
And nothing he did would ever change it.
"Your insane father blew up my semiconductor plant, Yaroslav," Nikolai sighed as he sat on the nearest seat.
He had spent too much time pacing in this room, and he was about to lose his mind, too.
"He shot you," Anya pointed out blankly.
"Gee, thanks for the reminder. But I was in the wrong. He doesn’t like it when I lose my temper. And he... he must have thought I was hurting Katya. That was probably why he did it," Yaroslav defended passionately.
Anya and Nikolai stared at the man unraveling before them.
For the first time, they were not sure if they needed to be terrified of Yaroslav or pity him and his extreme denial.
This... this was worse than everything that had happened.
"Here, you need to sign these," Anya sighed.
Nikolai grabbed the papers that Anya was handing Yaroslav before Yaro could reach them.
"Well, well, well. Isn’t this interesting?" Nikolai snickered.
"What?"
"Divorce papers."
