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

Chapter 168: I’d Walk A Thousand Miles, To See Your Eyes

[KATYA]

The familiar gates to the Romanov manor stared at Katya.

He hadn’t been home in over a year. His parents tried to call him back but his excuse had always been the same.

"I’ll make time, mama. I’ll come home."

And sometimes...

"I promise I’m fine papa. Besides, if it gets too much, I’ll come."

He’d lied.

More than once.

But now he was here.

Not because some contract haunted him or a marriage that was dragging him through the ends of the earth without any mercy.

He was here, because he missed home.

"Romanov, have fun!" Svet said when she and Andre dropped him off for the tracks.

Katya hadn’t gone back to the pet house. Instead, he’d come home to his parents. Without a phone they could reach him with.

Without anything.

Just a son returning to the one place that had always been his little heaven.

"Welcome home young master," the guard at the gate said, as Katya walked in with a small smile on his face at the relief of how familiar this all was.

He’d been worried he’d feel like a stranger here.

That everything had changed so much in the last year.

But the moment he stepped in, it was just like it had always been.

His mama was watering her flowers.

His papa snipped the fence because he knew Masha would most definitely hurt herself in some diabolical way he couldn’t explain.

So, he was there to protect her from herself.

"Mama! Papa!" Katya called out.

The reaction was instant.

And like two people who weren’t sure they were living the same reality, Katya watched his parents look at each other as if to confirm that they were really seeing the same person.

As if to remind each other that two people couldn’t have the same delusions on an afternoon like this.

"Romanov... Michka is.... Home?" Masha breathed like she had been holding her breath for the longest time.

Katya advanced to her happily, to the woman who had been begging him to walk through those gates again. She looked healthier than the last time he’d seen her. The new heart was definitely doing wonders for her.

His father was no different.

He looked better than the last time too.

Perhaps time had really worked in their favor.

"You’re not hallucinating," Mr. Romanov said, holding back his tears at the sight of his son.

They’d heard the news over the last few days and months.

Of the head at the senator’s residence.

Of the child that had been born into the Moskowsky house and the hate train that followed their son for months.

And even better...

Of the divorce that had been finalized.

Now their child was back home and there wasn’t more they could ask for.

"My Michka," Masha cried as she hugged her son. Her only child, who’d suffered enough.

"I stink, mama... At least let me clean up properly first," Katya said even though he’d taken a shower at the tracks earlier.

"You look thin, my sweet child," Masha said, ignoring her son’s protests.

"I’m hungry, mama," Katya said, knowing it would distract her from her eternal worries.

"Oh, right... Come along Michka. I prepared your favorite lunch," Masha said casually like she’d gotten a call earlier, and Katya’s heart felt into his stomach.

Because he knew what that meant.

There hadn’t been a call to the Romanov manor today about him.

His mother had been waiting.

Hoping.

Watching.

Praying for him to come home daily.

She’d seen him endure everything and hoped even then that he’d come home. And now he was back after a year in the wild.

So, when his mama held his hand and walked him inside their home, Katya didn’t hesitate.

He just looked at his father who gave him a small smile, mouthing, "Welcome home, son."

Everything was the same as it had been the last time. The walls, the portraits, everything.

Maybe the stand next to his father’s favorite seat had changed.

But only because it held a stack of daily newspapers about the Moskowskys and what they were doing to his son.

And that was the reminder he needed to know that when he suffered in silence, his family did too. Because the Romanovs wouldn’t act unless Katya spoke and asked for help.

But Katya never did.

Not once.

For a whole year.

"You’re home, son," Masha breathed like she could believe this was real. As if a part of her still felt like a dream, even as she set up the dining table.

And Katya could slowly but finally understand the agony within these walls.

To be so powerful yet powerless at the one thing that was supposed to make life easy for the one they loved.

"I think I’ll stay a little longer," Katya said when they finally sat around the table.

Just their family, as always.

"Your room was never changed," Mr. Romanov said.

"We just added a few more clothes to your closet that we thought you’d love," Masha added, as if it were so simple.

Maybe it was that simple.

At the end of the day, Katya Romanov was their son.

Even when he was away.

"This pelmeni is sweet, mama," Katya said, dicing right in.

He knew nostalgia was bound, but honestly, if he kept listening to his parents’ little acts of kindness and love, he’d end up crying again.

And he didn’t want that.

Not when he was home.

So, they ate their lunch in comfortable quiet, with occasional stares here and there.

His mama topping his plate even when Katya whined that he’d become a balloon at that rate.

His papa staring in warm silence at his child, whom he hadn’t seen in a really long time.

Eventually, lunch was over, and they went to sit outside.

Katya knew what was coming.

He knew they would never ask him directly about his life unless he initiated the conversation. Not because they were not interested, but because a lot had happened.

They wanted him to talk to them first.

"I... I lost the baby because he cheated on our anniversary," Katya said softly.

"The baby would have been four months old today... on another anniversary," Katya said quietly, and they listened.

"I knew it," Mr. Romanov said, gritting his teeth.

"I finished modifying Andre’s hunting gun. Maybe I should call him to come take it," Masha said casually, like they all didn’t know what Andre had assembled that gun specifically for.

Like they didn’t know how much it had taken to convince Andre that people didn’t need to be shot at with hunting guns.

This time, though, Katya didn’t say no.

They deserved to do whatever they wanted, now that Katya was free from that marriage.

"I’m sorry I lied to both of you," Katya apologized, because after all this time, it was the least he could do.

He couldn’t correct some of the things and couldn’t exactly come clean about the contracts with the Moskowskys, especially Sergei, but it wasn’t as bad as before.

"What did he ask for in the divorce?" Mr. Romanov asked, ready to fight or settle some scores with the Moskowsky brat who’d hurt his son, and Katya thought back to the unconventional realization he’d had that day.

The way they’d been divorced for nearly a year, and neither of them had any clue about it.

Katya hadn’t even known the terms of their divorce, yet somehow, a part of him chose to trust it.

Or rather, the one who had orchestrated it.

Strangely enough, he wasn’t afraid.

"Nothing, Papa. I didn’t want anything from him," Katya said, and his parents stared at him softly.

"If you get hurt, I don’t care if you’re eighty and with a thousand grandchildren. If you’re hurt, let us know. We’ll fight for you. We’ll protect you. We will find a way around it all, regardless. Do you hear me?" Mr. Romanov said to his son.

Katya nodded in understanding.

He remembered his father asking about the twelve pints of blood he’d been given at the hospital, and Katya acting like he knew nothing of what his father was talking about.

But now there was no need for secrets anymore.

"If they’re overworking you there—" Masha said, and Katya smiled in earnest.

"They’re not, mama," Katya said fast, making Masha raise a brow at him.

’Are you defending the company structure or a particular someone at the company?’

His subconscious taunted.