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

Chapter 207: Carved His Name Into Leather Seats

[FROLO]

[LIVE BROADCAST SWITCHES TO IRINA’S PRESS CONFERENCE]

The screen shifted to Irina outside her house, probably because she had been trying to send away the media personnel.

The woman was the only person the city could say was important enough to Sergei to have the barbarian warning people of her tears. Yet right now, she looked like she wanted to be everywhere but here, being associated with the craziest of crazies.

Irina: "Sergei and I never dated. We were working on some projects together, and as you all know, we have always been the best of friends for years. If there were a chance for us to date, we would have tried that a long time ago.

"The posts we made, none of them referenced any relationship. So, let’s stop making false assumptions. We care for each other, but what you’re thinking about him and me is wrong."

*****

But with Irina out of the choices...

There was only one person the city could think of beyond Yaroslav Gamov Moskowsky.

Katya Romanov.

HOST 2: "I told you. We were right."

GUEST 1: "Then I think everyone in the city is doomed. Because if Chairman Romanov really is the reason... There are two Moskowskys who would destroy the world for him."

HOST 1: "Remember the journalist that died and whose head was sent to Senator Aleksandr’s house?"

GUEST 2: "Yeah, some said that he’d been stalking Chairman Romanov and harassing the man, and that the head was sent to send a message."

HOST 2: "The other senators, too. The bodies delivered to their homes..."

GUEST 2: "Oh, come on. That is too far a stretch."

HOST 1: "Senator Petrov ruined the Romanov Steel merger with El Nueva... and the senator received his assistant’s heart in a box. The same assistant who was used to send the papers to Romanov Steel."

GUEST 2: "That is impossible."

HOST 2: "Senator Luka once said that the Romanov omega deserved all the hate for not being able to have kids. And he ended up getting sterilized because apparently it was the only medical solution if he was to keep his... You know what."

GUEST 2: "You’re talking like Chairman Romanov has some mighty figure doing his dirty work for him."

HOST 1: "That’s the confusing bit. Romanov has always been kind. He never confronted anyone who hurt him. You know that. I know that. Everyone in the city knows that, too. Even Yaroslav said it in their wedding interview. That the omega’s kind heart was the reason he fell in love with him. A man like that doesn’t just get his hands bloody overnight."

GUEST 2: "Exactly. You said it. He wouldn’t hurt anyone."

HOST 2: "But we know someone who would do it for him."

GUEST 2: "That’s still a stretch because Senator Rick’s daughter died of a heart attack..."

HOST 1: "The senator had mocked Mrs. Romanov for being wealthy and still ending up with a faulty heart."

HOST 2: "Senator Yilena didn’t do anything to Romanov, and yet she ended up in a wheelchair."

HOST 1: "She once said, I think four years ago, that Katya Romanov needed to show off his legs more often to be useful to alphas and betas now that he couldn’t get children."

GUEST 2: "..."

GUEST 1: "That’s..."

HOST 2: "Senator Natasha..."

HOST 1: "Died of a heart attack days before the Senate attack after mocking Masha Romanova’s heart for years."

GUEST 2: "Then you’re saying someone kept track of every insult thrown at the Romanov omega for years?"

HOST 1: "I honestly don’t know what I’m saying anymore."

HOST 2: "Some of the incidents happened when Chairman Romanov was eighteen. He didn’t even know the Moskowskys then."

HOST 1: "Someone certainly looked at the omega and decided he would pay back every insult the omega faced, even before we knew him. Everything he forgave, his silent executioner is bringing to light and avenging in the cruelest of ways."

GUEST 1: "That means there could be more if we dig deeper?"

HOST 1: "Patterns that match. But I think he started with the senators because it would get public traction."

GUEST 2: "Eighteen senators fallen because an omega was hurt? That is insane."

HOST 2: "Try eighteen people who caused the omega pain and went on with their lives without asking for forgiveness."

GUEST 1: "But the city is big... how many people mocked Chairman Romanov?"

HOST 1: "The social scandal about his marriage and all that. At this rate, we should just make confessions because people know whoever confesses doesn’t get a terrible way to die like the others from the hands of the devil himself."

GUEST 2: "So... death by confession."

HOST 2: "That is way more merciful than a slow death by the madman."

GUEST 2: "Don’t you think we are overthinking all of this? Assuming it was really Mr. Moskowsky behind all of this. Why now? Why not attack earlier? Why just eliminate eighteen sitting senators?"

HOST 1: "He sent a message with them, remember?"

GUEST 2: "That man is—"

HOST 2: "Insane? Unhinged? We already knew that. The only thing I’d advise our listeners is to come out earlier because maybe, just maybe, if you come out yourselves, the forgiving omega might speak up first before the devil executes. Otherwise, we are all doomed."

GUEST 2: "That is too dark a stretch. Besides, everyone has a right to an opinion, no?"

HOST 1: "The journalist didn’t die because of his opinion, friend. He died because he tormented Romanov with his questions, stalked Romanov, and did things that made the omega unhappy. And his protector decided to show up."

GUEST 2: "Protector? Is that what we are calling a mass murderer now?"

HOST 2: "He knows he is the devil of Frolo. Nothing we do can make him go back."

GUEST 2: "Still, not everyone will be on board with the mercy chariot you’re talking about."

HOST 1: "Of course. Not everyone will be terrified. But this man sank the city once. He won’t mind doing it again."

GUEST 2: "That is twisted."

HOST 2: "Welcome to the new Frolo, my friend. Anyway, there you have it, listeners. All of this is just speculation as we try to figure things out. But so far, the only person the devil of Frolo could burn us for... all the pointers go toward Mr. Katya Romanov. See you soon in our next podcast."

GUEST 1: "If we survive the Moskowsky apocalypse, you mean."

HOST 1: "If we survive, Sergei. Not Sergei Moskowsky. Sergei."

*****

That was one of the many podcasts that held the same message across the city of Frolo, with the city piecing together pieces of a puzzle no one knew how wide it spun.

Senator Aleksandr didn’t have time to think of anything else. He had his work cut out for him in the most bitter of ways. Emergency meetings, funerals, and reports were just bits of the aftermath of that attack.

Yaroslav, on the other hand, was working on making sure the mess that had unfolded would never make it back to Moskowsky Holdings. Then again, Yaroslav knew his father better than anyone, and he knew that the man wouldn’t be as bothered.

As for the two men involved in the most unhinged Frolo gossip, neither seemed particularly concerned.

Yet even then, one of them knew exactly what he had set into motion, while the other was just glad his boyfriend had survived the explosion.

Neither of them knew that while they had been sharing lunch, the city had reached its own conclusion.

The devil of Frolo had chosen his person.

Worse...

The Senate had been flattened...

...For Katya Romanov.