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

Chapter 216: We Break Bread, Till The Sun Leaves

[FROLO]

Sergei was still in bed when his son’s call came through. Yaroslav never called that early, so when he clicked on receive, Sergei was already getting out of bed.

"Father..." Yaroslav’s broken voice hit Sergei’s ears. He could hear the rain in the background, which meant that either his son had done something stupid again or he was about to.

"Find a place to shelter from the rain. I’m on my way," Sergei said, rushing out. He didn’t hang up, but he didn’t pull the phone from his ear either. Not even when he got to his car and drove off.

His son needed him.

Sergei didn’t ask for the location; he knew where his son was, thanks to the chip he had introduced into Yaro’s arm when Yaro was just a sickly teenager bullied by his schoolmates.

Of course, Yaroslav never questioned how his father always knew where he was all the time, but he never had to worry because as long as he had his father, everything would be okay.

The broken, silent sobs on the other end of the phone had Sergei’s heart shattering for his only child. He knew his son was an idiot with all the choices he had made, but to hear him cry like that had him feeling a kind of rage that was unforgivable.

He would find whoever hurt his son that much. He would remind the city along the way, too. Because the last time his son had cried, he had done the unspeakable.

So, when he pulled up to the bus stop next to Nikolai’s home and saw his son standing there, so defeated by everything, Sergei didn’t prod. Instead, he simply walked to his wet son and hugged him.

"I... I don’t know what to do, Father," Yaroslav admitted into the hug while Sergei held him close and tight, as if to remind him that he wasn’t going to go through this alone. Whatever it was.

"We’ll figure it out, son. Your father is here. Come, let’s go home," Sergei said, and Yaroslav shook his head suddenly, making Sergei stare at him in confusion.

"I can’t go home to Milan and Erika. Not... Not after the confession I just listened to, Father. I... My Katya," Yaroslav said, adding the last bit defeatedly.

Sergei stared at him in understanding.

"You want to go to his penthouse?" Sergei asked as if it were not the one thing that he was determined to say no to. But then this was his son, who was in pain.

Then again, his son had also caused his Solnyshka pain, which meant that, as tempting as it was to give Yaro everything he wanted, this was something that he would definitely find ways to talk his son out of.

Because otherwise there would be his son’s lavender scent in the penthouse, he had kept it pure with his rainforest and Katya’s citrus.

Gods, Sergei was in a pickle.

"No... I don’t want to give him more reasons to hate me," Yaroslav said, and Sergei let out a relieved sigh even as he pulled his son into a hug again.

For Yaro, it was just his father being supportive like he had always seen.

But for Sergei, it was different.

Because he wouldn’t let his son cry, but he wouldn’t survive seeing Katya in any more pain.

"Alright, let’s get you out of the cold then. You know how easily you get sick in cold weather," Sergei scolded.

Yaroslav pulled back, looking at his father defeatedly.

"I... I want to go to our matrimonial home," Yaro said suddenly.

Sergei stared at his son like the boy had lost his mind.

Of course, he couldn’t very well say that because he had long established that the current predicament was because his son had realized everything had been a lie from the first day, and that he’d lost his marriage based on endless lies.

"Are you sure about that?" Sergei asked in earnest.

He still had nightmares from the last time he had been stalking Katya and seen Katya and Yaroslav in that home. But again, he couldn’t say shit because then his son would ask him what the fuck he was on, too.

"Please," Yaro said, and Sergei nodded before walking to his car with his son, who was still drenched.

The drive to the matrimonial home felt like a drive of shame and insanity for Sergei Moskowsky.

It should have been a calm drive, seeing as this was his son, but he was haunted by the memories of Katya crying because his son had cheated.

Memories of Masha yesterday holding Katya so closely as she comforted her son because of what Sergei’s son had done. It was something that had the alpha so conflicted.

For a moment, he wondered where he had gone wrong with his emotionally stupid son.

"He cried throughout our marriage, you know? I... I tried to find ways, but none of them ever worked. And I thought using Milan to get him his happiness back would suffice.

"But look what that led us both into," Yaroslav said shamefully as he stared out the window of the passenger seat.

The world had once been a beautiful place before shit happened. Before everyone lied to them. Before, he had to worry about how to protect Katya and make sure no one ruined the little happiness they had left.

It had been a struggle, yet Yaroslav never blamed Katya for how things had turned out.

Yaro had centered his pain on Katya’s pain. Things had always been absolute for him, even before the changes.

If Katya was happy, Yaroslav was happy.

If Katya were sad, then Yaro would be sad but still try to make Katya happy.

But even all that hadn’t worked.

Not once.

"Everything I did..." Yaroslav trailed off quietly, like this was his punishment for his sins. But was it even fair that Katya had been jumbled up in the mix?

"You knew what was happening..." Yaroslav added as he turned to look at his father.

"That’s why you punished me that day, didn’t you?"

Sergei looked at his son for a moment before he turned to the road. How was he to make an admission without hinting at the fact that he didn’t exactly care for Yaroslav’s relationship and that he only cared about Katya at the time?

"Why didn’t you tell me?" Yaroslav asked sadly.

"It wasn’t my secret to tell, son. I thought you two had already talked about it eventually. Then you leaned into the rumors, and I assumed you, too, had come to your decisions," Sergei said calmly.

To be fair, he had assumed they had talked about it, but at the same time, a part of him had always suspected that Katya had never once spoken of the miscarriage to his son.

There was no contract stopping Katya from mentioning it to Yaro, and Sergei had no right to interfere either.

"He’ll never forgive me," Yaroslav chuckled in defeat like his whole life had just turned out to be the worst of things that could ever have happened.

"Would you forgive you, son?" Sergei asked as they pulled over into the matrimonial home that Yaro had long refused to sell.

"I’ll kill them all," Yaroslav swore.

"Good thing I left you three pieces."

"I’ll find whoever hired them first, then kill them."

"Whatever you need, son... Let’s go in, you’re starting to burn up."