Chapter 54: Think I Met Someone Older...
[FROLO]
When she had left the residence, Svet had known what she was going to get herself into.
There was actually a real chance that she would die today, yet even that didn’t deter her from pressing forward. Especially since Katya wasn’t free, her friend’s freedom was the only thing that mattered the most to her at that moment.
By facing the Moskowskys directly, she was ensuring Katya’s security.
Ensuring that if ever something happened to Katya, people would ask questions. Hell, she was already giving them pointers on who to go after first with them.
Because for Svetlana, loyalty was worth everything, even her life. And if she had to fight, then she would; until her last breath.
Which was also why she was here.
Why was she daring to trigger the one for which many people got killed?
Vitya Moskowsky.
Sergei’s late husband was the one person everyone knew Sergei loved beyond comprehension. They had seen the way he had been obsessed with her, and how much he had changed when Vitra died.
He had never recovered, and Svet, just like the entire city, knew it too.
Which was why Svet was terrified for Katya.
"What did you just say?" Sergei asked, his voice cold, his demeanor completely changed.
He had been smiling when he stepped out of the building, but his face changed to a blank expression. Right now, he was raging.
Svet could almost see the storm in his eyes as he tried to keep himself steady.
But the woman didn’t care.
’I won’t let you end up like Vitya,’ Svet had promised when she had chosen to come here.
Because she knew just what obsession could do.
And she needed to hear the man explaining why he did what he had done to Katya.
Like, why Sergei going after his son’s omega.
Why Sergei had offered up a contract instead of saving his in-laws, like any normal family dynamic would have been.
Like why Sergei had chosen the extremes and threats instead of trying to reason with Katya, because at the end of the day, Katya was married into the Moskowsky family.
Shit like that never went away.
"You heard me, Moskowsky. Where the fuck is Romanov? Why is your family so hell to his ding my friend? Your clueless son doesn’t know where he is, which means that you did something. Where is he?" Svet insisted, even as Sergei this time walked towards her.
But Svet, for all the loose screws in her head and the worried looks she was getting from everyone, didn’t stop.
She stepped right forward.
When Sergei made one, she made two.
Until they were barely inches away from each other.
She had the same look, the same determination that could ruin her life, while Sergei had the same rage that could flatten sixties to the ground. Norla people were terrified. Had already started keeping their distance.
The entire floor was still on edge, along with everyone at the Moskowsky grounds.
Yet Svetlana...
She was not backing down.
"Are you asking me about your son with Vitya? Or is he not your son?" Svet mocked, like that was the most unbelievable thing. Then, everyone knew the Moskowsky family history.
But not everyone knew that Sergei had married Vitya when Yaroslav had already been born. That was the kind of intel that cost lives on these streets, and Svet... she knew it so well.
The kind of thing that many had suffered for, yet she kept going.
Because backing down now was never going to assure Katya his freedom.
And that was what Svet wanted.
"You’re pushing it," Sergei growled slowly as he stared at Svet with raging eyes.
But the woman was unfazed, unbothered, like she was just someone interacting in a place where their words were supposed to be whispered, a dinner, a gala maybe, where veterans turn to network and socialize.
Maybe that would have worked.
Maybe it would have made more sense, but right now the stakes were too high.
"It’s simple, really. Where is Romanov, the Moskowsky chairman? I doubt you would want your employees slacking off in their jobs. Last I checked, the chairman of any group is supposed to come to the office every single day;
"... or at least that is what is supposed to happen when they are new to the job. So why has your chairman never been seen when the cameras panned on his face two weeks ago?
"What are you not telling us? I mean, if you think you didn’t owe it to me, to give me answers about Romanov, the least you can do is tell it to the city of cowards scared of asking you where the Moskowsky chairman is right now," Svet added, like it was normal.
And maybe this was her normal.
Or maybe this would be the last time she breathed.
Either way, as she looked at the still crowd around them, at the drones above them, and smiled, as Sergei was so close to snapping her neck, Svet knew this had to be done; if there had been any other way, she would have done it.
But someone had to ask the questions.
Someone had to be willing to make the sacrifice.
She had volunteered.
"Mr. Moskowsky is in the office, working," Sergei stressed, like the very idea of hearing Katya be called a romantic was fucking with his mind more than the fact that Svet was here causing chaos.
The secretaries who had been with their boss for the longest time stared like they could not believe this shit.
They could see it.
The moment that Sergei had decided not to harm Svet.
The moment that Sergei realized he had met his match was the greatest pain in his ass.
And while the city was terrified and everyone stayed quiet, Rahim and Volkov watched, knowing that this was the beginning of something altogether.
"Oh, really now? Then why is the location tracker he put on his body the day of his inauguration putting him in one of the mansions owned by the Moskowskys?" Svet asked.
And that...
That was the moment the silence disappeared, and murmurs erupted.
Svet turned to the nearest drone, opened her phone, and zoomed in on the find-my-friend app.
And right there was her friend in the new residence. The one Sergei had moved him into for whatever twisted reason the man had considered worthy of his madness.
She knew it, but saying it out here for the world to see? That was something else altogether.
Because Sergei could either lie and keep Katya trapped there.
Or he could admit it.
He could tell the world that he knew where Romanov was and he was choosing to stay quiet about it, reinforcing the very idea that they had messed up the man’s life.
"He is a Moskowsky, where the hell do you think he should be, huh?" Sergei snapped possessively, shaking in rage.
Once again, the world went quiet.
Not out of fear of the Moskowskys.
But because of the admission.
An admission from the devil of Frolo himself.
A confirmation of what should have made Svet look like an unhinged, uninformed person.
Rahim and Volkov shared a look that confirmed what they had been thinking the entire time.
And Svet...
Crazy Svetlana Vasilieva...
Smirked in victory.
Because for the first time all afternoon, Sergei Moskowsky looked cornered.
