Chapter 80: Teach Me How To Breathe Right
[FROLO]
The room had never gotten that tense.
Sergei looked like he was about to die, for real this time.
Katya looked like hell was suddenly a better place.
The Romanovs? Oh, but the look of disbelief on their faces was diabolical.
"What did you just say?" Mr. Romanov spoke, his voice cutting through the dead silence.
It wouldn’t have been like that...
If someone hadn’t said no.
The kind of No that shut everyone up.
Literally.
"Romanov..." Masha tried.
"P—" Katya tried too.
"What. Did. You. Say?" Romanovs insisted.
And Sergei stood stiff, lost for words, like this was one he would never win.
These were Katya’s parents. He could never threaten them.
He could never try to outsmart them. He needed them to approve whatever obsession he had with Katya. He needed them to understand. And right now, the understanding bit was quite lost in translation.
"Solnyshka," Sergei breathed slowly, his words a mumble that only Masha had heard.
Her eyes widened, but just like she had noticed, her face went blank, like she was trying to make sure her husband didn’t start a war that they would be forced to finish in the bloodiest of ways.
It was messy.
Chaos was incoming.
And everyone was a part of it all.
"Mr. Romanov..." Sergei began, but Katya interrupted.
"No."
"What? Why? Is this about the hospital again? You never quite explained what happened back then. What the hell, Michka?!" Mr. Romanov asked angrily, even though his voice had remained steady, eerily calm despite the anger that was radiating off of him.
He was standing in the middle of the room, trying to understand what this could have been.
Romanov had been patient with his son.
For a whole month, he had waited for an explanation. For something. Anything that could explain what had happened back then, but Katya shan’t come with one.
How could he, when everything had gotten so complicated along the way, and life had slowly turned into an adaptation camp instead of something worth living?
"Papa, it’s not like that," Katya defended you would think this was out of preserving the sanctity of the devil in the room.
"Don’t tell me he paid all our debts so you could stay with his cheating son," Mr. Romanovs said exasperatedly, and this time, Sergei growled.
And everyone turned to look at him like he had very well lost his mind.
Maybe he had.
Maybe he had managed to fuck everything up.
They had been in this room for an hour and a half, and honestly, everything Sergei did made it all worse.
Even Masha had noticed.
"You’re growling at me? For pointing out the way that you raised YOUR son?!" Mr. Romanov asked, the disappointment obvious in his voice, the anger lingering a little too closely.
And if Sergei had hated to die earlier?
Now he wanted to disappear.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
He wasn’t supposed to fu k shit up like this.
But that was the problem, wasn’t it?
The Romanovs weren’t a merger he needed to work around. They were not here for business.
This was about family.
About Katya.
"Romanov, please sit. We need to listen to the kid and understand why he said no," Masha tried to reason, and Katya held onto his mother, hoping, silently praying that this didn’t escalate.
Because Mr. Romanov was an alpha.
A powerful alpha.
So was Sergei.
If they collided...
There was no assurance about the outcome, especially given the state they were in.
Funny how they both cared for Katya in their own ways, yet couldn’t find a central point with ease. But such was life in a Moskowsky household, wasn’t it?
"Cheating on the anniversary? The miscarriage? You thought I wouldn’t find out?!" Mr. Romanov asked, his voice deathly calm.
He was terrifying.
Goodness, he was terrifying.
And Sergei...
He froze.
The miscarriage.
The one thing that had gotten them to this point.
Fuck, he had been too trapped in his obsession to think.
But what was he supposed to say? That he was sorry on behalf of Yaroslav? That he was not going to defend his son? That he was willing to hand Yaroslav over for whatever punishment was deemed right by the Romanovs?
Sergei didn’t have an answer.
And that pissed him off.
Because he couldn’t let anyone talk about the miscarriage. He saw just how much Katya had suffered because of it. He had watched Iver Katya all that time. He had not left. He stayed, even when Katya didn’t know he was there.
He had stayed.
He had listened to the omega cry, and he wasn’t even able to kiss it better.
Oh, Sergei hated hearing Katya’s pain turned into an argument.
That pissed Sergei off.
Then the Moskowsky alpha snapped.
"You don’t get to tal—" Sergei began, only to stop, instantly.
"Please... Stop fighting... Papa, please... Vladimir..." Katya begged, and Sergei’s entire world stopped.
At Vladimir.
At the way Katya had called him.
At how gentle and tender the voice was.
How his name was spoken so carefully, like it was something precious.
Sergei malfunctioned.
Sitting back on the couch, on the remote he had broken.
But Masha...
She raised a brow.
She suspected something.
She could read something.
There were pieces of an abnormal puzzle dangling for anyone to pick up. It was all adding up. In the kind of way that stayed between disgust and disbelief.
Because alphas like Sergei didn’t just malfunction on one mention.
Alphas like Sergei never stepped back for an omega. Never.
Alphas like Sergei believed in dominance. In showing their power.
Alphas like Sergei... Never got emotional.
Never raged foolishly like that.
Never got triggered as fast.
Something was going on.
Because the look Masha saw in Sergei’s eyes... was familiar.
She had seen it one too many times.
In Romanov.
In her husband.
In her beloved.
"Your husband cheated. Why the hell would you even want to stay here? Is it blackmail? Michka, tell me... I was right the first time, wasn’t I?" Mr. Romanov asked.
He was unfazed by Sergei’s sudden outburst and how the man had gone suddenly still, like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"Papa, please," Katya begged, and Sergei felt his heart constrict ever so painfully.
He never wanted Katya to beg.
Not to anyone. Not even his own parents.
Yet another outburst would raise more questions than he was willing to answer. Especially without Anya to translate human interactions for him.
Gods, he was doomed.
"So even now, you still protect them. You still hide the obvious truth from me. I am your father, Michka. Your father. It is my duty to keep you safe. And your simple no is something I do not agree with.
"You’re coming home with us. That is final," Mr. Romanov said, and Katya sighed softly as he got up and walked to where his father had been standing.
Then, gently, he ushered his father to the nearest couch, making sure to put distance between the two alphas in the room.
"I understand, Papa. But I have to stay. I can’t leave with you," Katya said quietly.
Sergei lifted his head hopefully.
"Michka."
"Trust me. You brought me up to be strong and independent. That is what I’m doing. Mr. Moskowsky moved me to this residence because I couldn’t go back home and be in the same house as Yaro," Katya explained.
"Of course he did," Masha said exasperatedly, her eyes never once leaving Sergei.
