Chapter 82: Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Solnyshka
[FROLO]
The city of Frolo was buzzing in the kind of way that was unusual for a Saturday. Everyone was glued to their phones, others to their televisions, while others just stared at the public screens on the Frolo streets.
Social media was literally on fire, and the confusion was drowning the city in speculations.
Business analysts. Political analysts. Financial analysts.
Every one of the city’s greatest minds was suddenly busy.
The entire population was watching, shocked, overwhelmed, and unsure of what to expect.
A miracle had happened.
For a whole hour.
Then stopped.
Like it was never initiated in the first place.
And no one could even have a good enough explanation because, honestly, there was no justified, realistic explanation.
Others assumed it was PR for the breakfast segment with Senator Aleksandr.
Others argued that PR would mean a press conference and the company name.
Even worse, PR would have meant the couple being seen together and trying to control the narrative around the cheating speculations.
But still, it didn’t make any sense because there was no PR.
It took the city an hour after the miracle stopped to figure it out.
Then came worse speculations.
That he had changed.
That he was trying to be better.
That things were supposed to be like that.
Yet... Yet even then, bodies still dropped publicly, even within the hour of the miracle happening. Enemies were hanged in public and executed in the same style as usual. Vagrants still suffered as they always did by his hand.
And the man in question? The one who started the chaos? Who sent a whole city into confusion mode?
He was gardening.
Whistling happily while mowing the grass.
At least that was how Anya found him.
After she had been sent panicked reports by the servants that he was acting weird.
He had cleaned up the garage, had insisted on remodeling the house in colors that matched that one omega in the compound. He had washed the omega’s car... Himself.
Hell, he even cooked and served the entire table of a hundred and fourteen servants at his beck and call.
No one knew what to do because he was smiling.
Weirdly happy.
And doing things out of the ordinary.
This... Was creepy.
Creepier than the bodies he had had dropped like it was business as usual.
Volkov and Rahim had come from their off days to help Anya do damage control in the compound.
Yet even then, the new gardener kept at it. Smiling at the concerned faces, like this was his new normal.
But this...
It was worse than his usual psychotic breaks.
"Sergei!!" Anya shouted into the new gardener’s ears when she had tired a few times earlier and got absolutely no response despite being so close to the man.
"Jeez, Anya. Didn’t know you were that loud. Anyway, what’s happening? As you can see, I’m not dying. Why did you come home early?" the new gardener asked, turning off the mower and once again smiling at Anya and the horrified secretaries.
"Why did I come home early?" Anya huffed in disbelief like the man in front of her couldn’t exactly be serious. What the fuck was he even on right now?
"I didn’t do anything, I swear," the new gardener said with a smile so genuine that it spun from ear to ear.
"Are you high on drugs?" Anya asked, genuinely worried about him.
A part of her was glad Svet had come for Katya moments earlier because this version of the devil of Frolo was new even to Anya. She had never thought it was possible to see him like this.
Never.
"High? Yes. On drugs? Nope. As you can still see, I’m the new gardener. Call me your new gardener," he said, smiling ear to ear. Surely his jaw must have hurt, no?
But then he turned to get back to his gardening, like a man on a mission.
And Anya, she knew the pattern.
He wouldn’t talk until he was done with whatever fixation. He had gotten himself into.
Oh, but the urge to call the Romanovs and ask what they did to break the devil of Frolo was so high, but Anya knew she had to wait for him.
Maybe that was why three hours later, when the new gardener was finally done, she was still waiting.
They all were.
"It’s pretty, don’t you think?" the new gardener asked, and Anya sighed exasperatedly.
There were snickers in the background, while Anya tried her very best to think of a responsible answer because maybe now, showing this man’s head inside that mower was suddenly starting to sound like the best of ideas.
"Do I even want to know why you drew an omega’s name in the garden?" Anya sighed defeatedly, and the gardener smiled. Proud of his work. Like this was what his little heaven looked like.
Gods, he was a goner.
"I’ll tell you," he said happily as he cleaned his hands like this was normal.
"Start talking," Anya insisted.
And talk, he did.
Didn’t leave out a detail. At all.
He was proud of his work. Very. Very proud.
"I’ve been calling you by that name your whole life, you pervert!" Anya said, smacking his arm, not believing that all of the chaos in the city was because Katya had called this idiot Vladimir.
"Well, yes, but you’re not him. He chose me. He smiled at me. He didn’t run away from me. He defended me before his parents. It’s a really good day. Figured I’d share my happiness with the city," Sergei said, and everyone who had been listening discreetly couldn’t believe this.
They knew their boss was insane.
They had never doubted it.
But this?
Pathetic and insane?
Even the heavens hadn’t been ready for shit like that.
"You spent a billion in one hour because an omega called you by your name???" Anya asked, head in her hands as she tried to rationalize. But it was useless.
Whenever it came to that one omega, this idiot would always have one brain cell. One that was clearly overstimulated if the entire day was anything to go by.
"Yes. Cleared hospital bills, funded orphanages, made random donations, and paid off random college funds. People are happy. I only shared my happiness with them.
"Besides, you wanted me to be a better person, didn’t you?" Sergei smiled heartily, clearly very proud of what he had done, and Anya was sure her lifeline was cut in half because of the bastard she served.
The secretaries watched in silence, trying to understand what this was about.
They had expected explanations like:
"I’m better than the senator."
"I have more money to waste."
"The poor people the senator is serving need to be reminded who their leader is."
"I’m declaring war on the senator for wanting my omega."
But not that simple, mundane explanation.
"He called me Vladimir."
That was Sergei’s explanation.
The source of his happiness.
The trigger for a confused city.
Not PR.
Not image management in a scandal he despised.
Just Katya Romanov.
The omega who could trigger a war with one look on his face.
And the omega who didn’t even know how much power he had over the devil of Frolo himself.
But the secretaries, the servants, they knew.
And it was the scariest day of their lives.
Coming to this realization.
"Sergei..." Anya trailed off, and the alpha smiled at her still.
"No more talks about repossessing his mother’s heart," the alpha said sternly, and Anya understood the limits in an instant.
She would never mention it again.
It wasn’t that hard.
"He can have mine if he wants. I’d give it up for him anytime... You guys hungry? I cooked," Sergei added as he walked back into the house filled with shocked servants.
"What the hell just happened?"
Was all Anya could manage.
The secretaries stayed horrified even as Anya followed the boss into the house.
This was not the man they knew, and that was not just scary. It was a different version of the life they were used to.
Because then it wasn’t just speculation anymore.
The fate of Frolo...
Was tied to the look on that omega’s face.
The Moskowsky servants on 13 Emerald Street knew it.
The secretaries had long suspected it.
And Frolo...
Frolo would eventually learn.
"If just a smile and a name have the entire city drowning in Moskowsky funds now, what would happen if—" Volkov sighed slowly, not even ready to voice it.
But it was right there.
"Don’t jinx it," Rahim insisted.
"Goddess save us all," Volkov breathed, before they walked to the house where they had been invited for food.
Saying no right now was a probable death sentence...
Or not.
No one knew anymore.
