Chapter 121: Before The Law, Before The Hearts Bled

[KATYA]

For months, Katya had forced himself not to linger on the past.

Had forced himself to let go.

He had made sure not to even go across the roads there, even when it hurt to let that part of his life go. Yet now, it was now being given to the very people who had ruined his life.

Being handed over like some present that needed to be made public.

Like these very people hadn’t made sure he lived a terrible life for seven years.

Of course, they would make it public eventually.

They were the mighty Moskowskys. And with the new developments, Katya never really stood a chance. He never had the time to breathe easy thanks to the blows that were coming at him every three minutes.

This was fucked up.

This was relay something that Katya was being forced into.

The worst part was that he couldn’t even call Yaroslav or Sergei to confirm. Because his phone was still buzzing with notifications despite Katya turning it off and turning it back on after an hour.

He was being tormented by the Moskowskys, and they had no shame in reminding him that he was nothing. That he was worth nothing. That he would never be anything to them.

Fuck, this hurt.

Because right there was the proof that Katya was just ornamental to them.

An omega who had no standing.

A chairperson who was there just for show so the general society wouldn’t think differently of the Moskowskys. He was not even being cared for like normal people would have.

It upset so much; oh, but it was breaking Katya’s already broken heart.

"By signing this, you confirm that you will not challenge the ownership," Katya read like it was the only way to stop his tears from falling, but what was the use?

Even if he didn’t sign, the Moskowskys would just threaten his parents’ life and Katya would still eventually sign.

He didn’t have a choice.

Didn’t have a voice.

He was just there for show, truly, and fuck if that didn’t make him feel like he was losing his mind.

Katya wanted to fight for their home.

He wanted to hold onto it now that it hadn’t been sold, but he couldn’t. He would never be able to. This was about the fact that he was being replaced, and Milan was getting everything that was once his.

His husband.

Milan Popova had been part of the reasons he had miscarried and now...

Now she was getting his home.

His family.

All that belonged to him ad that too, my Katya’s signature.

Oh, the iron of life.

The home Katya had worked tirelessly to make it something. The home that had been like his safe space. It was now being given to Milan as if it were just what the woman deserved.

Fuck this was the worst situation that Katya had ever found himself in.

This hurt worse than what he had ever imagined.

And still...

Katya signed.

It was the only thing he could do. Fighting against the Moskowskys was useless when he was already their prisoner. The cage he was in, the freedom had been promised, with snow showing him what it really was.

A golden cage that no one would ever truly understand.

Not that anyone was ever going to care about. Because the person who gave the Moskowskys their heir deserved the world.

And unfortunately for Katya, he wasn’t that.

At least that was the one truth he had to embrace regardless.

"Great... onto the next," Katya laughed humorlessly as his tears dripped onto the papers. He struggled to wipe them, but what use was it anyway? He would just apologize and say that they were water drops.

After all, they couldn’t exactly hurt him any more than they already had, no?

Putting the ownership papers next to the Knox papers, Katya went on to the next stash of papers.

And when he read them, he just laughed.

"My life is a horrible sitcom," Katya sighed amid laughter.

Nina, who had been watching him from a distance, stared at him in pity. The television was still filled with people talking about the new Moskowsky heiress. It was all that the channels ever talked about lately.

Even national channels talked about national issues, and given the Moskowskys drove so much of the national economy, it wasn’t that hard to find their names dropped in the middle of conversations ever so casually.

And each item there was the mention of the heiress.

Erika Gamova.

None of them talked about the girl being a bastard child or out of wedlock, no.

They only focused on the heiress.

That was all that mattered.

The fact that Yaroslav and the Moskowsky had not challenged any of the announcements was just proof that they endorsed whatever the fuck that was.

"Oh, how I love life," Katya sighed, the third paper.

It was simple this time.

Just a page that told him that he was being moved from house to a penthouse ten miles away from 13 Emerald, and thirty-five miles away from his former matrimonial home.

Almost like they really didn’t want him interfering with anything.

Like they were making sure the omega wasn’t a hindrance to the peace of the Moskowskys and their heiress.

Katya couldn’t even cry this time.

He was just a tool. A pawn on the Moskowsky chessboard that would be moved wherever they liked. So much for the freedom they had been given.

But then at this point, Katya knew there was nothing like freedom with the Moskowskys.

He was a pawn.

That was all he could ever be for them.

With the third paper signed, Katya went on to the last and final paper set.

It was the largest of the sets.

Yet when Katya read the heading, he wasn’t even surprised.

"Non-disclosure agreement regarding the ownership transfers and relocation of Mr. Katya Romanov Moskowsky," Katya read.

Then he paused.

Katya Romanov Moskowsky.

Not Katya Gamov.

Not just Katya Moskowsky.

His name was appearing shit now?

"What?" Katya breathed, as he looked across the document he had signed so defeatedly.

They all had his name.

Katya Romanov Moskowsky.

"What the fuck?" Katya wondered, his chops focused more on the fact that his name had been changed across binding documents.

He hadn’t really been expecting much.

Perhaps ’Katya Moskowsky’ because that was what his life had changed to when Sergei forced that first contract onto his face. Hell, Katya hadn’t even read the second contract. But now, this was insane. This made no sense.

When the fuck had they incorporated his name?

He was an omega.

And in their society, Omegas only ever had two names.

A first name.

And a last name that changed when he got married.

That was why he had become Katya Gamov after marrying Yaroslav.

Hell, even the contract he signed with Sergei had Katya Moskowsky in it.

Not Katya Romanov Moskowsky.

Frankly, Katya didn’t know how to feel.

This was too much. He didn’t know if he wanted to be happy that he could finally see his name, and that he had the reminder that, at the end of the day, he was the son of the Romanovs;

Or if this was scarier because he really didn’t know the lengths to which the Moskowskys would go to claim him. Even so, it was not natural for an omega to have three names.

That shit never happened.

Not after marriage.

Not even in regular society.

So, what the hell?

"Maybe it was a typo," Katya mumbled as he signed the NDA. But then a typo on a Moskowsky document?

Moskowsky?

It was just impossible.

That was deliberate, and it was haunting for Katya.

Still, he signed the documents and put them back in his backpack before going to bed, a very confused omega.

All his head was filled with amid the chaos now, wasn’t even the child he had been unable to give the Moskowsky said the fact that he had been told he only had a day to move out of 13 Emeralds.

But the name had been changed.

Shit like that was never approved by society, and no lawyer who loved their lives and careers would ever try that shit, especially against a Moskowsky family.

Yet it was there.

Katya’s name.

Katya’s full name.

And with a Moskowsky to it.

"Of course it’s a game to them," was Katya’s last thought as he drifted off to sleep.

But deep down...

He was not sure anymore.

Maybe he would have to read both contracts again to confirm for himself.

After all, he had been given copies of both contracts anyway.