Chapter 124: Broke My Back Carrying Us… In Vain

[KATYA]

Katya was always the sunshine in their friend group.

He deserved to be happy.

He deserved all the things that were to come his way, at least the good stuff. Only that there hadn’t been that much good stuff lately. Katya had been drowning in the kind of shit no one could save him from, and he was hurting. So badly.

"You can’t... I... I have to move out of this house before the day ends," Katya sniffled, wiping away his tears and straightening his hair like that was supposed to make it any better.

Defeatedly, he tied his hair into a bun and got up from the floor to continue his packing. Then again, there wasn’t much that he was even able to pack, because in this house, everything belonged to the Moskowskys.

The only things that belonged to Katya fit into a small box.

So that was all Katya was going to carry.

He had learned to get attacked, and right now it was paying off because if he ever got attacked by the Moskowskys and what they offered, it would end in disaster for him.

"What do you mean you have to move out of this house?" Svet asked, clearly not understanding what Katya was saying.

"I’ll explain later... just... help me out with this before the news hits the public, and I won’t have space to breathe anymore," Katya sighed defeatedly, and they looked at him like he was losing his mind.

Svet wanted to push, but the defeated look on Katya’s face had her helping in silence.

And when they were done, the three friends stepped out of the residence where Katya had been staying for the past six months.

It was a weird kind of thing, and Svet truly didn’t understand. She didn’t know what the fuck was going on, and she hated that her fiend was just being pulled across all sides like he was a pawn.

Katya gave the house one last look as the car drove off to the new residence, and frankly, it felt like he would never have a permanent setting. Never a permanent place to call home anymore.

The one he had was taken away and was being remodeled for Yaroslav and Milan.

The home that he had been trying to live in normally was taken away again.

The concept of permanence in Katya’s life was fickle, and the omega wondered if this new penthouse was ever going to be something that he had to embrace just for a short time, too.

’This is the cost of freedom and happiness,’ Katya thought to himself before he rested his head on Svet’s shoulder the whole ride.

Andre was sitting at the front with the driver, watching, and clicking his tongue every three seconds because of how far they were heading. But what could they do?

Katya refused to let them commit the Moskowsky murders. They were of the idea that killing Yaroslav could keep Sergei in line, but of course, Katya was still against that plan. And they couldn’t even blame him for his stupid heart.

Katya still believed in humanity, and that pissed them off.

Because all Katya had to say was yes, and they would make sure Yaroslav and the Moskowskys paid the price for all his suffering. But no. Katya just had to be the kindest being in their realm.

Gods, it sucked.

Half an hour later, they reached their destination.

"Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me," Svet groaned when she saw where they were.

The building looked like it had been lived in a thousand years ago. It was terrible. Fuck, it was crazy that anyone in their right mind would even be able to consider living here.

This was madness.

It made no sense.

It was definitely a humiliation ritual because what in the hell was this even about? Since when had epopee lived in worse conditions like the shit in front of them?

Svet looked at the building.

Once.

Twice.

And even at the fifth time, she still couldn’t comprehend shit with the mold and grass growing on the walls of this shit. How the fuck had the Moskowskys looked around and decided that this shithole was the best place for the prettiest omega in the city?

The kindest and most forgiving omega for a fact?

"Romanov... you can’t stay here. You fucking don’t have to stay here. You have to come with us. We can live in my home. There are larger bedrooms. My family will understand.

"Or you can come with Andre, he has a big house and no one to fill the rest of the rooms. Please, don’t get into this shithole," Svet sighed as she stared at the building.

It looked terrible. Way too terrible.

And Katya couldn’t help but laugh at what his life had become.

With this place, it was hard to even think that Katya had been brought up in a wealthy family.

That Katya had known comfort and love all his life.

That Katya had been cared for in ways that every parent cared for their children.

That Katya had been brought up with so much love.

And worse, that his parents were hopeful that someday Katya could go back home. After all, Romanov Steel belonged to Katya. It was his. He was their only heir. They loved him.

They would never turn their child back.

But what was that in front of the contract that Katya had signed?

What was that kind of madness that no one was being allowed into? Oh, but it hurt. So much so that it was worse when Katya spotted paparazzi.

"Tell me I can at least run them over... pleaseeee," Andre begged this time, the camera flashes something that pissed him the hell off.

It was clear that they would use that to spread propaganda about the abandoned Moskowsky son-in-law, and that was the kind of disrespect shit that Andre would not let go.

If Katya didn’t let him do something about it...

He would find his time to deal with it.

After all, as long as Katya didn’t know, right?

Yet Katya Romanov knew him so well. Knew them both so damn well that he spoke immediately he saw Andre’s jaw tick as he glared at the paparazzi in the distance.

"They’re just doing their jobs, they have families to feed too," Katya sighed softly as he ushered them to go inside.

This was not what home was supposed to be like, but Katya knew he wouldn’t even last as long in this place.

The Moskowskys were controlling his life anyway. And if they wanted him whenever, wherever, he would simply have to show up. That was the cost of his freedom and his parents’ happiness.

That was a sacrifice that Katya was not opposed to leaning into, because at the end of the day, his parents were alive, not hunted by debtors for whatever the debts there ever were.

The fact that Sergei had tripled his investments in Romanov just went to show that even if Katya tried to pay, there was never a day he would ever finish paying his debt.

He was in prison.

Only now it had a different coat.

"Welcome home, Mr. Romanov. We have been expecting you, sir."