Chapter 125: I Tried To Live, I Promise… But It Was Hard

*End of 6-Chapter mass release

[FROLO]

"Are you sure about this?" Svet asked when they got inside, and the first floor looked like it had last seen life a thousand and one years ago. It was eve a miracle that this place was functional and shit.

That the elevator worked, and worse, that the entire building was still standing.

Had the Moskowskys brought her friend to the one place that would collapse with Katya in it? Gods, it was a stressful morning for the friends already.

The second floor, third, and fourth were the same way.

Svet made sure to stop the elevator on every floor just to see for herself what kind of shit her friend had been thrust into.

And every floor was diabolical in every sense.

This was the kind of cruelty that not even animals could be subjected to.

What in the world had Katya been forced to become?

By the time they stopped on the fifth floor, Katya sighed because there were no changes. It was just as bad as the other floors, if not worse.

"It’s all the same. Let’s just get to the thirteenth floor and get this over with," Katya sighed defeatedly.

Svet agreed begrudgingly. After all, if the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth floors were trashy like that, it wasn’t like the penthouses would be heaven, right?

Well...

They were wrong.

Very. Very. Wrong.

"What in the ’hidden in plain sight’ is this?!" Svetlana screeched when they got to the 13th floor.

She had been expecting the musty-ass sight like the rest of the floors, but this was different. The kind of difference that had her stare around her to see if she was the only one seeing this.

Hell, she even looked at the elevator to confirm if they were in the damn penthouse in the fucked-up building that their friend was cursed to be in.

This?

This was otherworldly.

The kind of shit that Svet couldn’t have thought possible in a hundred years. Even her history lessons in architecture wouldn’t have made her believe that shit like this existed.

It was insane.

Way too insane.

"Welcome home, Mr. Romanov. We have been expecting you, sir," someone said, snapping Svetlana out of her confused state.

There had to be a real simulation, or maybe they were in another realm, because this was not it. This was not real. What the fuck had they stumbled into?

"Is this a portal into a new world?" Svet mumbled under her breath as she looked around them, before her mind caught up to what the man had said.

The man looked like the butler or perhaps the manager of this place? She didn’t know. She didn’t care about that.

The only thing on her mind was the man’s words.

"Mr. Romanov?" Svet spoke first.

Of course, her mind was still whirring with what she was seeing.

The plans for this house said it was an apartment with three penthouses.

Three.

Yet the elevator stopped right at the door of one.

And no, it wasn’t just one penthouse.

The damn thing spanned across the ends of the building.

"A football field?" Andre asked sheepishly as he looked around.

This place was out of anyone’s reality. It just screamed a different type of madness. And Katya didn’t know what to do.

Because for a penthouse, it was way bigger than the house he had just come from.

The house on 13 Emerald Street looked tinier compared to this darn penthouse.

Even if it was just another pretty jail.

"Did they merge the penthouses to whatever the fuck this is?" Svet asked lowly, and the butler from before spoke up.

He stared at her, amusedly, as if this was the first time he was hearing about this.

Yet his expression had stayed neutral. Like he was not trying to get himself fired because of Svet’s madness.

"No. It has always been a single penthouse, Miss Svetlana. The instructions on the elevator don’t have this in the plans. What people consider penthouses are two floors down,’ the butler said, and Svet looked at the man, confused as fuck.

Svet raised a brow at the way he knew her name.

Then again, even the workers at 13 Emerald knew Svet and Andre even before the friends knew that there was a 13th Emerald residence. So, she didn’t think too much about it.

After all, it just pointed to the fact that these people were Moskowsky employees.

"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?" Andre asked genuinely.

And Katya...

"Just a wider prison to make sure I never step out of line," Katya huffed defeatedly before turning to the butler.

"Where is my access room?"

"What?" the butler asked.

"This place is huge, so where am I supposed to go and where am I not supposed to go?" Katya asked defeatedly.

He was too tired to fight with anyone over what the hell was happening to him.

He was a prisoner.

That was what mattered to him. And he had already learned not to get attached to anything anyway. After all, it would just be a matter of time before he was ushered out of this one.

"I don’t understand, Mr. Romanov... the building... it’s in your name, sir," the butler said, and Katya sighed.

"Right, I suppose it says Katya Moskowsky there, no? Just spare me all that and tell me where I should go and where I shouldn’t," Katya insisted, and the man looked at him almost sadly.

"But sir... here are the papers," the butler said, as he grabbed some papers from the reception desk.

"I don’t—"

"Gimme, I’ll read them," Svet snatched them from the butler’s hands, and what she saw there had her staring at Katya like this was the most insane of things.

"Romanov..."

"I told you. It’s a prison. So, can we actually get to the paper where we do stand at this damn reception and go to whichever room is for me?"

"It’s yours," Svet breathed.

"What?"

"It says here that the building belongs to Katya Romanov," Svet read, but Katya couldn’t believe it. This was just another game for the Moskowskys. They had already hurt him enough times, and honestly, he was done.

So, Katya turned to the butler...

"Please show me my room," Katya said, and the man stood stiff, unmoving.

"What is it now?" Katya asked tiredly.

"I can only access the lobby, sir. There are staff across the penthouse to help you with whatever you need," the butler said, and Katya sighed.

Of course, the man was just a man to ensure he never ran away from this.

What a confidence booster!

Fuck.

"Alright then. Which way should I go?" Katya asked excitedly, but the boxes in his hands were tiring for him.

"The main entrance is twenty feet ahead, sir."

"Alright, thank you."

"If you need anything, any of the staff will help you. I am Anton. Always at your service, sir. Have a good day, Mr. Romanov," the man said, and Katya began walking in the direction of what he was told was the main entrance.

"You guys coming?" Katya asked when he noticed his friends were still staring at the documents that Anton had given them.

"Yeah, this is some wild shit," Svet said as she hurried along, dragging Andre with her.

"Wait... You bought the penthouse in your sleep?"

Andre stared at Svet, like the woman had lost her mind.

"What... this date here... this is the night Romanov was in the hospital for THE surgery seven months ago. What the fuck, Romanov?"