Chapter 126: What More Could I Lose, Right?

[KATYA]

When they got to the main entrance, Katya just sighed.

This was a new prison.

A new place for him to get his life fucked over again.

What could be worse than this, right?

But when the door opened, the familiar scent of lilies hit him hard. And before Katya could even say a word, Svet shouted.

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

Andre stared at Svet, like the woman had lost her mind. It was the most diabolical thing to say when they were all trying to understand what this was.

But at the same time, she was right to question it. This was not the kind of thing that happened overnight, and it made absolutely no sense for it to be in Katya’s name when they knew that the omega had been in trouble just months back.

"What... this date here... this is the night Romanov was in hospital for THE surgery seven months ago. What the fuck, Romanov?" Svet asked, but Katya was focused on the lounge.

It was strange yet held a sense of familiarity that he never knew we would ever be able to understand. For starters, there were things here that he could swear had gone missing some time earlier.

The lilies, of course, were the most confusing part, but even that could be counted as a coincidence. But the other two? That was too much to be a coincidence, especially given the placements at the time.

The sweater Sergei had given him... was there on a rack right beside the door.

Too close to the entrance, almost as if to remind Katya of what he had been looking for and how he could have done this. But had Katya even had any doubts after the papers he had signed the previous day?

Was it something that he could lean into this time, too? Even so, there was no denying the obvious.

Especially given the fact that the scarf Sergei had given him was here too.

"At least the designer has good taste in flowers. These lilies are so pretty and rare to get. Only El Nueva produces them this side of the country," Svet said passively as she held onto the papers and stared at the room.

This was a beautiful place.

It almost felt home.

And Katya was confused again.

El Nueva Industries. The lilies he had seen at the farm. If what Svet was saying was true, then whoever had done this had really gone to great lengths to get the flowers here.

Even so, what could be the reason for it? Why lilies and even worse, why did they look exactly like the flowers that Katya had been trying to understand for the past few days and even months?

What the heck was going on here?

Nothing about this made any sense.

"Welcome home, master Katya," Nina’s familiar voice hit Katya’s ears, confusing Katya even more.

He could swear he had left the woman back at 13 Emerald. What the fuck was she doing here?

As if that wasn’t enough, the staff that had been with him in 13 Emerald were here.

All seven of them.

They were familiar faces.

Faces Katya had trusted for six months.

Faces that had never given Katya a reason to be afraid of his reality. They had served with care and affection that creeped Katya out on some days. But then again, that was for another day.

The focus was today. Here.

And seeing them, Katya wanted to be happy that at least there were familiar faces.

But the only thing this reinforced for him was just the fact that he was the property of the Moskowskys.

Maybe that was why the sweater and scarf were here. They had to have been back home, and Nina had carried them here. Even the flowers, too. How fascinating, no?

Oh, Katya was screwed.

Also, the fact that Nina wasn’t calling him Chairman Katya again was something else. What in the world was going on?

"What are you guys doing here?" Katya asked in earnest.

There was just no way Sergei had had the staff relocate with him to this musty building. It was not something that happened on a daily basis. But then again, had anything that Katya had experienced over the past few months been normal?

"We received the relocation memo from you a week ago. So, we prepared everything advanced for when we all came here," Nina said, like it was normal.

Like she couldn’t see the way that Katya was creeped out.

Like she couldn’t see the defeat on the omega’s face.

What was his life turning into?

Oh, but Katya was worn out. Life was playing games with him; this felt like some sort of a dream.

"Please excuse us. We will prepare meals for you, sir. If you need any of us, just call out, and we will be there," Nina said before the seven staff members bowed and left.

Once again, Katya was left wondering what part of his fucked-up life this was. Or if this was the one game that would always be messing with his head.

"Do you think it’s possible to buy properties in someone’s sleep?" Svet asked sheepishly as she stared at the document still.

They were still reading it with Andre, and frankly, there were no suspicious clauses there. Everything pointed to Katya being the owner.

That Katya bought it.

It all pointed to Katya being the sole owner of whatever madness this was.

"Wait, it says here that the other floors won’t allow for occupants unless the owner allows? That explains why they were lifeless... damn, Romanov. I always knew that a head of yours was always filled with a passion for real estate," Svet cooed as they kept on reading.

But Katya was getting overwhelmed.

Slowly but surely, he was starting to think that this was just another day in the Moskowsky prison. And honestly, that shouldn’t have scared him, only that everything seemed so perfect. Too perfect even.

It all showed that this had been prepared for a long time to perfection.

To become the kind of comfort that Katya could have gone for if he had the resources back then.

And still it made absolutely no fucking sense because as he stood there, he didn’t want to get into more debt or be reminded of the fact that he was owned.

He just wanted to sleep and forget that his husband had cheated, and the society was applauding the cheater he had cheated with.

There had been so many events in Katya’s life since Monday, and he didn’t know whether he wanted to focus on them all or if he just wanted to forget everything existed, even just for a minute.

Surely that had to be worth something, right?

"So my friends in my dream are speaking nonsense too. Just great," Katya sighed exasperatedly as he sat on the nearest couch, holding his head in his hands like he couldn’t believe this was what the psycho family had reduced him to.

Surely there had to be limits to everything that was happening, no? Even if it was an illusion, surely it couldn’t be this vivid, right?

"Romanov..." Svet said softly when she realized that her friend was thinking this was in his head.

And for some reason, that hurt because it was very expected of Katya.

He had been used to pain for so long that everything was confusing.

"I’m fine," Katya laughed sadly.