Chapter 133: Tell Me, Would It Change Us?

[FROLO]

Milan’s house was buzzing with life in the kind of way that pissed Yaroslav off more than he had imagined possible.

It was hectic since the birth of their child, and while Yaroslav was glad that they finally had a child, he had not considered the madness that would come with it.

It felt like he was stuck in a hellhole he had not willingly signed up for. So, when Nik called earlier and asked where he was, Yaroslav gladly shared his location.

After all, he needed someone to share his misery with.

And who was better for that job than his very own best friend, right?

"Wow, you look like shit," Nik mocked when he opened the door to Milan’s backyard and saw Yaroslav staring into space, hair all disheveled and face shaggier than he’d ever been.

Yaroslav looked miserable as fuck.

Hell, it was almost impossible to tell that this man was the father of the baby the entire city had gotten to love and adore.

It had been a whole month of bliss in the city thanks to the baby who had been born into the Moskowsky household.

There had been gift hampers streaming in so much so that they had to use a guestroom to store the gifts. Not to mention the fact that people were streaming around to see the baby that had graced the Moskowskys.

Even now, there were visitors in the front cheering for the baby like the girl was the savior the city had been waiting for all this time.

Maybe she was, because in the one month that Erika had lived, no murders were reported that were related to the devil of Frolo.

Not even one.

The visitors were out there, talking to Milan, thanking her for being a godmother, and all the PR bullshit that corporations dove into soonest.

It was almost insane how they had not left the house even though the baby had been born a whole month ago. And Yaroslav looked like he wanted to disappear.

"No shit... what gave it away?" Yaroslav asked, pausing briefly as he downed the beer bottle in his hands, before dropping into the crate of empty bottles beside him.

He then reached for the other crate that was still filled with unopened bottles, grabbed one, and opened it before drinking it too.

He needed to forget.

He was desperate for it.

"Aren’t you happy?" Nikolai asked, his voice filled with the humor Yaro certainly didn’t appreciate right now.

Nothing about his life was good at all.

Yaroslav turned to look at his best friend as if to ask him if that was even a question that he was on right now.

"He is not here," Yaroslav breathed like a man in pain.

Nikolai glared at his friend, who was being overly dramatic.

Then he grabbed the nearest seat and pulled it closer to Yaroslav, almost like what he was about to say would be enough to destabilize the entire city.

It wasn’t that hard to imagine it, though, given they had been through thick and thin with each other. He knew Yaroslav more than anyone would ever know the man.

And right now, this man was being a baby.

"Your baby is literally on the other side of that door, and you’re thinking about him? Are you nuts?" Nikolai scolded, his voice low, yet his words held the weight of every other conversation he had with his friend this month.

When the baby had come, Yaroslav was not as happy. In fact, he had only smiled for the cameras, and when the cameras went off, he went back to being cold, detached.

It was something that everyone in their family had long seen, and frankly, it was disturbing. He had been the one who chose Milan months ago.

Publicly so too.

He had made everyone believe that Milan was the choice for him.

So why the fuck did he look so miserable like he didn’t have a choice but be there?

Why was it like the world was collapsing on his shoulder, and he wasn’t even trying to fix it before the mess got larger than he could even control, then? It was creepy and crazy, but what the fuck was he supposed to do then?

"I wanted one with him. But I couldn’t because of medical issues. Then I wanted him, and still managed to lose him because of all this," Yaroslav laughed humorlessly, his pain something that even Nikolai could see.

They were not the same eyes that Nik had seen each time the omega he was thinking of was around hesitantly.

It was not fair to the woman on the other end with the baby. But then again, it wasn’t like Milan didn’t know what she had been getting herself into.

Still, that didn’t make any of this right.

"You cannot be serious," Nik sighed exasperatedly.

He knew what Yaroslav meant, and while he had not said shit long before, he had simply assumed that his friend would change his mind.

Yet here they were, with a month-old baby and Yaroslav whining in the back like he was living a life that was never meant to be his.

"He signed the papers to give our house away, you know... like your house was worth nothing to him. Like it was just another building. I thought... I thought we meant something;

"... but I suppose he just replaced me as fast with that damn senator," Yaroslav said, like he couldn’t believe he had gotten this far alone.

It was crazy how things had been for him. Because each day there was something new in his life. And yet the one he wanted, the one he needed, wasn’t even gigging at the high time of the day.

It was like his karma for all that he had done, but Yaroslav just needed one chance.

Just one, to tell his side of the story.

To explain why he had done what he had done, yet for a month he had gone to work to escape the hell with the baby, and still managed to get nothing in return.

Katya had avoided him like the plague.

All interactions were with the secretaries, and the fact that Katya had even locked him out of accessing the omega’s new penthouse haunted him.

Yaroslav never even managed to get past the gates because the security here was insane.

Katya had painted the building’s exteriors so it didn’t look like an abandoned hellhole anymore. He had even mowed shit and made sure the place looked good, even with the other floors still empty.

Yaroslav had wanted just a moment with the omega, yet each time, the guards at the gate kept him away, because he did not have access. Yaroslav had tried the husband card one too many times, but the guards there never bought this bullshit.

Each time, he came back with nothing.

There was this one time he followed Katya closely, to get through the gates the moment they opened, but Yaroslav had only managed to look like a stalker to his husband.

"He is moving on," Nikolai said softly, like he was supposed to make his friend understand that life had changed.

Not just for him.

But for the omega he was still pining over.

Yet even then, that was something Yaroslav refused to accept.