Chapter 135: Never Staked too Much… Yet

[FROLO]

The room was a stark contrast to the chaos outside when Yaroslav walked in.

He had tried to make himself look as presentable as possible and show up as soon as he could. But still, he looked like shit.

And Sergei noticed, if the raised brow was something to go by.

Yet Yaroslav walked in and sat on the couch like he was not going to take as long as it seemed to be.

"You didn’t go to work," Sergei stated flatly, looking at his disheveled son.

He didn’t understand what could have gotten Yaroslav to this point. The boy had said he wanted a child, and Sergei had given him the freedom he needed... It was that easy for the man because that was what fathers did.

So why the fuck did Yaroslav look like he had lived through a thousand and one lifetimes of terror when the baby had only been in their lives for one month? What had changed in that time?

"Yeah. Had visitors over, plus I wasn’t exactly looking forward to Katya coding with the damn senator like they were in the same orbit," Yaroslav said flatly, and Sergei stared at him.

The mention of Katya with the senator was something that he had not expected, much less from his son.

It was strange, given that Yaroslav had been the one to cut the ties, but then again, given the way that Yaroslav kept postponing the sale of their home, there had to be something there.

So, Sergei swallowed his own jealousy at the senator’s mention, because he was here for his son. Not because of Katya.

That was the one thing he would have to remind himself of every ten minutes because otherwise he would be proving to the city just how unhinged and fucked up a person he was.

And that wasn’t the kind of shit he wanted.

At least not if he wanted Katya to look at him.

Or so he told himself each time was so close to doing something stupid.

"I found buyers for your old house since you were against remodeling it," Sergei said casually, like that was the most reasonable approach he could think of after the house had stayed empty for so long.

Yaroslav could have seen that the world went quiet on him.

There was just no way that this was happening to him.

He had contested the remodeling earlier because he needed the house to stay like it was. He needed the memories intact and not messed with for the sake of someone, much less Milan Popova. He had made sure he was vocal about it.

But now his father was talking about giving it to new people entirely.

What the fuck was wrong with this old man?

"You what?!" Yaroslav asked as he stared at his father, as if this was truly the first time he was seeing Sergei.

That decision was not one that he agreed to.

After all, the house belonged to him.

It was a gift.

Surely it was up to Yaroslav to decide what to do with it and when, right? Then again, when he had been ordered to give it up months ago, Yaroslav hadn’t put up much of a fight. Just delayed the progression for as long as he could.

Now it was slowly becoming obvious that he was attached to the building he had spent five years in with his bus band. Maybe it was that important, or Yaroslav was just playing games this time.

"You have Milan and your baby. And your relationship with the omega is on the rocks. You need to figure out what you want to do with your life, kid. Don’t let Erika grow up in an uncertain family," Sergei said as he tried to rationalize.

Maybe he was being a good father, or maybe he was just trying to rationalize and see if he would be able to handle any decision his son made regarding Katya. But was there even a decision to make?

Katya was free.

And he was using his freedom well.

Way better than Sergi had assumed he would, and right now, all he wanted was for Katya to enjoy that freedom instead of being wrapped up in whatever scandal was happening here.

It had taken Sergei three days to track down the trolls and make them delete all their posts on Katya. Three days to make sure his omega phone wasn’t being bombarded all the time.

He had made it happen, and right now he was still thinking.

Still gauging what to do.

"But father... I don’t love her," Yaroslav admitted, like that was the one thing he had been keeping inside for so many years.

It was a shame, really, how the past few months had been chaotic, as society had picked up arms for one side and left the other to bear the brunt of all the blows. But this was some different level of insanity.

"Then why the fuck did you destroy your marriage for her? You slept with her for ten years of your life, gave up on your marriage, and suddenly you don’t love her?" Sergei asked, the confusion clear on his face.

Even Sergei, for all his mastery, was certainly not expecting this.

Yaroslav had caused an uproar for months with his public choice of Milan. Katya had paid the price for it all, and now the boy was saying he didn’t love the woman he had paraded all that whole?

"I wanted a child," Yaroslav said, and Sergei thought back to the defense Yaroslav had given him months ago when he had introduced Milan ever so chaotically to the world, and their pregnancy was four months old.

He had spoken those same words.

That he wanted a child.

He never defended his choice in Milan.

He had just left it out there for people to fill in the blanks, and right now it was something that Sergei Moskowsky honestly didn’t understand.

Was this some joke his son was playing?

Was this an illusion that his son was trying to convey to him?

"Yaroslav..." Sergei trailed off, and Yaroslav looked at him, eyes filled with sadness, as if he was truly not sure where to start. But then at the end of the day, he had to make a choice, didn’t he?

"I never wanted her, Father. Not romantically anyway," Yaroslav sighed defeatedly, his shoulders slumped like he was tired of keeping it all in.

And Sergei...

He looked at his son like that was going to help him understand that this was about only the defeat on Yaroslav’s face, the desperation when he said he wanted a child.

It was all too familiar.

Granted, the city’s stances had been different, but it was something that Sergei himself was familiar with.

The kind of shit that he had not expected from his son, yet right now, he was stuck between being a father and the man who was obsessing over the omega he should never have laid his eyes on.

But was it also his fault that Katya was the prettiest and easiest omega who made Sergei bend to his will, even without knowing?

"Careful, son. That woman is the mother of your child."