Chapter 137: There Were Lives, Then There Was Us

[FROLO]

"The day your daughter was born, the threats began hitting your husband’s phone," Sergei began, the mention of hubs and something that pissed him off. But he couldn’t exactly tell his son that Katya belonged to Sergei now, could he?

"What?" Yaroslav asked, and Sergei grabbed one of the envelopes and put it on the floor in front of Yaroslav.

The beta didn’t hesitate to open it.

"The day we were at the hospital waiting for your daughter to be born, and even after, your Knox account was used to pay trolls to attack Katya. The messages didn’t stop for two weeks.

"Took us a while to trace the source of the funds, and guess who I found at the top of the list. What the hell is actually wrong with you? Do you really want me to lock you up in the psych ward that badly??" Sergei asked as he stared at his son.

It had taken him a while to tell his son this because everyone was busy cleaning up the mess. He had promised he would let Katya have his freedom and honesty.

Sergei was even glad that Katya hadn’t changed his contact details or even his job at Moskowsky. It was such a simple thing, but for Sergei it had meant the world.

Until Sergei noticed the high traffic on Katya’s personal phone. It was insane, and he had it checked out. And it all led back to his son.

His precious, stupid son.

"I love him. I would never do things like that. Not when he has panic attacks for the slightest of things. Why the fuck would I care about him like that? I love him. Father. I never stopped loving him.

"I would never do anything to mess him up. I admit the cheating was a little out of order, but that was the only crime I committed against him. A crime I’m willing to pay whatever price there is for.

"If I never do that to him. Never," Yaroslav said as he stared at the transaction reports.

Numbers never lied.

They had been sourced from his account.

And for a moment, Yaroslav was confused.

No one at the office would ever dare to mess with his finances. Besides, no one knew that shit. No one.

"This black card..." Yaroslav said as he looked at the card that was used to make the payments.

It was in his name.

But he hadn’t used that card for years.

He only ever topped it up.

Fuck.

"What is it?" Sergeij asked, seeing the anger on his son’s face. It was a stark contrast to the emotions that had been written all over his face just moments ago.

"I gave it to..."

"To who, son? If you didn’t hire the trolls with a bank card that has been active for that long, then who did?" Sergei asked.

Yaroslav looked at his father, then at the papers before him.

Before he turned to the intercom by the door.

Sergei was confused for a moment, especially when his son clicked the button and began talking.

"Good evening, everyone. Could someone please hold the baby for my wife so she can discuss such a thing? Pretty please... I’m in the study, honey," Yaroslav said so sweetly that he could swear he heard chuckles coming from downstairs.

Goodness, this was another thing altogether.

"Yaroslav..."

"Milan... This is the account I gave to Milan, father," Yaroslav whimpered, his hands shaking as he read the troll messages. There were over five hundred pages her and fuck if Yaroslav could think straight right now.

He was finally understanding why Katya wanted nothing to do with him.

Why, his Katya, who never jumped into relationships, had suddenly agreed to that fucking coffee date with the damn senator.

Why his Katya had started moving on so openly?

Of course, he believed that Yaroslav had abandoned him. And it wouldn’t even be the first time because Yaroslav had done it twice now. Yaro hadn’t exactly given Katya enough faith to work with, but fuck was this some brutal shit.

No one deserved all of this.

No one.

"He was dealing with all this while I was trying to woo him back?" Yaroslav asked as he flipped the pages while staring at the door, waiting for Milan to show up.

Something had to give right now, and fuck if he was even thinking straight at the moment.

This was a different kind of cruelty.

He couldn’t even deny it.

"Yaroslav..."

"I’ll make it right, Father. Just... Please don’t give the house to anyone. I... I’ll fix this," Yaroslav said, a new determination in his eyes, and Sergei stared lightly.

He could tell his son was tired, but was he going to hug his cheating son who thought it was alright?

"Why did you let her claim you were cheating for ten years?" Sergei asked as they waited for Milan.

And Yaroslav chuckled humorlessly at that.

"I needed him to hate me enough not to interfere with the plan. Once the baby was born, I’d take him or her and go back to Katya. Then if I ask for forgiveness, he’d forgive me. He always did forgive me regardless of what I did.

"That’s just how he is, you know. Kind. Doesn’t bear grudges. Puts everyone before himself. Would stand in front of the gun a thousand times if it meant protecting his loved ones. He is the best husband there ever could be, and I ruined his life.

"It wasn’t supposed to be this long, though, Father. And now he won’t even look at me. Then I learnt that there were trolls paid by my money to shame him. How does one even get past that?" Yaroslav asked defeatedly.

Sergei looked at his son in understanding.

He had ruined Katya’s life, too, even though he had tried to help.

Sergei knew he would probably never be forgiven by Katya because he had left the omega live in fear for too long. He hadn’t even tried to correct that shit.

And the one time he corrected it, Katya didn’t believe him. Only when the omega reread the contract did he believe him. That was the kind of shit that was hard to forgive, and Sergei...

He was still hoping to be forgiven.

He was a monster who knew he was a monster. He didn’t have any expectation for the chaos he had triggered. Which was why everything was as it was right now. Because he couldn’t even claim Katya in public.

Couldn’t face him or even be close to him anymore.

Sergei refused to stay in the same room as Katya and see hatred in the omega’s eyes. Perhaps that was why he made sure their paths never once crossed.

Not at the office, not outside the office, and during office hours.

"Mr. Moskowsky," Milan greeted, snapping Sergei out of his endless thoughts of Katya Romanov.

"Miss Popova. I see you are well. Your baby daddy wants to have a chat with you," Sergei said as he took a seat behind the table.

He knew this wasn’t going to end well, but maybe this was one that Yaro needed to work through on his own. Sergei should have left, but he chose to stay because he needed to see and hear for himself what kind of woman his son had brought home.