Chapter 285: I Learned How To Love Just For You

[FROLO]

"What do you mean you haven’t found Romanov?" Sergei bellowed when Volkov did a sweep of the building, and there was no sign of the omega everyone knew was a traitor. He didn’t like this one bit.

"Maybe he really escaped. He knows our protocols well," Volkov tried to explain, but Sergei wasn’t buying that.

"No. Not like that. He isn’t the kind to run away from accusations," Sergei reasoned, his denial obvious.

Because only Katya could explain.

"I’m sorry, sir," Volkov said in shame.

"Where’s Yaroslav?"

"Following the senator."

"Go back out there and find me my omega, Volkov. Solnyshka wouldn’t have run. Trace the location of this video transmission," Sergei said, surprising Volkov for a moment there.

"Sir?" Volkov asked, confused.

"I said, find me the location where the bratva sent the video from. Are you deaf or do you need more screws in your head?" Sergei asked irrationally as he stared at the feed of the Research and Development floor.

Everything was fine.

Had looked fine before.

Then the explosion happened right when Alek was stepping out. Of course, he had expected that something would happen, but this just wasn’t it. It couldn’t be.

His Solnyshka had to be somewhere out there.

"Yes, sir," Volkov said, excusing himself only for Anya to walk in right after him.

"Do you believe the video?" Anya asked, going straight to the point.

"What?" Sergei said as if he had not been expecting that question, much less from Anya.

"You heard me, boy genius. Do you believe Romanov betrayed you for over four years?" Anya asked, and Sergei sighed.

Everything about today made no sense, yet it was placed in the kind of way that made so much sense at the same time. The explosion was meant to cement a lot of things, and now, with Katya’s disappearance, Frolo would not be as forgiving to the Romanov omega.

"He couldn’t betray me like that," Sergei said instead.

"The video is four years old, Sergei."

"It’s fake. It has to be," Sergei said, and Anya stared at him in defeat, like this was not the time for the alpha to be talking about what he hoped for and what he was not sure would work.

"You need to make a statement out there. If you’re not sure, don’t let the media know you’re not sure. Pick a side, Sergei. Everyone’s fate depends on it," Anya said before she walked out too, leaving Sergei staring at the emptiness that was his office.

The memories of Katya filled up his office more times than he wanted to imagine right now.

But Anya was right. He needed to take a stand.

Katya was still missing.

Maybe he escaped, or maybe he was buying himself time.

Sergei did not really know. Yet at the same time, with Yaro out there going after the senator for answers, Sergei knew he had to go and give the stupid statement everyone was yearning for.

And he hated what this would look like. He couldn’t defend Katya, because then there would be more accusations about why he was defending a traitor.

That video looked real. So real that Sergei almost believed it. Or maybe he believed it too, seeing how he was skeptical of making any move at the moment.

"Fuck!!" Sergei punched a hole into his office wall, not caring that he sounded more like a feral beast than a man whose company had just been blown up and was still operational.

It was audacious that much he had to give the bratva, but damn, it was also stressing him the fuck out.

Sighing, Sergei stepped out.

He would give the statement. He would let them know what had happened, and he would figure out where Katya was, too.

The private elevator still stopped on the R&D floor.

Sergei knew it was useless to hope and that there was really a chance that Katya had bolted, but he refused to believe that. The Katya he had gotten to know over the past years wasn’t a coward who ran away from accountability.

And he didn’t ruin things just for the sake of it.

The video itself was something that didn’t convince Sergei at all, not that he would let anyone know about that yet.

"Sir, please let us do our jobs," another firefighter said as they separated the mess and cleaned up.

It wasn’t exactly their role as firemen, but dealing with shit in Moskowsky always meant more money. Probably more than they’d make in six months, so they were doing their best to work this out.

Perhaps that was also why Sergei believed them again.

Because they would eventually clean up the floor and let the construction team take over.

"Okay," Sergei said as he looked around.

His face was blank and his reactions stoic. He knew that something else was going on, and he hoped to the gods that Yaroslav didn’t let go of the senator because if anything happened to Katya, the senator would have hell to pay.

"Is it true?"

"What does the company say about Chairman Romanov’s betrayal?"

"Did anyone die in the explosion?"

"Why did Chairman Romanov’s office explode?"

The questions were expected, and Sergei knew it the moment he reached the lobby and stood at the dais for the presser.

He hated this.

He hated that he didn’t know whether Katya was alive or hurt.

He hated how empty things felt, and if he was being honest, he didn’t even want to be here right now. But what the hell was he supposed to do?

How he wished his greatest worry right now was a jealous Katya.

"Mr. Moskowsky!"

The questions began for Sergei, and he answered them all. He was about to answer one question on why the chairman was the suspect and whether Sergei believed Katya had planted the explosive when the firemen rushed out with a body.

It looked broken at first glance.

There were glass shards on it.

"Male subject suffered trauma from the explosion and has shrapnel all over his body. He is also bleeding internally; prepare the nearest hospital for that," the fireman from before said into his radio, and Sergei sighed.

For a split second.

Then they passed beside him.

Sergei stood frozen for a moment, following the firemen with his eyes as they hurried to carry his chairman into the ambulance. As the media and everyone else stood in their way, determined to take photographs of his unconscious Solnyshka.

Katya had never looked that beaten and bruised.

He was wet, from his hair down to his feet. His clothes were muddy, probably because of the blend of fire and debris. His arm was bleeding; his left pinky was broken from the impact.

He had cuts on his face, and he wasn’t wearing any shoes.

Katya looked... dead.

And gods help him; Sergei’s knees went weak.

His Solnyshka.

"Handle the press," Sergei said to Volkov as he got down from the dais and followed the firemen.

The journalists who had been blocking the firemen and stopping the EMTs from taking Katya into the ambulance stepped back instantly the moment they saw Sergei.

"Sir?" one of the firemen asked.

"Get in and drive to Aslava Hospital."

"You... you’re coming along?"

"I need answers. Now get in, or I’ll take him myself," Sergei said, and the EMTs didn’t wait.

Yet as the doors closed on Sergei and Katya inside the ambulance with some EMTs, Sergei knew someone would burn.

If not now, then an hour later.

The bratva had declared war, and he would remind them who he was.