Contract Marriage: Married to My Ex-Husband's Alpha Stepfather [BL]

[KATYA]

Slowly, Katya found himself in a routine as the days went by.

He’d come to work, have to deal with Yaroslav’s jealousy whenever the senator sent flowers for Katya, which was a very lonely day.

Then he’d go into meetings and find the seat beside him empty as always, because Sergei had made it his mission to murder people in the city and never come to the office.

It was the one thing that shouldn’t have bothered Katya, but it did. Because Sergei never missed meetings. Yet he had missed them all since the last time Katya saw him in the office.

It didn’t help that Katya’s office now smelled more like roses than an actual workplace.

The senator had been insistent on wooing Katya, and the omega was determined not to let anyone in. Not even the man who had been nothing but kind to him. The man who brought him coffee every time there was a shareholder meeting.

The man who sent lunch for him, and dinner that Katya threw in the bin because he was still haunted by that one missed dinner.

Katya knew he was being unrealistic, because Sergei Moskowski was the devil of Frolo, yet a part of his brain was still pissed that the man had invited him to dinner and not shown up. didn’t even leave a message.

Simply showed up to work the next day for ten minutes and left, never giving Katya an explanation or anything.

And for months, that was Katya’s life.

Work. Home. Aleksandr the suitor. Yaroslav, the possessive husband. It was the one cycle that kept him insane and sane at the same time, because honestly, he hated the way things were.

Perhaps that was why when he came to work one morning and found the glass structure that separated his office from Sergei gone, he was relieved.

Maybe because it was the reminder that at least things would be normal again.

Maybe he could see the other side of the office and remember what it was like, so see elements of Sergei in there. Maybe because he wouldn’t feel as lonely anymore in his freedom.

But the relief didn’t last long.

Not when Sergei’s secretary stepped closer to him, face unreadable as it had been these past few months. Katya had simply assumed it was Volkov’s resting or even work face. Because he didn’t know what else to think.

"Chairman Katya, there have been a few changes," Volkov spoke right as Anya stepped closer to, as if she was here to deliver a message.

Abya had been distant, like professionally distant, and Katya appreciated and hated that at the same time.

Their interactions were purely related to work.

Never anything beyond the work that kept them both at the Moskowsky Holdings.

That should have been relaxing, yet like everything else these past few months, Katya didn’t find himself as pleased. He was bothered by how there had been sudden changes in the name of the one thing he had once, upon a time, yearned for.

Would it be any better if the system went back to what it was instead of several changes over the months?

"Your new office is on the other side of the floor. The far end to make it easier for you with operations," Anya had said, her voice calm and very professional.

There was no intimidation, and when Katya didn’t say a word, she simply told Volkov to show him where his office was.

Then went back to her office like it was nothing.

Truthfully, there wasn’t much she could say.

Yet Katya itched to ask a question.

Couldn’t though.

"Shall we, Chairman Katya?" Volkov said as he stepped to the side, while Katya’s focus was on the employees who were dismantling what had been his office. He didn’t understand, truly.

He had been so used to this office, and he didn’t even imagine what it would be like having a new experience.

But maybe there would be agreeable changes, right?

Maybe this was his chance to move on, no?

Maybe.

Oh, but Katya had so many maybes lingering even as he kept staring at the office he was leaving.

He didn’t know what to say or what to do.

So wordlessly, he followed Volkov to where his new office was.

Maybe things would be better for him after all.

"This one chairman Katya," Volkov had said when they got to a mahogany door a few doors down the hallway.

Katya had seen Yaroslav’s office along the way.

He had also seen a few offices that didn’t have names on the door, just titles, probably, and he assumed it was just because this was the structure of things. Katya had never even seen the office of the CFO or the COO.

Perhaps because he had always been busy with his work.

And maybe that was why seeing the titles at the doors was a bit surprising, not to mention the hallway was too wide. Could fit at least five hugely built men. Gods, this was something else altogether.

"Sir," Rahim greeted respectfully, and it took a moment for Katya to realize just how real this was.

His secretary was seated right outside his office.

"Good morning, Rahim," Katya greeted, a smile on his face as he looked at the door.

And when Volkov pushed open the door, Katya wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it was not this.

This was too beautiful. Too perfect. Too sane. It was real. Like an actual office, and Katya just stared like it was supposed to make him feel something, anything. Yet it still haunted him.

Was change really that much of a terror for the omega?

Katya was met with an actual office. One whose walls were concrete and had an actual door. The office was well equipped with a little of everything. From a closet for Katya to have a change of clothes, to a sink for his dinner and breakfast or meals, to a television.

It was literally a studio of sorts, save for the fact that it was an office where he had to work. But it was huge and beautiful and blocked away from everyone. That meant that for Yaroslav to come into his office, the Beta would have to knock.

It almost meant that no one would ever know what Katya did in there, other than trust that he was doing his job.

And this felt like the ultimate show of trust.

Of freedom.

Something that felt way different.

’I don’t have to keep hoping he comes through the elevator anymore,’ Katya thought himself the moment the alpha’s secretary left.

Once again, he scolded himself because his subconscious had spent the past five months waiting for Sergei to show up. Hell, anywhere other than the bodies the alpha was dropping across the city and the lunches he had with Yaroslav every two weeks.

But maybe this was what the truth was bound to be like for Katya, was it not? Because this was what freedom truly looked like. The kind that he had wanted and had gotten. So why did it all feel empty when he was finally settled?

Why did the beautiful scent of roses piss him off lately more than the scent of the cardless lilies before?