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

[KATYA]

He had tried to preserve the lilies.

Relentlessly so.

But the lifecycle was a little shorter than he had hoped back then.

For a whole five days.

Then the flowers started withering. And the only reminder of that delivery was just the bottle Katya kept in his backpack like a memory of what his sanity was to be like.

He held onto it for no reason, and even if he was asked his whys and whats, he couldn’t explain. It was impossible to, really.

Because the gifts from Aleksandr always ended up in his drawers. Never in his backpack like something he never wanted to lose.

Yet the water bottle had stayed, five months later.

"What will happen to Mr. Moskowsky’s office?" Katya had asked Volkov on the third day of his relocation.

He had noticed that the construction workers had still shown up on that day, too. It was almost like a horrid dream, yet something that Katya found strangely suspicious given the circumstances.

"Oh, that was not his office," Volkov had said calmly, as if they were discussing the latest changes in the weather. It was interesting, though, how Katya had stirred in confusion because that right there sounded unreal.

Yet it enforced the one thing that he had always believed.

That he had been set up beside Sergei so he could be monitored.

Because they needed datapoints to decide whether he was worth all the trouble they had to deal with because of the new appointment, much less the contract that Katya had signed.

It had been damage control.

Of course it had.

These were the Moskowskys. They never let anyone in just for the sake of it and then trusted them with everything. Funny how Katya was figuring this out nearly seven months after he had signed his life away.

Then the secretary continued.

"The office you shared was a makeshift office. It used to be our dining space before Miss Anya turned it into two offices. But Mr. Moskowsky gave the order yesterday to have it dismantled so the office could go back to what it was.

"Mr. Moskowsky’s office is on the third door, for yours, sir," Volkov said casually, explaining things like they were the order of things and not the reminder that nothing in Moskowsky was ever what it felt like.

Katya froze.

He should have focused on Sergei’s office being just three doors down.

That this was the best arrangement because it reinforced his freedom and reminded Katya that he was not a property or something to be monitored all the time here.

But all that Katya could focus on was a section of what Volkov had said.

"Mr. Moskowsky gave the order yesterday."

Mr. Moskowsky.

As in Sergei.

As in the ghost that had haunted Katya for all his time here.

That Mr. Moskowsky.

Fuck.

Katya had waited for Sergei for months and never saw the man.

He had hoped for nights and mornings to see him, but he hadn’t.

Not even a flicker of the man’s hair.

Now, the first actual proof of life he was getting about the man was from his secretary. And Katya felt like he had been gutted.

He had...

Waited.

Now Sergei was dismantling the office because systems had to be restored, and somehow, he had managed to fit Katya into that new system.

Gods, it hurt to an extent, and Katya wasn’t even sure why he was being angry and emotional, especially after Volkov left.

This man was Sergei Moskowsky.

And the devil of Frolo never got attached to anything.

So why was Katya still holding onto the idea of dinners?

Or lingering breakfasts?

Why had he still refused to call the senator by his first name even after five months had passed? What the hell was he even waiting for?

’What the hell?’ Katya wondered to himself when he couldn’t get himself to do much after the relocation. It was almost like he was hitting a hundred and one stumbling blocks. None of this made any sense to him.

Later that morning, an internal memo hit his mail.

"Volunteers needed for out-of-city El Nueva field trip - all expenses paid."

The company was looking for volunteers for a field trip to El Nueva Industries’ farm to see how things happened there, given that El Nueva was an ally of Moskowsky Holdings.

Katya didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, it was scheduled for next Monday.

Maybe he would go.

Maybe he wouldn’t.

But one thing he was sure of was that there would be volunteers.

And that was enough.

Until lunch hour happened, and Katya was sure he was going to go insane.

"No way, that can’t be real!"

"I told you this last month! I told you it was Irina!"

"Tone it down, we are at work."

"Bruh, if you think about it, there is no one who could make the perfect partner for the man right now."

"Irina is a beautiful woman, too. And very intelligent."

"You think Yaroslav is okay with this?"

"Of course. The three of them have been spotted more than thrice. At this point, we are only waiting for official confirmation, which won’t even come for a long while. You know how the ma is."

"Hold that thought..."

"What?"

"Irina just ’un-privated’ some posts."

"You’re crazy."

"I swear, look! They are public posts now! Posts that were not there before!"

"No fucking way!"

Katya had just stepped into the office after lunch with Svet and Andre. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was sure that whoever Irina was, she had to have influence if she had Yaroslav walking with her too.

Of course, for Katya, it didn’t matter as much because Milan was due to deliver her baby anytime now. So, Yaroslav having someone else as a mistress did you like a far stretch. The man was a polygamist cheat in every way.

Sighing, Katya walked to the elevator, ignoring the excited murmurs of the employees.

It was only when he reached the executive floor and saw Rahim and Volkov chattering about the same thing that he stopped to ask, out of curiosity.

"What’s gotten everyone so excited?" Katya asked curiously. It was the same thing that he had heard even when he walked in, so maybe they had better explanations.

But instead, Rahim and Volkov froze.

"Is it about me again?" Katya asked quietly, like he was not sure what was happening.

The last time there had been a scandal, he had been thrust into the public eye, and that was something that Katya wasn’t ready for.

"It’s nothing, Chairman Katya," Volkov said respectfully.

"Rahim?" Katya asked the alpha, knowing so well that she would be compelled to tell him the truth.

"Sir..."

"What is it?"

"Mr. Makowsky’s girlfriend confirmed their hard-launched relationship on Instagram, confirming the rumors that have been going on for the past three months."

"Hard-launched?"

"Means I’ll have a new stepmother soon," Yaroslav said casually as he walked over to his office.

And Katya...

He suddenly couldn’t breathe properly anymore.

If he stayed here another week, he would lose his mind.

But he held himself together, carefully walking into his office like he wasn’t already hyperventilating.

Sergei was seeing someone.

Sergei was moving on.

Sergei was living his life.

It was not a big deal, right?

So why in all hell did Katya open the email that was asking for volunteers and shakily send a single-line response?

"I’ll join the team on the volunteer trip."