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

[KATYA]

The stench of disinfectants woke Katya up, along with the incessant beeps in his ear. He had a splitting headache, and it felt like someone was hammering his head open.

His eyes felt heavy, but he was certain that he needed to be elsewhere.

Perhaps somewhere with so much more quiet than wherever he was at the moment. So, when he opened his eyes and found himself in a hospital bed with IV drops and tubes all over, Katya freaked out.

"No... no," Katya mumbled, determined to get out.

He tried to think back to his last memory, but everything after the incident with Yaroslav and leaving the house was gone.

"Sir, no... You’re still too weak to even move," a nurse said to him.

Katya looked at her with so many questions in his eyes. He couldn’t remember doing anything that could have landed him in the hospital and with a worried nurse.

Perhaps it was dehydration from all the stress yesterday.

But even that couldn’t explain why his entire body ached.

"Was... Was I in an accident?" Katya asked, like it was the only reasonable explanation for how shitty he was feeling.

His heart hurt, and it was expected. But his body aching like someone had run him over more than once was not something that he could explain. And he needed real help with that.

"No, sir. But you were rushed in by a gentleman who found you bleeding by the road," the nurse explained softly.

There was something about her tone that Katya didn’t like. The pity in her eyes for him, like he was a charity case, made his skin crawl, and he didn’t like it one bit.

So, he prodded.

"What happened to me, nurse? Please," Katya begged, his voice hoarse from not being used for hours. He looked at the clock beside him, and it was eleven o’clock. Which meant that he had been out of it for over twenty-four hours.

Time like that didn’t just pass without reason.

It made no sense.

But then, the nurse hadn’t specified, yet Katya was already overthinking, trying to figure out what it was.

"I’m sorry, Mr. Gamov. We tried the best we could. But we couldn’t save your baby. The good Samaritan who brought you in saved your life.

"If he had brought you in any later, you would have lost your life along with the baby, too," the nurse said, and Katya felt the beeps getting louder. His head hurt even more, his heart ached as the realization settled in on him.

The baby.

The anniversary.

Milan. Yaroslav.

The walk on the side of the road, and the darkness he had willingly given into.

And now... Nothing.

No baby. No Yaroslav. No life.

Katya felt trapped in his own body.

He wanted to shout. Scream at someone, anyone, but who was he supposed to even do that to?

How was he supposed to make out what had happened when it was obvious he had been too stressed to the point of losing his baby?

And worse, it had been twenty-four hours, and Yaroslav hadn’t asked for him. Hadn’t come after him. Hadn’t tried to...

Oh, Katya.

"I don’t understand... The baby was fine yesterday. We were fine. How does... How does someone go from having a baby to nothing? I was fine. Healthy. I... I was happy," Katya cried softly, his heart clenching at the truth he had been forced into.

He should have been careful. That was all his mind was filled with.

He had failed. His marriage. Their love.

And now he didn’t even have their first baby.

Everything was gone. Over.

"Maybe... Maybe you got it wrong. I am a healthy omega, nurse. Maybe the tests were wrong. Please check again. My name... It’s Katya... Katya Romanov. Please," Katya begged.

The nurse just stared at him pitifully at the unfamiliar name.

Katya hadn’t even realized it yet, but he had told the nurse his name. The name he hadn’t used in five years.

The name that had been his.

One that was now apparently all he had left from a marriage that he had thought he could save.

"I’m sorry, sir. I’ll call the doctor," the nurse said, excusing herself.

And Katya was left in a room filled with disinfected sheets and a headache that felt like it was meant to drown him. He didn’t understand what had happened. How life could just turn that fast for him.

It was almost insane how things had gotten, but surely there had to be a better explanation, right? Maybe it was a nightmare, and he was in the hospital because of something else.

Maybe Yaroslav had gone to get the receipts so they could go home.

Yaroslav loved him.

Yaroslav couldn’t cheat on him. That was the only thing Katya was holding onto.

Defeatedly, Katya grabbed his phone from the bedside.

There were no missed calls. Nothing that could show or hint at what had happened. The only thing he could see was a message from Yaroslav early yesterday morning.

"My beautiful, don’t strain too much today. You’re all I need, and if anyone ruins your day. I’m only one call away. I love you, my Katya. Good day, honey."

That was all.

Before the chaos.

Before the heart-shattering realization.

And even after all that, Yaroslav didn’t call.

Perhaps because it was all just another nightmare, right?

Sighing, Katya clicked his husband’s name on his phone, ready to call. To snap himself out of the nightmares. But before he could press the call, his phone rang.

And on the screen was a familiar name.

Papa.

"Life is okay, Katya. Breathe," the omega willed himself as he cleared his throat. He couldn’t have his father hearing how broke he was and how much he had ruined him in one afternoon.

"Hello Papa, good morning," Katya greeted, but there came a short silence, the kind that he was not used to.

And Katya began panicking.

Did his father know?

Was that why he called?

"Michka, I’m at Aslava hospital," Mr. Romanov began, and Katya breathed a sigh of relief at the nickname his parents always had for him.

At least that was one sense of normalcy.

Also, his father being in Aslava was nothing new to him. His father always went to that hospital for regular checkups. It was nothing new.

"I didn’t know you had a checkup today, Papa. Is anything the matter?" Katya asked, making sure to keep his voice as clear as he could.

He had to be steady because he couldn’t have his father knowing that he, too, was admitted because of a miscarriage that he was still convinced was a nightmare.

"Son... I need you to listen to me keenly," Mr. Romanov said, and his son stiffened for a bit. Maybe it was because his father was almost never that serious with him on the phone unless it was about business.

Katya was an only child, the heir to the Romanov Steel empire.

His father had always wanted him to take over, but Katya was a free spirit. That was how he had been brought up, and he had always told his parents that he would take over when he was a little bit older.

Because to him, he was still young, at least when it came to running a multi-billion-dollar steel empire anyway.

"Papa... If it’s about the business, I am still not ready. Besides, it’s just a checkup. Why do you sound like those times you taught me how to pick up from scraps?" Katya teased.

But unlike every other day. His father didn’t laugh.

And Katya sat up on his hospital bed. Ignoring the beeping in the background.

"It’s about business... but mostly your mother," Mr. Romanov said, and Katya listened.

His mother hated hospitals more than Katya hated the idea of ever running the Romanov empire.

"What about Mama, Papa?"

"Her heart stopped."

"What?"

"She needs an expensive heart surgery," Mr. Romanov said.

That got Katya suspicious. His father never once talked about money with him. It was always, "get what you want, or I’m going for a checkup, or I have surgery later."

Never this specific before.

Never expensive. Never cheap.

"Papa..."

"But Michka... We’re broke. The company is bankrupt, and we don’t have a cent to pay for the surgery. Come to the hospital soon. Come help me figure it out," Mr. Romanov said.

Then he hung up, leaving his son with a thousand and one questions.

But the most dominant one in Katya’s mind was just one.

"Is this still a nightmare?"

"Not if I can help it," a voice came from the doorway.