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

[YAROSLAV]

Katya.

His omega.

He is beautiful...

His achingly beautiful husband.

Gods, Yaroslav was doomed.

He had walked into that meeting room, ready to defend his hand, ready to talk his father into forgiveness, ready to apologize for everything that he had done or what had been done to him, only for him to see his husband there.

It was a moment that had his heart aching, because Katya had lost some weight. His omega had grown thinner since the last time Yaroslav had seen him, and Yaroslav hated himself for it.

He wanted to make thugs better.

He would make it better.

’I’m so sorry,’ Yaroslav had thought when their eyes met outside the company earlier today.

He had not expected it, but seeing Katya there, looking so perfect, glowing under the morning sun, he didn’t know what to do. He had wanted to reach out, apologize, grovel, whatever it took, but he knew Katya wouldn’t trust him.

Maybe that was why he made that call.

"I’m coming over, we will go get breakfast, and I’ll make it up to you. Dress pretty for me, sweetheart," Yaroslav had called Milan, forcing himself into the one position he wasn’t even sure would make things better.

But at least he would hasten the process.

He will do it tonight. Or today.

It didn’t matter because Miala would always agree to whatever he wanted.

And expectedly, Milan had been excited.

Was probably getting ready when Yaroslav, overwhelmed with guilt after that call, desperate to seek out Katya and make things right, parked by the roadside.

The city had quietened now, and his car was still egged.

Maybe that was why no one was bashing him anymore, why no one had tried to pelt stones again. And in that stop that should have felt like peace, Yaroslav found himself opening his phone gallery. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The gallery that didn’t even have a photo of him.

His phone was always an archive of moments that had Katya in them. Maybe because she always belonged to Katya. Body, mind, and soul. He loved that omega so much that sometimes it hurt to breathe.

He loved him with everything.

And now...

He had fucked that up.

"My beautiful baby," Yaroslav sighed softly, tracing the photo on his screen, his thumb lingering a little longer than he had intended. He was staring at one of the many photos of Katya he had taken without the omega knowing.

The moments when Katya radiated with so much happiness. His Katya was so free, with nothing to worry about, other than their childless marriage.

He had always taken these pictures to remind Katya that even without a child, Yaroslav would always love him. He never stopped, really, because he had loved Katya for who Katya was.

Not for what Katya could offer him. His omega was his partner for life.

But Katya had always wanted a child.

And they had tried.

Gods, they really had.

Yaroslav, determined to keep that happiness on his omega’s face, chose a different way, one that hurt Katya so badly. So much so that now all that was left were the gifts of those who had once been.

Today, Katya hadn’t smiled. He had been cold. His scent had gotten bitter at the proximity of Yaroslav to him. And it had shattered Yaroslav’s heart.

Because she loved him.

Yaroslav lived for him.

Yaroslav existed only to love Katya.

At least that was what he told himself. What he was selling himself even now, parked on the roadside and scrolling through the gallery, watching his omega be happy, watching his mile.

Fuck, Yaroslav couldn’t even remember the last time Katya had smiled at him, and he had done that; he had ruined their marriage. He had fucked it up. But after the child was born, he would explain.

Oh, he would.

And again, that was what he told himself every day, because if he didn’t, he would remind himself that he was the asshole who cheated on the one omega he avoided more than he loved his own life.

"I’ll make it better, baby, I promise," Yaroslav said, his tears pooling at the remembrance of the cold shoulder he had gotten from Katya.

He had never respected that.

He had never been that hurt,

And he didn’t have anyone to bail for it all.

"Oh, honey," Yaroslav whispered as he looked at the videos of Katya laughing, photos of Katya sleeping gently on his shoulder, on his lap. How Katya used to be happy with him.

Memories were things that Yaroslav knew would never let him have peace, because every slide, every video, every photo, was a reminder of what they had once had. What they always had.

Before Yaroslav had gotten so brazen.

Before Yaroslav had gone back to the woman he wanted to use, yet didn’t even communicate with properly.

As his hand hovered over a photo of Katya kissing him at a gala a few months earlier, Yaroslav felt his heart rip out of his chest.

They were happy.

And he had ruined it.

"Fuck!!" Yaroslav shouted, slapping his head against his steering wheel.

Then his horn rang, and he was so ready to shove it to the side.

But the caller ID... gods, the caller ID...

Yaro did think twice.

He received it.

"Baby..." he breathed like a man who had been suffocating and had been begging for air for so long and had finally gotten it; he breathed that name like a prayer that was slowly getting answered for him.

"Sir... This is Rahim... I... I don’t know why he called you."

Yaroslav had never been more alert in his life than he had been at that moment.

His omega’s secretary was on the other end of the call, and Katya had dialed him. What the fuck?

"What happened to him?" Yaroslav asked. His voice was urgent as he started his car. He didn’t know if he was going to be needed, but he had to be ready.

For Katya, he would do whatever it took.

"He is drifting in and out of consciousness and refuses to go to the company," Rahim said, and Yaroslav didn’t hesitate.

"Where are y—" he began, only to hear Katya’s voice on the other end.

"Noo, Rahim... don’t call Yaro... he’ll be worried... besides, he h... hates me anyway."

"I need a location yesterday, Rahim. Don’t make me ask twice," Yaroslav warned, and Rahim babbled a few words, giving Yaroslav their location while Kata drifted in the background.

Yaroslav didn’t think twice.

He had already been on the freeway heading to the company because he knew that was the only place Katya was at, but when he got a location, he made a tour in the middle of the freeway, ignoring the curses of the other drivers.

He would deal with those later.

Because right now, he had someone who needed him.

Someone far more important to them than their own life.

But the universe was a cruel thing on most days, because Yaroslav, still stinking, drove like a madman on the freeway, while he strived to get to Katya as fast as he could... Milan called.

And Yaroslav didn’t pick.

Not the first time.

Not the second.

The third time, he only picked because she was getting nothing.

"Not now, Milan. I have an emergency to attend to. Katya is hurt. We will have to reschedule. If we don’t make it tonight, there’s always another day," Yaroslav said, then hung up before Milan could breathe another word.