[KATYA]

Memories were ghosts in the present.

Ghosts that haunted in the kind of way that only time could allow.

Standing there, listening to his husband say they were four months pregnant, something shifted inside Katya. And suddenly the blank spaces in his memory started coming together.

Katya wasn’t sure what to trust, but he remembered the feeling of betrayal and disgust.

The way his heart had tightened in his chest when he saw those two. Seeing Milan here at HQ was worse than a smack on the face, especially given the way she held her belly was familiar.

Too familiar.

"You know, we heard rumors about the beta’s omega not being able to give him kids. If I were him, I would cheat on you, too, Chairman Gamov..."

"Thanks to you and that senator, I don’t have to hide my love for Milan anymore..."

And like a car crash, the fragments began to pop up in Katya’s brain.

They made no sense at all to him.

Because he had believed it was a dream.

A nightmare he had chosen to forget. A part of his subconscious was playing horrific games with him because of how hurt he was from not waking up beside Yaroslav that Saturday morning.

Yet now, it was all here.

The evidence.

The reminder of something he couldn’t give.

"The good senator and I... should get it going too, no?"

No.

No way.

Impossible.

"Looks like our marriage is open now, Yaroslav..."

Cheers.

Camera flashes.

Loud music.

"We Moskowskys don’t do divorce..."

Katya stumbled for a moment, only to be hit with more

"Easy there, Romanov," Andre had said

"... The omega who couldn’t give the Moskowskys an heir. But you have Milan now..."

"All drinks are on me for the night!!"

Oh, gods.

Milan.

Juice.

"I had a baby and lost him, wooo!!! Looks like my baby finally got a new baby!!!"

Katya couldn’t breathe.

Saturday night.

No way it was real.

"I finally have a woman to give me an heir."

Oh, denial was something Katya would have to deal with eventually, but right now, he was sure this was nothing. That it was a game, even when he could see the baby bump.

His heart hammered in his chest at Yaroslav’s indifference toward him and pride in the way he was holding Milan. And fuck if Katya’s heart didn’t ache a little harsher than it already was.

This was a nightmare.

That was what he told himself.

Even as he walked past the duo and headed to his office.

He had come to work.

He would work.

That was the only thing he needed to do today, instead of focusing on his illusions.

But were they illusions when everyone stared at him in pity the moment he stepped into the lobby?

"You’re stuck with me until the bitter end, Romanov," Katya remembered.

Not Gamov.

Not honey.

Romanov.

Katya’s heart ached at the memory of the one name he was used to. He never paid any attention to his name, really, after all, his friends called him Romanov daily.

But to hear it from Yaroslav...

That hurt a lot.

The stench of pity in the office building was suffocating for Katya. But this time, he wouldn’t give in.

He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing him broken. Of seeing the way his heart ached so badly in his chest. The way he had gotten so sweaty, and it wasn’t even because of Sergei’s maniacal driving.

This was something else altogether, and Katya felt like he was about to lose his mind.

Or maybe he had already lost it all.

Four months.

They had only been apart for one month.

One month was all the distance between them.

"Greetings, chairman," Rahim greeted like she always did, as if Katya’s world was not falling apart.

As if the entire city wasn’t already laughing at the omega who had been replaced in months. As if the entire Frolo didn’t already know what happened on Saturday, while Katya was stuck with fragments of what he couldn’t piece together.

Everybody knew about Saturday night.

Everybody except Katya.

And it hurt.

Gods, it hurt.

"What’s on my schedule today?" Katya asked, his voice neutral like it always had been within this building. He wanted to run to the elevators, to tell Rahim that he was fine and that she didn’t have to come down just to brief him.

He knew what she was doing.

Cushioning him for the people in this same building.

Trying to minimize the damage, something that Anya and Sergei had tried earlier.

Katya couldn’t help but let out a defeated chuckle when Rahim started talking about work. And Rahim paused for a moment when they got to the elevator.

She had served Katya for weeks, and she knew what his routine was like. She knew what his expressions always meant.

However, right now, she couldn’t read him.

Because this wasn’t the omega who had panic attacks in this very elevator each day and struggled to keep himself composed.

This wasn’t the omega who lived his life like a survivor who only had three pennies to his name.

This man was different.

And it wasn’t the good kind of different.

"You have the monthly board meeting today in thirty minutes. Before that, your schedule is blank," Rahim said calmly, like she wasn’t worried about the outcome of all this.

"I’m fine, Rahim," Katya voiced, and Rahim turned to look at him.

"Sir?"

"I can see the way you’re looking at me. I’m fine. I will be fine," Katya said, even though he sounded more like he was reassuring himself than he was Rahim.

And then the elevator went up, Katya stayed at the corner, his hands gripping the handles tightly like he did that to freak out any more than he already was. But even so, would it make a difference right now?

Rahim didn’t say a word.

Not even when the elevator stopped, and Katya got off first, walking to his office steadily, like everyone didn’t know what he was feeling or even what he could have been feeling.

And Katya could hear the shouts from the reporters outside the reminder that maybe, just maybe, all of this was real. That maybe he hadn’t just been ambushed by the love of his life with a four-month pregnancy in a one-month separation period. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Wordlessly, the omega settled into his seat, wearing his earbuds, set a thirty-minute timer, and began working. It was the only thing he wanted to focus on.

But even that didn’t make it any easier.

The first file he flipped open stared back at him, and Katya couldn’t help but think bam to the pregnancy downstairs.

Of how protective Yaroslav seemed to be. He couldn’t help but see the smirk and smile on Yaroslav’s face as he stood beside Milan, like he was letting the whole world know that it was real.

That was going to be a father.

’Focus, Katya,’ the omega thought to himself as he flipped the page, not even sure what was written on it.

Sighing, he tried to reach out for the next file, only for the coffee he had been brought to spill on the table, making a mess.

And Katya...

Beige-suited Katya had the misfortune of his clothes being stained by the coffee.

He could feel the intensity of the burn on his thighs, but he didn’t even make a move to get up and clean himself.

He just sat there.