[FROLO]

Yaroslav walked into the conference room moments after his father had gotten in.

He had cleaned up and looked far more presentable than he had been earlier. He walked into the room, head held high, smiling proudly at the omega who sat at the head of the table.

Sergei was sitting on Katya’s right, and Yaroslav sat on the omega’s left. It was their designated position after the changes that had been made to the company a month ago. They had all adjusted, interestingly so.

Today was not any different, even with the chaos that had been out there in the morning.

Nothing a Moskowsky did ever shook the stock market.

Nothing, at least nothing like cheating and a pregnant woman who had allowed herself to be paraded like a tool for closure at the headquarters.

The agenda was no different this time.

Expansion. Active projects. Stalled projects. What to focus on. What to scrape off.

It was all like the system that had been set.

Until thirty minutes into the meeting, when the conference room door opened, and Volkov could swear on his life that the temperatures in the room had never dropped that low since he started working for the Moskowskys.

"Good morning, Chairman Gamov," a deep velvety voice ripped through the room, the focus on the one man who had just had enough of the chaos in the morning.

It didn’t take long for the whispers to begin.

Took so little for Yaroslav to grit his teeth at the sight.

But it took a lot less for the alpha beside Katya to break the pencil he was holding into shards.

No one in the room noticed.

Except Anya and the secretaries.

Not even Katya.

"Senator Aleksandr," Katya greeted, his face a blank canvas as he had long learned to keep it in these meetings. Maybe because he didn’t want to give the Moskowskys a reason to kill him as soon, right?

"What are you doing here?" Yaroslav asked, the obvious irritation in his voice something that no one could ignore.

Sergei paid attention.

Not to the senator. He couldn’t care about what the senator thought.

His focus was on him.

On his omega.

"I’m here for the shareholder meeting. I believe the empty seat there is mine, no?" Senator Aleksandr asked as he walked over to the empty shareholder seat...

Next to Sergei.

Sergei Moskowsky.

And Katya watched like he was going to go insane.

As if that wasn’t enough, a memory tore through his Saturday fog.

"Oh, hey, sweetheart! Since we can’t get a divorce, and you won’t be touching me, given that last night clearly meant nothing... Maybe I need to call Senator Aleksandr and see if he can service me tonight," Katya remembered hiccupped amid chuckles, like what he was suffering was the sanest of things.

’I’m a dead man. Oh my god,’ Katya thought to himself, as he looked at the senator, pretending like the intense stare he was getting from Sergei, something he had just noticed, was nothing.

But it wasn’t anything.

It could be nothing.

Katya had wagered himself to the senator.

In front of the entire city. With all cameras and shit.

The senator who was now seated beside the man he had married on paper.

These people in this room had most certainly seen the mess he had made on Saturday.

This day was doomed. There was no hope for shit right now.

Oh, Katya.

"Greetings again. Chairman Gamo— sorry, Chairman Moskowsky," the senator said, and this time, he looked at Katya. A smile on his face for the omega, then he turned to Yaroslav, who was gritting his teeth like he didn’t like the situation here.

Well, wasn’t he the one who had triggered everything first anyway?

Katya stared in courtesy, trying his very best to make sure there was nothing written on his face.

He had managed to embarrass himself, and now the man he had embarrassed himself with was here.

In the meeting he chaired.

Beside his jailer.

And was smiling at him like suddenly there was light in the room

Couldn’t the senator read the atmosphere?

"I brought you coffee and tea. Wasn’t sure what you liked, especially after the morning you must have had," the senator said, as he gently handed Katya two cups on a tray.

Katya hadn’t even noticed that the man had come carrying anything.

Goodness, he was fucked.

"I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, chairman," the senator said, his attention on Katya screaming sincerity and respect, the kind of shit that Katya wasn’t even paying attention to.

This senator needed to keep quiet.

He needed to control his mouth because the man beside him was not going to take this lightly. Not after how the morning had begun.

Katya knew it.

Sergei didn’t care about politicians.

Which was exactly why Katya was terrified.

Because if the senator kept talking, there was no telling what Sergei would do next.

"Thank you, senator. Shall we get back to the meeting?" Katya said, his voice courteous as he looked at the senator.

Katya heard Sergei’s feet move next to his. He wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but a part of him patched, hoping that this morning wouldn’t get any worse because of him.

It was embarrassing enough that he had said shit on Saturday and forgotten. And the fact that Katya was not even having all the memories made him feel even worse.

It had him wondering what it was that he had said on that weekend to have the senator this chirpy and the Moskowskys pissed.

Even his cheating bastard of a husband.

"Of course, Chairman Moskowsky. Please pardon my interruption," the senator said, and then the meeting resumed.

But Katya felt the air change after that.

Sergei wasn’t paying any attention to the meeting. He was busy breaking pencils under the table like the maniac that he was. There was a drawer right under the table, one that held pencils, and Sergei had made it his mission to annihilate all the pencils.

Yaroslav, on the other hand, was glaring at the senator like he wanted to kill the man. How a man could be jealous when he was the one who cheated was beyond what Katya could comprehend. But still, it didn’t get any better.

"We shall convene for the next meeting on Thursday with the different project leads. Thank you for coming," Katya said, his courtesy a breath of fresh air in the room. That was filled with so much tension and faces that judged him on the low.

"If I may, chairman. Before the board disperses, would you do me the honor of that coffee date? I understand if it is an inconvenience for you, though. Whichever choice you make will be fine by me," Senator Aleksandr said calmly.

The thirty-five executives in the room turned to look at Katya.

Senator Aleksandr may have been just a board member here, but he was also a politician who ran the country.

To say no would possibly put the Moskowsky holdings in a bad light.

But to say yes would mean Katya died in the washroom down the hall in the next five minutes.

There was no right choice.

"My schedule is quite packed for now, but can I think about it later, senator?" Katya said instead, hoping to the gods and the deities out there that he had given a rational answer that settled with both parties.

"Of course, chairman. It would be an honor to have coffee or tea with you," the senator said, and Katya knew he had to say something else.

"Coffee. I prefer coffee," Katya said, the courtesy obvious in his voice.

He was being polite; after all, this was a man whom his drunk self had pulled into a Moskowsky circus. Maybe it was the only way to clear his conscience, right?

"I shall remember that," the senator said with a soft smile, the kind that screamed comfort and peace, the kind that was welcome.

Or maybe it was the kind that would definitely get him killed, because Anya suddenly got up.

"That’s all for today, gentlemen and women. If you may, please leave us, we have a next meeting to get to."

It was so unexpected, but they all left.

One by one.

Hell, even Yaroslav left the meeting, making sure to leave after the senator, not before.

Katya was confused.

Until Sergei, he looked to his side and saw Sergei holding a piece of the conference table.

’Yup, I’m a dead man.’