[YAROSLAV]

"Milan..." Yaroslav trailed off as he signed the papers.

He could sense the tension off of her, and for a moment, he almost worried for her. This was not normal Milan behavior, and the fact that she was even explaining the signature thing and his father’s possibility to kidnap her was not okay.

It was way beyond Milan’s regular jealousy if Katy and Yaroslav knew something had gone wrong in the days that he was out of it.

Maybe he just needed to understand the basis because even for Milan, this was too intense.

"What?" Milan asked angrily, like she couldn’t believe that this was what they had gotten to.

Yaroslav stared at her, like he was trying to see if she was lying, but she wasn’t. She was fidgeting, and he couldn’t even remember anytime that Milan ever fidgeted.

Granted, she was mouthy and all, but this time she looked terrified.

"Want to threaten me like he already did too?" Milan added after a short silence, the desperation and fear in her voice was obvious.

"He WHAT?" Yaroslav asked.

You would think he didn’t know his father was a thousand screws too loose in the head.

"Of course, you wouldn’t know shit about it. You were busy, knocked out by a woman on the pavement like an idiot," Milan groaned as a lot of things had happened.

Yet somehow, she had found herself in the middle of the chaos she hadn’t even signed up for.

"Milan..."

"What, Yaroslav? What?"

"I’m sorry," Yaroslav said sincerely as he handed the signed papers to Milan, who grabbed them angrily. She looked done.

Maybe she was.

Maybe she was just tolerating him for as long as she could, but was that what this was? A ploy or Milan finally fixing up the one chance to make things better for herself?

"For what exactly? Because we both know that now that your daddy dearest is back, you will go back to that page of yourself and Kathy and forget about me," Milan huffed.

It was like she couldn’t believe she had let herself be roped back into this.

The Sergei they both knew was a man who valued the aspect of family. And Sergei would certainly not appreciate seeing Milan and his son together.

Yaroslav knew that.

Even Milan.

But what was she supposed to do about her born heart that wasn’t even giving her the chance to get life going and face her truths?

"I won’t..." Yaroslav trailed off, his eyes softening as he looked at her.

He knew this had to have been so hard if this was how she had gotten, but fuck was it feeling like everything else was fucked altogether.

"What?" Milan asked, the hope in her voice lighting up her face at the possibility that this time Yaroslav would choose her. That she would get to be the new Mrs. Gamov.

That she would be the partner of the man she had loved and lost years ago.

Fuck was it a dream... Right?

"I have to fix a lot of things before I can even think of getting Katya back," Yaroslav said confidently, shattering the illusion that Milan had made for him.

But surely, she didn’t think that he would leave his marriage for her, right?

"Of course you would want him back. Everybody and their mama are talking about the omega who was unfortunate enough to be part of the Moskowsky household.

"That one omega mud dragging your family’s reputation through the mud, and you still talk of getting him back?" Milan sighed like this was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

She was trying to be rational, but what was rationality when the man she loved was always going on and on about the wine omega who didn’t even appreciate him or even what he could do for him?

Katya hadn’t returned home in weeks.

Milan had tried to give Yaroslav an overview of the days he had passed out, and the man just didn’t know what to listen to.

She had given up on catching him up because eventually Yaroslav would learn what it was, he had missed out on and the cost of it all to him.

"What are you talking about?" Yaroslav asked.

And Milan?

She recounted everything for him, again.

From the moment he had been knocked out to Sergei’s admissions.

To his father, hunching over in what looked like an absolute performance, to the point where Sergei had threatened to kill Milan if anyone saw Yaroslav looking drunk, among other things.

She told him of how she had chosen to take him because the man had been too drunk on a lot after the humiliation, and to the point where he was in Milan’s.

"How many days was I out for?" Yadav asked quietly, like he was honestly terrified of what was coming

"Three days, why?" Milan asked like she didn’t already know the weight of her words.

She had already told the man he had passed out for three days, but somehow it was as if the wires in Yaroslav’s head had decided to take a new path connecting.

Because what else could be used to explain?

Yaroslav having Milan recount everything twice in a span of under an hour??

"I was out for three days? My father will kill me, shit," Yaroslav said as he hurriedly got out of the bed and began hurrying out.

He knew that Sergei despised people slacking on work more than he disliked the people he killed. And Yaroslav not being in the meetings, on weekdays, for three days?

That was insane.

He was going to be dead in a few hours, and his father would probably drag his corpse down the streets as a lesson on incompetence to everyone in the city.

"Today is Friday?" Yaroslav asked like he was incredulously unaware rather than trying to catch up on all that there ever was.

"Yeah, why?" Milan asked, and Yaroslav just sighed.

"I am fucked, that’s what. I have to get to the company," Yaroslav hurried out as he tried to think of a proper excuse as to why he was late.

For three whole days.

Oh, he was done for.

"What time is it?" Yaroslav asked on his way out.

"Seven o’clock in the morning... why?" Milan asked, and Yaroslav had just about gotten done with her.

"Girl, if you ask me why, more time you’re going to drive me nuts. I have to get to Knox before my father gets there. We can discuss everything later. And I’m really sorry for whatever I did while I was seamlessly knocked to and drunk.

"I will make it up to you, I promise," Yaroslav said as he kissed Milan’s cheeks, making the woman blush crimson.

She looked like he was so ready to forgive him for smelling like shift and whatnot.

But at the same time, she honestly looked glad that he had signed the papers.

They were administrative leave papers after all...

Right???

Yaroslav saw his car in the driveway and didn’t even wait for the keys.

Thankfully, his car always had a print scanner; otherwise, he would have been so fucked that he would have found his way around anything.

But one thing he was sure of was that his father was definitely going to kill him.