Free Web NovelChapter 53: The Lonely Scent of Home
[FROLO]
Away from the epicenter of madness in Moskowsky Holdings, and in the Romanov household a few miles away, was a family that had lingering questions.
A family that honestly didn’t understand what the fuck was happening. It was as if they knew one thing, while the truth was a whole other thing altogether. Maybe it was insane, but what were the odds of this insanity creeping up to ruin their lives?
"Romanov!!" Masha shouted for her husband. She was watching the news, waiting to get better before she too got back to work.
Her family had been having a hard time because of her heart issues, and honestly, she was worried for them. She knew how they had worked hard to get to this point.
Her husband had been good to her, loving as always, caring as usual, and Romanov never made her feel like she was a burden. They were trying to manage, however hard it got sometimes.
However, right now, as she stared at the television, as she saw the live feed from what was supposed to be her child’s workplace, she couldn’t help but be confused.
"Romanov!! Hurry and see this!!" Masha shouted as she tried to piece together what she was watching, because it absolutely made no sense whatsoever.
One of her son’s best friends was there, fighting with her son’s husband. It was a fight that looked unhinged on so many levels.
Because while they knew Svetlana despised Yaroslav with everything she had and did not have, Mrs. Romanov had not expected that Svetlana, her composed Svetlana, would lose her shit in front of everyone like that.
To her, Svet was a sweet girl who never hurt anyone. She was the kindest soul that many had ever met, of course, alongside Andre and, of course, her sweet Katya, her Michka.
Masha knew Andre was very, very dangerous.
The man was a former special ops soldier who chose to live a normal life after two tours. His first stop after discharge was the Romanov household, as if it were his home.
But even the comfort of their home had not been enough to keep Andre sane.
Because Andre had the temper of Satan himself.
He was that bad.
"What is it, honey? Please don’t tell me you want me to watch that powder commercial you think will be good for when Michka gives us grandkids!" Mr. Romanov shouted back, but his voice kept coming closer.
Of course, his wife was always his priority, not to mention the fact that with Katya busy at work, they would have to make do since their son had been away from work for too long now.
"Svetlana choked Yaroslav unconscious," Masha said, still in disbelief.
This kind of temperament was always associated with Andre.
Not Svet.
Or at least that was what the Romanovs knew.
Andre had a kind of temper that people who knew him, who really knew him, were very much aware that he would burn the world for his friends, especially the omega in their friend group.
Katya Romanov.
And right now, as Masha Romanova stared at the screen before her, watching Svetlana do what she had always believed Andre was capable of, Masha was surprised to say the least.
Granted, she was aware that, for some reason not known to her and her husband, Andre, and Svetlana despised Yaroslav.
So much so that one time, Masha had seen the former soldier warn Yaroslav against hurting Katya, and it wasn’t a soft warning.
Andre didn’t care that Yaroslav was the son of the most powerful man in Frolo. He only cared that Yaroslav had stressed Katya and needed to give retribution for it.
Yaroslav had gone home to Katya, and the omega had nursed him, yet never once did Yaroslav ever mention the beating he took from Andre.
But Katya knew.
Because his friends had caught him crying that Yaro had cheated again, and they had taken matters into their own hands.
"Do you mean Andre? Please tell me he didn’t kill someone, for Michka, again," Mr. Romanov sighed exasperatedly.
He, too, knew his son’s friends.
Andre had murdered one of Katya’s grad school classmates three months before his official discharge from the army because that man had been making Katya uncomfortable.
Katya had tried to tell Andre that it was all right, but Andre had murdered the man, while Svetlana helped him hide the body.
"I’m sorry for killing him, but he wasn’t even that hard to chop into pieces, for some with a runny mouth," Andre had apologized at the dinner table in the Romanov household, as if it were just something they were used to.
And maybe they were.
It was safe to say that the Romanov steel plant had become a dumping site for the bodies Andre dropped.
"No, look. I mean, Svetlana. She just snapped the beta’s neck like it was nothing. Do you think she is hanging around Andre too much? Should we keep them busy with other things so they can rest and go back to being normal people?" Masha asked worriedly.
Usually, keeping the friends apart only worked for a few hours because they always found their way to each other, but at least then the Romanovs were sure that their son’s friends would be good, especially Andre.
After all, Andre would always be composed. But the behavior they were seeing was unhinged.
"Why would she choke her friend’s husband like that?" Mr. Romanov asked as he rounded the couch and sat beside his wife, kissing her temple gently out of habit.
Masha leaned on her husband’s shoulder as they watched the chaos unfold.
Mr. Romanov, however, was suspicious of all this.
Svet was the calm one.
Andre was the explosive one.
And yet only Svet was there.
"Apparently, Michka hasn’t been to work in three weeks," Masha said, like that was the most absurd of things.
It sounded impossible, truly.
"Michka?" Mr. Romanov asked in earnest confusion.
"He should be at work right now, shouldn’t he? Didn’t he even call us last Friday during lunch hours? Today... He called this morning, though, right?" Mr. Romanov asked like that was the most insane of accusations.
It made no sense that their son was not going to work.
Katya was not the kind to skip work.
They had been honest with him ever since the chairman’s appointment, and most of the Romanov allies who worked with the Moskowsky group had confirmed seeing his son at work even last week. So, what was Svet talking about?
"Where is he? Where is Romanov? Katya Romanov? What did you do to him?" The Romanovs watched Svetlana pose the question to Sergei Moskowsky with so much rage in her eyes that it didn’t look like a performance.
Not to mention the fact that Svet and Andre had always, always, been very protective of Katya.
However, seeing the calmest of the best friends be there dropping bodies raised more questions than answers.
The fact that Andre wasn’t even there raised more questions. freёweɓnovel.com
Because it sold the Romanovs what they didn’t want to think of.
The situation was bad.
So bad that Svetlana, their son’s most emotionally controlled friend, had to step up and ask the questions and drop the bodies.
"Maybe they have been hanging out with Andre too much," Mr. Romanov added, as if he alone hadn’t noticed the inconsistencies in Katya’s behavior these past three weeks.
"Romanov... I can’t lose my child," Masha whimpered softly.
"You won’t, sweetheart. We won’t lose him."
