Chapter 422: Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

[FROLO]

Rastenkin.

Rastenkin Vladimirovich.

He was here.

He had no business being here.

But he was.

Even with Kenzo beside him, Alek knew the bitter truth. None of that would matter. Not where Rastenkin was involved. The man was the very weapon formed against Aleksandr’s sanity.

But he would not let Rastenkin win.

He knew the man was trying to destabilize him by calling him Daniil. But then Alek was just a man with a traumatic past. He had to decide whether to let it cost him his sanity and more people, because at this rate, Aleksandr the strategist was needed.

Not Daniil, the ruined boy Rastenkin had broken years ago.

"You alright?" Kenzo asked, and Alek let out a sigh he hadn’t even realized he was holding. He knew it was crazy, but Kenzo grounded him.

The hand Kenzo put on his shoulder, the soft squeeze as if to snap Aleksandr out of whichever void he was trapped in, was all that Alek needed to remember who he was here as.

The senator who had made a declaration he couldn’t take back.

That was who he was within the walls of this building... right?

"Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s get this over and done with," Alek said, straightening up again. Carefully, he stepped forward before pushing open the door that led to his prosecutor. Or maybe he was overthinking again, right?

"Hello, Mrs. Smirnova," Alek greeted when they walked in.

He didn’t bother greeting Rastenkin because, honestly, he knew that nothing good would ever come from interacting with the man. Maybe he was being stupid, or keeping his peace.

After all, he could assume the woman from his past was the only one in the room, not the shopkeeper who set the city into a frenzy every time his name was mentioned.

"Kenzo, you look better than the last time I saw you. Actually, the last time we met, the boy was a scared little shit, and you were just a butler for that family," Rastenkin taunted when he noticed Alek trying to be normal.

It was fun for him, cornering Alek like that. But at the same time, the shopkeeper hadn’t even begun yet. He was just saying hello like normal people... right?

Meanwhile, Alek stared at the woman.

The one who had managed to get him out of the house.

He looked at her like this was the first time he was facing such a reality, and hells be damned if every breath he took after looking at her wasn’t ragged as shit.

It was her.

Not a copy of her.

Mrs. Smirnova had the same scent as him.

One of the few scents Aleksandr would never be able to forget, no matter how much time passed, because of the familiarity that lingered.

Alek had been hoping it was manufactured, that it was like his Joe, but now the papers he had gotten under that pillow made sense.

"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes," was the main message from all the content Alek had pulled out of that pillow.

He had played games before.

He’d never thought hard about it.

But now...

Here, staring at this woman, Alek couldn’t help but look over to Rastenkin’s side. The man who was staring at Kenzo like he was excited for their reunion.

Alek didn’t have a reason to trust Rastenkin or believe whatever the man said, but life as it was had proven to be very, very chaotic.

Which was why, as Aleksandr pretended to pull his phone out of the pocket of his pants to hide his trembling fingers, Alek was now sure the Moskowskys were devils walking the realm so casually.

"You haven’t said much, Mr. Daniil," Mrs. Smirnova said, and Alek almost cried.

Mr. Daniil.

He used to be just Daniil.

He used to be the person who didn’t have to worry about much.

He used to cry himself to sleep because he wanted Joe to cuddle him and would smile when Joe held him close.

That was Daniil. And Rastenkin had snatched that away from him.

Now he was here with this woman who was blasted from his past, and he didn’t know whether to pray or curse everyone and everything.

Gods, it was hard.

"Aleksandr. My name is Aleksandr Petrov, Mrs. Smirnova. Shall we begin with the papers and process?" Alek said coldly, trying to save himself from another forced trip into the past.

But then she was here.

In the present.

And Alek knew that whether he liked it or not, something had changed.

Nothing would ever be the same anymore.

In the middle of the briefings and discussions, Rastenkin would let out laughs and remind Alek of how soft he used to be as a beta.

"He protected you with his last breath," Rastenkin chuckled darkly an hour later, when they were almost done.

He wasn’t even exaggerating.

It was a fact.

And Alek had forever remained haunted by the love that had sacrificed everything for him.

"You looked so hopeful weeks ago when I sent a fake Joe to you... Tell me something, Daniil, was his touch the same?" Rastenkin laughed lowly.

Alek clenched his fists.

Kenzo... Kenzo gritted his teeth.

"We are not here to discuss a version of my boss that you think you remember," Kenzo snapped, his voice protective, and Rastenkin just laughed at him still.

"You mean his natural form? He was born a beta. His father was a beta. The boy was brought up a beta; that doesn’t change just because his precious joe died and changed him," Rastenkin stated as a matter of fact.

Maybe he was hoping it was Aleksandr’s greatest insecurity, or maybe it was just the fact that, at the end of the day, life was bound to change no matter how hard things got on both ends.

"Does serving him remind you of how loyal you were to Joram? So loyal that you forgot how to keep your young master safe and gave in to the longest assignment of your life?" Rastenkin asked casually, flipping a page of the charges filed.

"Does he remind you of the young master who was so strong, who wasn’t scared of death until the end? Did you know he begged me to leave? To take everything from him and leave without harming Daniil or you?

"He was willing to cooperate, that naive boy," Rastenkin chuckled darkly, looking up at Alek, who was gritting his teeth hard.

"Careful. We don’t want you toothless before the year ends... Alpha," Rastenkin mocked, his words haunting Alek.

This man was cruel.

Way too cruel.

"We didn’t come here to listen to you," Kenzo intervened, silently hoping that things would be better after this. But even he knew they would never be.

Rastenkin was attacking Aleks’s greatest insecurity and pain, and Aleksandr was struggling to keep steady. It was not easy, but hells be damned if the smug look on Rastenkin’s face didn’t tell them both that this wasn’t even the end yet.

That he had more.

"I don’t work in this office. You came to Mrs. Smirnova. I’m just here to pass time. Surely you didn’t think that the shopkeeper would be stuck behind a desk;

"... instead of committing murders, like shooting Joram thrice and feeling nothing, right?" Rastenkin laughed sinisterly; the casual tone he was using was something that triggered Aleksandr more than anything.

The man was not ready for his past, and Mrs. Smirnova here was also the reminder of it all.

Perhaps the woman had forgotten their past?

Perhaps they had cleaned her memory and rewritten them, right?

"I didn’t experiment on her like I did with fake Joe," Rastenkin said like he could read the questions in Aleksandr’s eyes. The alpha was trying to keep it steady.

"She has her memories. All of them. While I did, in fact, murder Joram, I didn’t kill this woman. You can ask her yourself later," Rastenkin urged like he was talking about how beautiful the weather had become.

And Alek, for all his composure, felt his sanity slip away.

What the hell was Rastenkin even talking about?

"No... I don’t believe you," Alek said, giving in to the coercion and temptation.

"She was hidden under the floorboard when we came in. Simple, pretty, but not naive to the operation that went on in that house. I didn’t even know she was there until I murdered Joram," Rastenkin laughed, amused as he recalled the day.

Aleksandr saw Mrs. Smirnova’s hand tighten on the pen she was holding.

"Come on, Kenzo. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize her, or you too believe that she is another fake I sent?" Rastenkin mocked, and Kenzo froze.

They had been played before.

"We are here to tell you of your charges and make sure you adhere to the law," Kenzo said, forcing himself to sit straight.

"We both know all that could have been done electronically. You came to see if this was the woman you remember," Rastenkin said amusedly before adding:

"Don’t let me stop you from interacting with each other. It’s been, what... thirty years since you saw Joram’s mother? I’ll leave you to it," Rastenkin said, getting up.

Turning to Mrs. Smirnova, Rastenkin pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed it, making the woman scream loudly in so much pain, pressing both her ears in.

"If she tries to leave because of you, I’ll make her suffer in ways worse than you could even think of. Don’t test me. And you will have been the reason your beloved Joe’s mother dies a hundred times over in one lifetime for real this time, Daniil."

Then Rastenkin walked out.

At the door...

"No one will come to save her. This particular office is soundproof... see you soon, Beta Daniil."