My phone is currently out of battery and discarded between two couch cushions while I watched movies with Ava.
I was planning to charge it whenever Ava finally went down for a rest. But it never happened.
“Well… There have been some changes.” A smile steals across Lily’s face. “Especially for us residents.”
“What do you mean, weird?”
“Like… Remember that billionaire with the helipad?”
My heart sinks. Oh no. Oh fuck. What has Art done?
“Yeah…” I say cautiously
“He, uhh… Bought the whole hospital and doubled pay for residents.”
Lily looks at me expectantly for my reaction.
My mind is so far away it’s on another planet.
Art’s never done anything without an ulterior motive.
I can’t understand what the reasoning behind this is.
“And we get back paid to the start of the year, in recognition of the overwork and discriminatory management practices from the previous staff,” she signs in air quotes.
She squeals, pulling me into a massive hug. “We’re gonna be so damn rich.”
I’m too shocked to respond.
Art bought the hospital?
But why?
8
ARTYOM
The Middlefield acquisition might have set a new record for the fastest, most bloodless deal the Bratva has ever done.
The string of weddings in the family is wearing thin, but the Petrovs are nothing if not shrewd. Cousins, uncles, aunts, even unrelated Bratva people have been congratulating me on the deal.
Denis and Polina even raised a toast in my honor, which was laying it on a bit thick. Whenever my mother and uncle acknowledge my presence, it’s a bad sign.
The deal was hardly my best work. It was child’s play, but it did turn out to be profitable.
Only because the owner had provided us with such a trove of possible blackmail material. Samuel Faro hadn’t left it at just having a second family. Oh no, that would be far too mundane. He was also laundering money through his hospitals, a practice I intend tocontinue, and sourcing entirely unregulated generic drugs through the Argentinian cartel. The Bratva will be taking over supply for all of his hospitals, from now on.
Unless he wanted the money laundering, the second family, or unregulated drug supplies outed to the world, he was going to sell Middlefield to us.
For good measure,I threw an extra hospital with the deal as well.
So I didn’t just acquire a hospital. I acquired two, and the supply arrangements for a further fifteen across the city.
I’m quite pleased with how the whole thing has shaken out. Especially given I would have bought the damn place no matter how little business sense it made. If I’m marrying a doctor, may as well be involved in the industry.
I wish I could see Nina’s reaction to the pay raise I’ve given them. She can put two and two together. She’ll know that this was me.
But family duty calls, and at the moment, that duty is attending the fifth wedding in two weeks. Another toast to the newlyweds with sparkling water, instead of the champagne everyone else is using to numb themselves on this odd occasion.
