Chapter 381: The Warmth Of Milk And Honey

[FROLO]

The white walls of the Aslava General Hospital looked like they had the first time she had come on assignment here. The stench of disinfectants filled her lungs as she walked toward the private wards.

So many patients had been brought in, but none was more delicate than the one she had helped create.

And now, in a white coat, entrusted by the hospital staff, Meera was now Doctor Marjan Malik. A trauma surgeon who had just arrived to take care of the patient who no one really understood.

"Good afternoon, Doc," the nurse on duty greeted her as she handed over the chart.

"Pietro," the patient file read. It was the only name that was listed there, and the reason was pretty straightforward.

That was the only name the man remembered.

Pietro.

"How many days has it been since he was flushed?" Meera asked, and the nurse stared at her skeptically. Almost like she wasn’t sure this was the right person for the job.

But was there ever a right person for an overly doped-up patient who didn’t even know the first thing about himself?

"An hour ago, Doctor," the nurse said regardless.

"An hour? Why is the patient not in the emergency room then?" she asked as she stared at the man on the bed.

She knew him so well.

She had suggested they pick him up when Rastenkin had brought up Project Daniil.

She had looked at this man and decided to transform him into the perfect patient. And if it wasn’t for the fact that Sergei had asked them for three days, they would have made more of the man.

But now time was running.

The boss wanted three days.

And the Myrtles would give the three days.

"He looks terrible," Meera mumbled like she didn’t make the scars and incisions herself.

"I call dibs on breaking his ribs," she had volunteered since she had kidnapped this man weeks ago. When she had realized that this man bore the perfect characteristics of what Aleksandr’s Joe would look like in the present.

It was not even the most diabolical thing she had ever done with her group of delinquents. But fun had to be had, right?

"Was he beaten up before admission? He looks like shit," Meera said like she wasn’t there when Elara had snapped the man’s neck after they tortured him stupid and planted memories of Joe into him.

Like she wasn’t there when Reeves had altered his DNA to match that of a boy who had died thirty years ago by their hands.

Like she didn’t see Rastenkin put drugs into the man’s stomach after they cut him open in a bid to learn modern science for future experiments.

But now here she was.

The doctor.

The white coat that was supposed to scream safety, yet even with that white coat on, with the free chemicals in this room and the disinfectant, she could do worse damage than she and her friends had already done.

"No one knows where he came from," the nurse sighed softly, watching as the new doctor took care of the patient. As she checked him out like she was feeling terrible for him.

Empathy that could be easily weaponized was what Sergei had seen in Meera the first time he recruited her to be part of the Myrtles. And now here she was.

"Alright. I’ll stay and monitor him. Come check in every twenty to thirty minutes just in case," she added to the nurse, who just nodded.

It was not that surprising for her because patients who had high dosages of drugs in their systems always needed round-the-clock care.

And when the woman went away...

When the door shut behind her...

Meera stared at the man properly.

She remembered the first time she’d met him, back when the streets had been crueler than the monster the city called Sergei. Back when she ate from the bins of Frolo and survived on dirty water and trash cans more than healthy food like everyone else.

It was his fault.

The man lying on this bed.

The man whom she had voluntarily tortured at the nursing home for so long that the man only had memories of what they had planted in him.

"You look ripe for the taking," he had said to her at an auction dinner.

She was just a little girl.

Twelve and homeless.

Lured with the promise of fresh food, hoping that life would be better. She knew he would break her heart, but then he told her what no one had.

"I’ll take you to school," he’d promised her.

And Meera had not thought twice about the offer. Because education was one of the ways to get close to Sergei.

Not because she had a vendetta with Sergei.

But because if everything everyone said about Sergei was true, then she would work hard enough to be worthy of Sergei Moskwosky’s attention.

Because Sergei was the ultimate protector. The man she knew would never abandon her if she had proven herself worthy.

Because a man who could burn the realm for his son was definitely an honorable man.

Meera had let herself be lured.

Only that school became a pipe dream. And auctions from age twelve through fourteen had become her life. The man on the bed today had sold her like a brood mare, exploited her in corridors she had never known existed.

The girl who wanted education was reduced to the girl who was passed around the elites in the underworld.

Until that night.

The night Sergei Moskowsky came to the auction.

Meera should have been scared, terrified of the Devil of Frolo.

But the moment Sergei had walked into the auction and saw the kids, he looked disgusted.

Not performative.

Just pure disgust.

"Merchandise..." the man on this bed had called them.

"Children..." Sergei Moskwosky had corrected.

Freedom... Sergei Moskwosky had given them with just a sentence.

"The next time I hear you’re selling children, I will pull your insides out through your mouth myself," Sergei had warned.

And like many, the man on the bed had heeded.

But as time went by, the networks came to life again.

Eighteen was her age when Meera was brought back to the auction halls.

Not as a product this time.

But as a waitress, or rather...

An escort.

Again, Sergei Moskwosky came to the auction hall. And Meera was offered to him this time. A simple transaction.

"Save me, please," Meera had mouthed when she noticed Sergei was about to say no. He always said no to escorts because, for Sergei Moskwosky, no one was worth anything other than Yaroslav.

It was no secret in the city.

And Meera knew she was gambling.

But when Sergei agreed to be entertained by her, Meera mumbled a prayer.

Because in a den of demons and monsters, you could always trust Sergei Moskwosky.

"You were at the auction five years ago," Sergei had said like he remembered.

"He lied to me. Said he’d take me to school. Took me off the streets, only to bring me to a life worse than the streets," Meera had presented her case to the most dangerous man in Frolo.

"If you manage to destroy him and leave him as a vegetable, I’ll consider saving you from here. I only save whoever can save themselves," Sergei had said before giving Meera the tools to go after her monster.

Fast forward to thirteen years later...

She was in the same hospital room as the man who had ruined her life. Watching as he breathed, and only knew himself as Pietro.

And Meera was in Sergei’s circle. In a lab coat with the name doctor Marjan Malik. The name might have been fake, but the title was as real as it could ever be.

Because she had won her battle. And her savior never disappointed her. He’d schooled her in what she had wanted to do best.

General Surgery. And she’d specialized. In Trauma.

So, pulling a syringe from her pocket, she stared at the gray liquid inside.

Three days, Sergei had asked.

And three days Sergei would get.

Even if Doctor Meera had to be Doctor Marjan Malik.

Even if her captor, a former high-society man, was now on the bed, beaten up because she had helped.

But karma never really did much, especially when Sergei was the one helping.

"Fuck you," she said to the patient on the bed, right as the door opened to reveal a haggard-looking former senator of Frolo.

Her second assignment of the day.

"Joe..." she watched Alek breathe tiredly, and a smirk played under the mask she was wearing.

Because Meera knew this man was not Joe.

Would never be Joe.

This man... with a whole different face and features...

Was Raul Kosov.

The former Kumarin Bratva leader.

The OG leader.

The man who sat in that seat before Kenzo helped Alek take it.