My Ex-Convict Beggar Husband Is Now a Trillionaire novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: Dismissed
Bernard has the head nurse fired in front of the lobby and finds that Desmond Ashburton ordered the payments blocked.
Bernard Gage did not wait for an answer.
He took off his own coat and laid it over Carolyn.
"Stretcher," he said to the men behind him.
"Now."
Two of them carried one out of the second car, and a third knelt and checked her pulse with practiced fingers.
"She's alive," the man said.
"Her heart rate is low. We need a cardiac team."
"Not in there," Caleb said.
He looked at the lobby doors.
"They'll throw her out again."
"They will not," Bernard said.
He stood, and the snow settled on his silver hair.
"Mr. Merrick, will you walk back in with me?"
Caleb lifted his mother with the men and followed the stretcher through the glass doors.
His shirt was still wrapped around her feet.
The lobby had gone quiet.
The head nurse stood in the middle of it with her mouth half open.
"Sir, you can't bring her back here," she said.
"The account is closed."
"Get me the director," Bernard said.
"He's in a meeting."
"Then I will wait here. I will not wait long."
He took out his phone and tapped a single contact.
"Bernard Gage for the director of St. Anselm," he said into it.
"You have one minute, or the Skyward trust will call its note on your new wing before lunch."
He hung up.
The younger nurse lowered her phone.
The head nurse crossed her arms.
"Skyward," she said.
"I'm sure."
The doors at the end of the hall opened.
A thin man in a gray suit came toward them at nearly a run, still holding his napkin.
"Mr. Gage," he said.
"Mr. Gage, what is this?"
"This is Mr. Merrick." Bernard pointed at Caleb.
"He holds the largest single stake in Skyward Technologies. His mother has been a patient in your building for three years."
The director's face lost its color.
"Mr. Merrick," he said, and then he looked at the stretcher, at the gown, at the thin blue lips.
"What happened here?"
"Ask her," Caleb said.
He nodded at the head nurse.
"She told two men to throw my mother onto the sidewalk in the snow."
"Because she hasn't paid in a year." The head nurse took a step back.
"Policy says."
"Whose policy?" Bernard asked.
"Ours."
"Then you will show me the policy, and the account, and the name of everyone who touched it."
The director turned on her.
"Is this true?"
"Sir, he was a stranger from the street. He showed us a fake screenshot."
"I am a stranger from the street?" Caleb said.
He did not raise his voice.
"You told me I looked like I slept in a drain."
The younger nurse made a small sound and covered her mouth.
"Sir," she said to the director, "I only filmed it because she told me to."
"Quiet," the head nurse said.
"No. You laughed. You called him a dog." The younger nurse started to cry.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Caleb looked at her for a long moment.
"Delete the video," he said.
She dropped her phone on the floor with a clatter.
Bernard lifted it, deleted the video himself and handed the phone back.
"Mr. Director," he said.
"Mrs. Merrick goes upstairs in the next three minutes, to a private room with your best cardiac surgeon at her bedside. Every cost goes to the Skyward trust."
"Of course." The director was already waving.
"Of course. Immediately."
"The head nurse is dismissed," Bernard said.
"Effective now, in front of this lobby."
"You can't fire me in front of patients," the head nurse said.
"He can't. I have seniority."
"You had seniority," the director said.
He did not look at her.
"Leave your badge on the desk, and a security officer will walk you out the same doors."
She stared at him.
"Walk," Caleb said quietly.
"Out through the snow. Barefoot, if you like."
"I'll walk," she said.
Her voice shook.
She put her badge on the counter and went to the doors with her chin down.
Every patient and visitor in the lobby watched her go.
The younger nurse followed her out, weeping, with her phone clutched against her chest.
Nobody laughed.
Upstairs, Caleb stood outside the glass of the ICU room and watched the doctors cut away his mother's gown and put a line in her arm.
Her chest moved up and down under the machines.
Bernard stood beside him with a folder.
"She will be stable by evening," he said.
"The surgeon says the operation can be done this week."
"Thank you."
"Do not thank me, Mr. Merrick. You pay my salary."
Caleb almost smiled.
"What is that?"
Bernard opened the folder.
"The hospital's records. The first two years, a payment arrived on the first of every month. A transfer, from a private account."
"From Chantal?"
"I do not know yet. The payments stopped a year ago, and the hospital was ordered to block any new ones."
He turned the page and laid it on the glass.
The order at the bottom had a signature, and the name beside it was printed in clean capitals.
Desmond Ashburton.
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