Chapter 30: Brown

Mina's eyes opened wide. She had subconsciously imagined herself in a scene from some trash novelty book she had read out of boredom. Her mind suddenly recalled the time where she felt the loneliest. She had been reading lots of love stories and they had made her heart ache with jealousy of a fairytale love story. The kind where the 'Cinderella' always got her prince. It was also around that time that Mina had been researching President Lee. She wondered if the books she had been reading influenced her infatuation with him. She silently cursed herself for dabbling in such an embarrassing hobby. She was no Cinderella, and he was no prince. He had taken something from her she could never get back. It was not romantic. It was not loving. It was not gentle, and as if to rub it in her face, all of it was removed from her memory and she was only left with the scars to prove it was real.

For the first time since being locked in this room, Mina truly felt miserable. She cried deeply, she took advantage of the fact that she was alone, so she could make as much noise as she wanted, and no one would hear. Mina cried out all her frustrations, she cried for her sister, she cried for her parents, she cried for Miss Maggie, but above all she cried for herself. She did not know how many hours it had been before sleep finally took her in its embrace. She allowed herself to be swept away in the peacefulness of nothing.

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Ian was drunk when Lisa called. He answered the phone in a flat tone that startled her. She instinctively picked up on his mood and figured she had called him at a bad time. Lisa quickly blurted out a question she had been wanting to ask Ian all day but was too shy. Now that he did not sound happy on the phone, she lost her courage, but she was reminded of the email her brother sent her and pushed herself to ask.

"Ian, I'm thinking about changing something about myself. I want to color my hair. What color do you think would suit me best?" Lisa asked, but she did not expect him to answer.

"Brown." Ian said this without hesitation, and for some reason she was a little disappointed. She had hoped he would tell her she was fine the way she was, but he did not.

Ian ended the call and left Lisa confused on the other end. He was reverting to his old self, she needed to move fast. She quickly called someone and made an appointment with her hairdresser for the next day. She had originally planned to innocently sneak her way into Ian's bed, but that plan was ruined by work. Now, she had to force her way into it. If he wanted fitted dresses and brown hair so be it. She would do whatever it took to make him hers.

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Zane had left hours ago, but Ian continued to drink alone. He was beginning to feel the liquor and drunkenly made his way up to his study. As if possessed by obsession, he flipped open his laptop. He wanted to have a look at Mina, just a peek. Suddenly Ian remembered something, he had not watched the footage from the hotel room. He was very curious about what he would find on it.

Ian navigated to the folder containing the video recording from that night. He turned on his speakers and scrolled forward to where he could hear himself offer Mina the chocolate. He heard himself ask Mina why she was crying, and he heard the girl self-deprecatingly confess that she was crying because she was dumb. He heard himself laugh and tell her that he thought she was very smart. The girl scoffed, and then Ian heard himself ask her about where she had trained. He wanted to know if she were a spy, an assassin, or a mixture of both. Mina denied being trained as a spy or assassin. Ian heard himself complain about feeling weird and Mina agreed that she also did not feel quite right.

Ian paused the frame and took a few deep breaths. He was not sure he wanted to hear Mina scream or cry in agony. He was not sure that he wanted to revisit this day. He closed the window on the screen and decided he would watch it again when he no longer had romantic feelings toward a stranger.

Ian wanted to collapse into bed, but he still wanted to see Mina. He opened the security camera in her room and saw that she had already gone to bed. Her chest was rising and falling erratically as if she had been crying. Ian's heart clenched as he thought about how the girl must have been suffering. He did not know why, but over the last few days, he believed her story more and more.

Ian knew that the drug in his system should have lost its potency by now, so why was he still so taken by this woman?

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It was early evening and Lisa had made her way into a luxurious spa. She instructed the technicians to remove every inch of dead skin and hair from her body. She wanted to be smooth and fresh for Ian. After being waxed, Lisa was asked to soak in a tub of hot mineral water. When her skin was soft and red, she was led to a table in the room and two middle aged women came in and began to vigorously scrub her body with textured cloth. Lisa tightened her eyes, but she endured the pain. She wanted Ian to be so captivated by her that he would lose his common sense and give her what she wanted. Lisa's face turned red as she thought about what was going to happen tomorrow. She had always wanted Ian to be her first, and she knew she would be his. If she could make a lasting impression on him and make him crave her, she would get her baby and she would get her ring. After that, the Anders family would be a memory from her past.