Chapter 77: Lies Detected-2

Mina repeated the question to herself several times in her mind. She was confused by the line of questioning but did not want to get hung up on it. It appeared that President Lee was looking for any excuse to justify killing her, but she would not give him the pleasure of being innocent. She would answer every question no matter how embarrassing as honestly as possible, whatever he did with the answers would be on him. She however would have a clear conscience.

"Before I knew what your brother looked like I already liked reading about him. Then he was featured in a magazine and suddenly there was a face to the person I once admired. I had a few dreams before, but nothing too serious. Also, I don't know what you mean by 'want'." Luna understood that Mina may not have been aware of how far her crush on Ian may have gone, so she skipped to the next question.

"Mina, about wanting a child…" Luna allowed the end of the question to drag.

"Did I lie about that?" Mina asked.

"You did," Luna replied. Mina laughed self-deprecatingly.

"I told you I may have had a dream or two before I knew what your brother was really like. Ask me those two questions in present tense, I am sure my answer of 'no', will be truthful," Mina said.

Hearing Mina's response, Luna came up with a spontaneous question. She wanted to get a sense of who Mina was not just as a person, but as a woman.

"Mina, did you know that my brother has a long-term girlfriend?" Mina was silent. She did not think that President Lee had a girlfriend, but she was not sure. She had never heard anything about him being in a relationship and she just assumed he was not. Mina took a long and deep breath before answering.

"No." Mina told the truth. Luna could sense a tinge of guilt in Mina's voice. The girl obviously had not known, and the polygraph machine backed her up

After a fourth round of questioning, Luna asked Mina the follow up questions regarding her criminal record. Surprisingly, the girl was telling the truth. Luna, who already liked Mina's resilience, grew to like her a bit more. It was a shame that Lisa was her friend, otherwise, she might have been a little nicer to Mina. That aside, Luna could not understand how someone so street savvy could fall into such a trap. Luna excused herself from the room, leaving Mina behind in President Lee's study.

----

Mina had been locked up in one room for the last three weeks and she could no longer sit still. She was going to die soon anyway, so she took the opportunity to casually browse through the large collection of books that covered the walls. Each book sent shivers down her spine. A lot of them were not available in digital format and were either considered too rare to lend out in a public library or were always checked out. For the man to have his own personal copy, was truly amazing. Mina was not envious though, instead she felt more hatred. Someone who had so much power; why was he sleeping in a regular suite in one of his own hotels?

Mina knew that she would have fled the scene if she were sent to a presidential suite. She only went through with it because it was a room that any person with a good job could afford. That thought left Mina with a heavy heart. President Lee must have known she was coming, so he stayed in a less secure room. 'How else would he have known I was there?' She thought.

----

Ian was just hanging up with the police chief of Scal City's first district. The man adamantly denied knowing a Mina Harlow, but his tone sounded nervous. Ian took him at his word, hung up, and called Zane. He asked him to put a tail on the chief for the next three weeks. Zane who was still pissed at his best friend refused to help and ended the call. Ian was shocked. He looked at his handset wondering if he had heard wrong, but the call was dropped, and Zane had definitely said 'no' just now.

Ian had the feeling that he was transported to another dimension. He was about to call Zane back when he saw Luna making her way down the stairs. His sister handed him the polygraph results and looked at him with an expression that said, 'what now?'

Mina had told the truth on almost every question. Luna explained to Ian that both questions Mina lied on were emotional responses of the body that she could not control. All evidence proved that Mina's sister died after the car went over the bridge that day. The other question was not significant enough to Luna for her to repeat. However, to Ian, that question was one of the most important. His sister did not know that though, thus she did not include it in the results. Looking over the questions, Ian saw the result of the one that annoyed him.

"Luna, why did you tell Mina I have a girlfriend?"

"It was spontaneous," she admitted.

"Don't you think it's a little cruel? Isn't it akin to kicking her while she was down?" Ian asked.

Without waiting for a reply Ian told his sister that she was wrong. Luna of course knew this, but it was an impulse. She knew that Mina had a crush on her brother, and it bothered her that a woman could want someone who belonged to another. She had not thought about anything other than embarrassing Mina and yes, that was wrong. Especially since Mina was clueless. Luna did not know her brother was referring to the question itself.

Thinking that his sister realized her mistake, Ian pulled out his phone to call Zane again, but he did not answer. Ian then asked his sister to call Zane and unsurprisingly a charming voice rang out from the phone. Ian could not hear exactly what he was saying but his sister laughed a little too loud for his liking. Seeing her brother's annoyed face, Luna quickly asked Zane to come to the Lee mansion, but before he could ask why; Ian grabbed the phone and spoke.

"So, you're ignoring me now?" The line died and Ian's face fell.

"What's going on with you two?" Luna asked.

"I'm going to kill him," Ian responded, before he walked away.

Ian entered his study almost forgetting that Mina was still there. The girl was silently looking at the book titles in the room. He cleared his throat and she jumped so hard he could not stop himself from laughing a little. She must not have heard him come in.

Mina looked at Ian's smiling face and, in that moment, she allowed every negative emotion she felt toward him to pour out of her eyes. Her gaze was so cold and vicious that it carried a chill with it, and he knew what her eyes were telling him. She hated him; she hated him with every fiber of her being.