Chapter 156: Do you still love her?

When Ian entered Mina's room, the girl seemed to be asleep. Her lips were still purplish, and her breathing stuttered at random times. It was the kind of sound a person made when they were freezing. He adjusted the blanket on Mina's body and her eyes shot open.

"What happened to you?" Ian asked, but Mina did not feel like retelling the entire story.

"I got scared and left the hospital," she said. "I thought I could get here by walking." Ian closed his eyes slowly.

"Do you know how long that walk would have been?" he asked.

"I was already halfway when…" Mina's statement was cut off.

"Halfway?" President Lee asked. "Mina, you walked in this weather for over an hour?" The woman did not catch the concern in Ian's tone.

"I couldn't find Dom or another Lee guard anywhere. I didn't know they were busy," she said. Ian looked at Zane, he knew the man must have told Mina his lie, and it made him feel guilty.

"It's my fault," Ian said. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" Mina nodded before blurting out a sarcastic request.

"Yeah, pull me out of therapy," she joked.

"Done," Ian replied. Mina looked up in disbelief. Had she known he would have agreed, she would have asked for something else, but she would take it as a small victory for now.

"I should get some rest," Mina said, no longer feeling comfortable with President Lee so close to her. "I meet with Dom in the morning." Ian stiffened. He had almost forgotten about her relationship with Dom.

----

Zane was quiet in Ian's study. Miss Ruby had agreed to sleep with Mina that night, and both men were unneeded for now.

"Tell me exactly what happened to her," Ian said. Zane knew his friend was angry, but he saw no point in holding back.

"First tell me why Mina was unguarded," he quipped.

"I was immature. I made a mistake. It won't happen again."

"Right, you made a mistake," Zane retorted. "Ian, did you know that Mina was intimidated by several men in the place where you left her?"

"What do you mean? Did something happen at the hospital?" Ian asked, concerned. Zane ignored the question and asked one of his own.

"Tell me, what do you really want from Mina?" Ian narrowed his eyes. His friend's words were not harsh, but the tone that carried them was unfriendly.

"Did someone in the hospital do something to her?" Ian asked.

"No, but according to Mina, if she had stayed looking for a Lee guard any longer, it might have," Zane replied. "That's not even the best part of the story. Guess who picked her up and drove her here?" Ian was at a loss. He could think of no one. "Remember that Maggie girl that Mina complained about. If it were not for the fact that her future husband still has feelings for Mina, we probably would have found her run down on the side of the road," Zane said.

"What do you mean Maggie and what feelings? Start from the beginning," Ian said.

"All you need to know is that after walking for an hour and a half, Mina was picked up by Maggie and her fiancé; Paul," Zane replied.

Ian remembered Mina saying that Maggie had accused her of being a prostitute in the past and something told him that the ride was unpleasant for her.

"What happened?" Ian asked.

"You can ask Mina yourself," Zane quipped.

----

Maggie was quiet, Paul had forbidden her from mentioning anything bad about Mina in his presence and reminded her that she should not cause trouble for them by sticking her nose in someone else's affair. He knew she disliked Mina for many reasons, but he insisted that she let the past go. Maggie assumed it was because he still loved Mina and when she questioned him about it, he shot back at her with a question of his own.

"Tell me if I weren't there, would you have been able to stop yourself from staring?" Maggie did not know her fiancé had noticed her lingering eyes, but she genuinely would not have done anything.

"Paul, it's not like that. It's just that in the past, he is exactly the type of man I would have gone for."

"Right, and in the past, Mina was the girl I went for, but now I have you." Paul may not have meant for his statement to come off as an insult, but it hit Maggie hard.

"Do you still love her?" She asked and got a hard 'no' in response.

"I am with you, but if you can't let the past go, how do you expect me to?" Paul was telling his woman the truth. If she could not let go of Mina and move on, she would be forcing him to confront the feelings that he worked hard to shove down all those years ago. Maggie agreed, but in her heart, her hatred for Mina only grew.

----

Zane and Ian set the matter regarding Mina aside and started to address the several other issues that needed to be handled. Both men were usually level-headed, and they knew when to set their pride aside.

On the inside, Ian was still angry that his friend refused to tell him what happened between Maggie and Mina, but he knew the man had already decided not to help him.

Ian recapped Zane on the complete situation in Sani and his friend, who had only heard stories about Mills, felt himself swaying toward Ian's side once again.

Zane also knew that Drax was obsessed with Mills, and he now somewhat believed that Ian was genuinely distracted by the complexity of it all to bother with Mina, but a part of him knew that none of it would have happened if Ian had not been petty. In the end, Zane sympathized with his friend of ten years, but he made sure not to let it show.

----

Ian and Zane sat in his study on a conference call with Milo, who had been found by Lee soldiers mere minutes after he ended his call with president Lee. Mills was being treated at the best hospital in the country. Her kidney had sustained a grade two laceration, but it would not require surgery. The injury that was the deepest had miraculously missed all her internal organs, but her blood loss sent her into shock. Mills was still in a deep sleep and would need to stay in the hospital for at least two weeks. Abdominal injuries were often deadly and sometimes, additional complications were discovered days after the initial treatment. Ian finally called Drax.