Chapter 162: What about Cylus?

With nothing better to do, Luna sat in her hotel room and rented a movie. She seldom watched anything other than business and world news, but she wanted to use her remaining days abroad as vacation time. Usually Luna would have rescheduled her flight and headed straight home, but she was in no mood to deal with Lisa, Ian or even Mina for that matter. She hoped the girl would be well in her absence, but just in case, she left word with her nan to check in with Mina from time to time.

So far, Luna had not received any bad news, other than the false alarm when they thought Mina had run away. While she was not clear on the details, she was contented by the fact that the girl was safely returned to the Lee mansion.

Luna's phone rang; Lisa was calling again. She rolled her eyes and answered.

----

(The night before.)

After her conversation with Luna, Lisa called her contact within the Lee mansion. The woman told her that from what she could determine, President Lee had accompanied Mina to the hospital because the girl was in some sort of danger. The woman also told Miss Lisa that President Lee had even forgotten about the girl, and that Mina was forced to walk back to the Lee mansion. The revelation made Lisa smile. Her Ian was as cold and aloof to others as always.

Lisa thought about the several times Ian had forgotten about their plans, and she felt a certain sort of comfort that she always had her own transportation available to her. She found herself hating Mina, the freeloader, even more. The girl was obviously after some sort of pity. If Ian had truly forgotten about her, she could have called a taxi or called a friend to fetch her, but Mina chose to walk instead. Lisa ended the call with the maid and tried to determine her rivals' motive.

----

It was the next day and Lisa was still lost in thought. She remembered that she had not fully exposed Mina's lies about her status. From what Lisa was able to find out, the girl had never attended Wayvair and all the information Mina used to secure her position within the Lee group, and to solidify her friendship with Luna, was a lie.

Lisa was aware that in the final years of university, Luna had become a people pleaser. She went from being withdrawn and reserved to being open and extroverted. The change was extreme, but by that time, their friendship had already dissolved.

If Mina had met Luna during that period, it might explain why the woman was so eager to trust, and now that Mina was helping the Lee group with business matters, Lisa wondered if the girl was actually using the opportunity to thrust herself into a scandal. She sat up at the thought of Mina having hired the photographer herself. Lisa snatched her phone to call Luna.

When the call connected, her friend sounded distracted on the line. Lisa recalled their conversation the night before and was afraid to offend Luna once again.

"Are you busy?" Lisa asked cautiously.

"Just watching a movie," Luna admitted. Lisa was put off.

'Does Luna watch television?' she thought.

"What's up? Did you get to talk to my brother yet?" Luna asked.

"I did," Lisa lied. "He told me that Mina was sick, and you were unable to accompany her." Lisa listened to her friend speak and shook her head. Ian was becoming more comfortable with lying to Lisa and Luna was not sure how she felt about it.

"So, is everything okay now?" Luna asked.

"Not really, I still have a dilemma," Lisa said.

"If it's about the photos, didn't you tell my brother about them?"

"Not yet, I want to know who sent them first. I have someone in mind, but I need more information," Lisa said. "Do you think Mina would have any idea who may have wanted to capture her image?"

Luna paused the movie before answering. Before now, she had not been taking the conversation seriously.

"Mina isn't like us," Lisa said, and what she meant was that Mina had a simple background and Ian was the likely target of the photographer.

"If you say so," Lisa insisted.

"So, what's up, why did you call?" Luna asked.

"It's nothing. I'm just stressed with work." It was the truth, one of the buildings that Lisa had purchased as additional office space was now vacant and was draining the Anders Corporation of resources.

Lisa and her brother had tried to stealthily sell the property without success, and out of fear that people may become aware of the companies struggle to stay relevant, they were forced to abandon the endeavor.

"Is it anything I can help with?" Luna asked, genuinely concerned.

"Not unless you can tell me how to repurpose a vacant office building in the heart of Scal." Both women chuckled. It was possible, but it was not a simple task. There was an abundance of office space in the city, and opening another, no matter how grand, would be a waste of money.

Luna glanced at her television when she had an idea.

"Hey Lisa, how big is the building?" Luna asked. Lisa spouted out the information from memory.

The building encompassed an area of ten acres and had twelve floors; ten of which were open warehouse style. It had a twenty-five-foot ceiling clearance and while it was not the tallest building in the area, it was huge. When Lisa finished describing the property, a vicious smile crossed Luna's face.

"Lisa, what do you think about opening a high-rise movie studio?" Luna said.

"Sounds great, but I would need to secure investors which I'm unlikely to, especially because I don't have experience in the entertainment industry."

"What about Cylus?" Luna asked.

"I would rather sell the property," Lisa quipped.

"No, hear me out, how likely do you think he would be interested in becoming a business partner with you?" Lisa was silent. She could not tell where Luna was going with her statements and she worried for a minute that her friend had found out about her past encounters with the man. Choosing to test the waters, Lisa answered about her as truthfully as possible.

"How soon can you arrange a flight?" Luna replied.