Chapter 259: The Perfect Wife

Dom sat at a stool along the kitchen island and watched as Mina pulled out the ingredients to make dinner. It took her a while to find everything, but once she did, she worked methodically and efficiently in completing her tasks.

"Do you need any help?" Dom asked and Mina slid him four peeled sweet potatoes.

"Can you cut these into fries?" Dom nodded and agreed, but once Mina saw how he destroyed the first of the spuds, she changed her mind about having him help.

"Mina, where did you learn to cook?" he asked, trying to break the awkward silence he had created with his butchery.

"It was my household chore," Mina replied. "I learned by default."

"Did both of your parents work?" Although he also grew up with household chores, they were usually mundane things like taking out the trash and cutting the grass. Dom had never heard of dinner preparation as a chore and assumed that it must have been because Mina's parents were both occupied.

"Just my father. My mother had a poor education, and only home making skills." Dom tilted his head to the side.

"Did your sister cook as well?" Mina looked up at Dom and there was something hidden in her expression.

"She did not," Mina said. Dom had the impression that Mina may have been her family's slave, but Mina quickly shut down that thought. "I know what you are thinking but it wasn't that. I took on most of the household chores so my sister could focus on studying," Mina said.

'I don't understand," Dom countered. "Then what about you?" he asked.

"To be quite honest, I have never needed to study anything for more than a few hours. I see things differently than other people, but I also have trouble with things other people do not. My sister helped me become more human and I helped her in her studies." Dom found himself curious about Mina's past. He wondered how one learned to become human.

"Mina, you said that you owed your family more than they would ever know. Was it because of your sister?"

"Yes and no," Mina said. "I hid money from them."

"Why did you have to hide money?" Dom asked.

"To help pay for college expenses," Mina admitted. "I hid the money because I didn't want them to ask me for it. I could never say no to my parents, but if I knew then, what I know now, I would have given them every dollar."

"What happened?" Dom asked as Mina worked to prepare their meal.

"My uncle's son had a crush on my sister for a long time. He would always come around and pester her, but the year of my fourteenth birthday, he changed targets. I thought he was just fascinated by how smart I was. He was always complimenting me as the perfect wife, but I didn't realize what his compliments meant."

"What does that have to do with money?"

"Well, that summer, my uncle came around to tell my parents he wanted to sell our home, which had originally been given to my father by my grandfather. He was spouting complete nonsense about market value prices, which I knew was not true, and I opened my mouth to refute his claims. I remember how he looked at me back then. It was like I was a lump of gold. Later, he changed his mind about the property, but I did not know why. It turned out that he had been giving my parents ultimatums for years."

"What did he want?" Dom asked, half knowing that it had something to do with Mina.

"At first, he wanted my parents to allow my sister to marry his son, but my sister had already 'tarnished' her reputation with her boyfriend," Mina said. As she recalled the story, she could not help but to wonder if her sister had literally 'done it' on purpose.

"And then he wanted you," Dom stated, and Mina nodded.

"I didn't know, but my uncle and his son gave my parents a choice. My hand in marriage or the house. He also gave them the option to purchase the home, but he wanted half the money upfront, which my parents didn't know I had."

"But how did that put your parents into debt?" Dom asked.

"They signed a contract to buy the home from my uncle at three times its value, with steep penalties and fees. It's basically a giant sinkhole they can never climb out of."

"Mina, why didn't your parents just allow the engagement? Marriages between cousins is forbidden in Pan. The administration would have blocked it," Dom said, almost forgetting that he was talking to a walking encyclopedia.

"We are not biologically related. My father was adopted by my grandfather," Mina answered. She sat on a stool across from Dom's and set a timer on her new phone, which had not been activated.

Dom stared silently at Mina for a long time. He had already known she had a guilt complex and as badly as he wanted to tell her that none of that was her fault, he knew she would never be able to process that information as a fact.

"Has life ever been fair to you?" Dom asked, not sure what he felt for and toward Mina.

"It has," Mina said cheerfully. "Take you for example. You owed me nothing the first day we met, and yet, you not only agreed to help me, but you also helped me hide the truth-" Dom coughed loudly. "Are you okay?" She asked and the man nodded. "Anyway, you helped me hide-" Dom coughed again, and Mina walked around the island to bring the man water. "Like I was saying, no matter how bad it's been, there have always been a few people like you."

Dom did not know why but he felt his heart race. For a second, he thought Mina was going to hug him, but the girl only flashed a smile and went back to her seat. She checked on the food and told him that it would be ready soon.

Dom excused himself to the restroom while Mina set the table in the dinette. He checked his phone and as he predicted, President Lee had already sent him a text.

Although Dom had explained to Mina that there were cameras in the common areas of the home, he had not told her that they were equipped with audio capability because she was already freaking out about being watched.

Dom had to continuously assure Mina that it was an all-female staff responsible for monitoring the camera feed and even then, she was still uncomfortable. The revelation was made just before she asked him to stay for dinner and now Dom was regretting not mentioning the fact that those watching would also be able to hear all of Mina's conversations.