Chapter 359: Good Faith Agreement

President Lee walked into his bedroom wanting to strangle Veronica, but he was more shocked than angry, and somehow, he felt that Veronica had not misunderstood him at all. He had been staring at her, not because she was the most beautiful, but because she was one of the few women that were expendable. If anything happened between them and she became obsessed in any way, Ian could just cast her out with no real loss. In short, he was tempted.

"Why?" Ian asked. Still not understanding how the woman thought getting undressed in his room would be promising.

"You asked me to," she replied. Ian thought about his words and indeed, any normal person would assume he was insinuating something sexual. Especially because she had been brushing against him in a suggestive manner.

"So, you just listened?" Ian asked. Not really sure he wanted to know the answer.

"You know I have wanted this for a long time, but I also did not know you were expecting." Ian looked at Veronica as if she had just spoken to him in a foreign language.

"What are you talking about?"

"Isn't that what that woman just said? 'Think about the future of your family.' Wouldn't that be a child?" Ian's face morphed as he looked in the direction of where Mina had gone. At the pace she was moving, he knew she would not get far.

"Maybe you didn't know?" Veronica offered. "Let's just pretend this never happened. I will explain things to her when she calms down. She shouldn't be under stress, it's no good for fetal development." Veronica had incorrectly assumed that Mina was the one carrying the future of the Lee family. Ian bolted out of his room and after Mina, who had not made it far.

----

Mina had not been paying attention when President Lee was pushing her toward his quarters. She was so cold that she kept herself tightly wrapped with her head in the blankets for most of the trip; only looking up to make sure she was not being escorted into a prison.

When Mina got to an area that she did not recognize at all, she finally turned to the person who was silently following her and asked for directions.

"Just tell me what direction I need to go," she said.

"Only if you answer my questions first." Mina sat in the wheelchair and pulled the blanket she had back over her body.

"Depends on the question," she quipped.

"Are you pregnant?" Ian asked without any hesitation, and Mina rolled her eyes. She was tired of people asking her that. It seemed like it was the only thing people thought of.

"Yes, sure. About three and a half to four months now. Care to guess who the father is?" Mina asked sarcastically. She went to stand, but President Lee stood in front of her forcing her to stay seated. He kneeled down in front of her and stared at her face.

"Mina, please tell me the truth," he begged. Mina knew she had crossed the line in her sarcasm and so she confessed.

"President Lee, I have only had one-" Mina paused not knowing how to continue, she did not feel comfortable talking to President Lee about intimate things, but she had brought it upon herself with her racy words.

"I know what you are trying to say. Just tell me if what you said before that was true or not." Mina shook her head.

"It is not my news to share, but when Miss Lisa and I were speaking, she kept talking about pregnancy and being too scared to tell you because of me. You know that your sister took me to a doctor, and I am sure you were given a copy of the results." Ian did not move from where he kneeled, but Mina kept her eyes shifted away from his. Her heart was beating wildly, and she was not sure why.

Ashamed, Mina used her hands to cover her face because she could feel her cheeks turning red, but President Lee reached up and moved her hands away. He had seen her do that before and he knew it was because she was embarrassed. At that time, he was admiring her naked body, so it made sense to him, but now he was confused by it. He also wanted to search her face for signs of deceit.

"Tell me exactly what Lisa said to you." Mina recalled Miss Lisa's words, and Ian felt his brow furrow. He and Lisa had come extremely close to being intimate, but Ian was positive that she was lying. "Lisa is not pregnant. I suspect she was trying to make you feel guilty." Mina pulled her hands back up to her face before she spoke.

"Can you back away? I don't like the way you are looking at me." Ian stood and before Mina could protest, he started to push her back toward his room.

"Mina, I know what you think of me. I even understand why, but if this arrangement is going to work, we need to trust each other just a little, but with you hiding things…" Ian let his sentence hang, knowing that Mina could fill in the blanks.

"President Lee, you are asking me to trust a person who has done nothing but hurt me from the moment we met, and I mean that literally. You have hit me, you have tortured me, you have starved me, and you have stolen from me. I tried to trust you, but do you want to know what happened to me when I did? You left me to walk back to your mansion in the cold, and then you spread rumors about me." As Mina listed out all the things Ian had done to her, the memories flashed in his mind.

"I can and will make it all up to you, but we have to start somewhere."

"Fine. I want James as a full-time personal guard until Dom recovers. No reporting back to this facility, no curfew. I also want Jessica released from her commitment. If you can do that, I will attempt to be more civil." Mina had only mentioned things that dealt with other people, and it bothered Ian, but at least she was looking out for her own safety.

"Before I do any of that, I want to know what you meant when you compared our siblings, and don't lie. If I get the sense that you are not telling me the truth, I will do the opposite of what you asked." Mina took a deep breath. What the man was asking her to do was to recall a past she wished she could forget, and she was afraid it might have consequences.

"President Lee, if it's going to be like you say, let's consider which one of us is in the negative." Ian did not want to; he knew he would come out on the losing end. "If you want me to trust you; first do as I ask."

"And what if you never tell me anything?"

"In good faith I will tell you the short answer, but I want James sent to my apartment right away, and I do mean now." Ian knew what Mina was doing, she was trying to help her roommate.