Chapter 361: Flu
With Mina down with the Flu, Ian had no choice but to leave her at the facility while he went to his office. As promised, he did not plan to call Lisa out for her lie, but he was now more suspicious of her because of it.
Ian was well aware that Lisa disliked Mina, and he had overheard a part of Mina's conversation where she had accused Lisa of being complicit in their abduction. Ian was aware that Lisa would probably do anything to make the girl feel uncomfortable and lying about being pregnant was not much of a stretch.
When Ian returned, Mina was still asleep and according to her tending physician, she had only woken up briefly for water. Her fever had broken, but at that time Mina claimed to be experiencing body aches.
Ian walked into Mina's room and as he expected, twenty-three was there with Doctor Jeremy Witt. He was trying to convince the man to leave Mina's room until she awoke, but twenty-three saw no need to leave. As far as he was concerned, he was not a disruption.
Ian walked into the room and stood near the whispering men, he knew that twenty-three was the type to become obsessed with something he did not understand, but it was the first time he had seen the man fixate on a person.
"Why do you want to stay around her? What did she tell you?" President Lee asked, and twenty-three looked at his boss like he was an idiot, because to him, he was.
"She is fun to look at," he said simply. "And she listens well." Doctor Witt nodded his head. It was a valid observation and an equally valid reason. Ian looked at Doctor Witt, extremely uncomfortable with the exchange.
"I told you she needs to leave," he said. Jeremy had already explained to his boss that Mina was attracting too much attention. Not just from the men, she had made a considerable impression among the women his sister worked with, and Rebecca had been fuming because of it.
"Twenty-three, are you saying that you find Mina pretty?" Once again, President Lee got a look that he knew meant he was being looked down upon.
"Not pretty. Expressive." Ian felt his shoulders relax. He thought that Mina had another admirer, and he knew that twenty-three would not let go easily.
----
Mina opened her eyes and was relieved to see that she was alone. She stretched to grab a bottle of water near her bed, but once she saw that the seal was broken, she changed her mind. Feeling the onset of dehydration, Mina pressed a button on her bed and Doctor Rebecca walked into her room. The woman seemed to have expected Mina's request because she came in with a bottle of water at the ready.
"You passed," Rebecca said and she removed the water bottle from Mina's bedside table and tossed in the trash. Mina did not even have the strength to ask questions and just assumed it was something related to her IQ again.
Shortly after she finished her water, president Lee entered the room and Doctor Rebecca tactfully left, closing the door behind her. Mina felt her heartbeat quicken and she tried to sit up straight but was too weak to keep the position for long.
"How are you feeling?" Ian asked and Mina tilted her hand from side to side. Her head was pounding, and she did not know if talking would make it worse. "Mina, you once talked to Doctor Witt at length; he wants me to review your file. Do I have permission to do that?" Mina nodded at his request.
Ian did not need to be a doctor to know that Mina had the flu. He was even more convinced when he found out that Zane's mother had also come down with a fever and tested positive for it. He also knew that Mina's discomfort was not aiding her recovery.
Despite her still being ill, Ian arranged for Mina to be transferred back into her apartment. When he had first arrived, Doctor Rebecca had reported that anytime Mina opened her eyes for more than a few seconds, she was pestered by twenty-three, who wanted to talk about his paper.
Ian was not eager to let Mina out of a doctor's sight, but he also did not want her recovery to be drawn out because of outside factors. After their truce, Ian genuinely believed that things would change. He had no reason to believe otherwise, especially since she gave him the green light on reviewing what she discussed with Jeremy.
----
Ian was having trouble listening to the audio from Mina's conversation with Doctor Witt, because everything she said made him sick.
When Mina was thirteen, although she considered herself fourteen at the time, a man who had been obsessed with her sister, became obsessed with her. After Mina's sister died, the man followed Mina around for months, and when she tried to get help, none was available.
Mina and her family had even reached out to the man's family, but they accused Mina of being the one to seduce their son. They tried to explain that the man did not even call Mina by her own name, but they did not get the response they expected. Instead of getting their son help, the man's parents offered Mina's parents a dowry for their daughter, which Ian was glad they refused
The harassment had become so intense that Mina applied to graduate from high school early, and she tested out as soon as she was given the chance to do so. It was something her parents were originally against, but Mina convinced them that she stood a better chance in a place where she did not stand out. Somewhere far away from where people would think to look for her.
As Ian listened to Mina speak, he could hear the emotion in her voice, and he could almost imagine her eyes closed as she recalled her story. He was also almost positive she was leaving a lot of the story out, and only telling Doctor Witt the things she considered important, but he soon changed his mind when he heard the end of it.
When Mina was legally fifteen, the man, who Mina only addressed as 'he' waited for her in front of her familial home. Mina had only just arrived back in town after a year away, and was excited to be visiting with her family, but she did not get to greet her parents the way she thought that she would, because 'he' grabbed her, and pulled her toward his car.
Mina recalled that at the time, she did not know what to do, her mind blanked out, and it was mostly because the man was no longer calling her by her sister's name. Mina told Doctor Witt that she did not believe the man had ever stopped following her. She recalled times where she thought she saw him in a crowd, and she traced her panic attacks back to those instances.
Mina told Doctor Witt that since that time, she had struggled with uncertainty. That anytime she was in a situation she did not expect, her mind would start calculating all the possible outcomes, no matter how grim. Ian thought back to his own memories of Mina's panic attacks, and he could agree, she seemed to have them anytime something went beyond what she expected.