Chapter 430: Bull

Ian arrived at his office looking terrible. He had been gone for days and if it were not for the fact that he answered his phone when called, his family would have believed he was dead. Zane rushed into his friend's office; the strong smell of alcohol radiated off the man and Zane covered his nose, feeling a little prissy as he did so.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"I'm back now," Ian said, unwilling to speak.

"What is wrong with you?" Ian glared at his friend, who was a little intimidated. The circles under Ian's eyes were so dark they looked like makeup, and he was almost positive the man had not slept the whole time he was missing. "Are you really on drugs?" Zane asked. He and Ian had been putting on an act, trying to lure out disloyal people, but so far, they had only destroyed Ian's reputation with no success in weeding out the bad seeds.

"I'm not in the mood," Ian warned. He stood up and went to shower, unable to come to terms that Mina slept with Cylus for money. If she did it because she liked the man, that would be one thing, but what she had done was inexcusable.

When Ian came out of the shower, he thought he would return to an empty office, but his friend was still there. Zane put on a brave face and threatened to call Mr. Lucas, Ian's father, if Ian did not start talking.

"I was at Mina's apartment."

"Why?" Zane asked. He knew the girl was away, so it did not make sense to him.

"I saw something on her phone that I didn't like."

"Is that why I haven't been able to reach her?" Ian nodded, almost forgetting that blocking Mina's access to her phone, would also stop others from reaching her. "Wait," Zane said, realizing that reaching Mina was not important. "Is your attitude over those pictures?" Ian glared at his friend once again, and the man laughed. Not out of humor, but out of disgust.

Zane had seen the photos of 'Mina' and he had heard the rumors. Some tabloids were saying that she was sleeping with CEO Rue, while anothers were saying that the woman was still unknown. There was even a photo of Cylus and Mina coming out of a room together, but the images associated with the articles kept being pulled down. Fortunately, Zane did not need them when he had Olivia he could ask directly.

"You are a real idiot, you know that?" Ian rested his head on his desk. He also did not want to believe his own eyes, but he had asked Mina directly.

"She told me she agreed to him because he paid her." Zane blanched, he was about to call Mina, but remembered her phone was not working.

"She said that directly?" Ian nodded, not wanting to talk anymore. He was so depressed that his whole body felt heavy. Zane narrowed his eyes and pulled out his phone.

----

Mina had finally mustered the strength to start picking up. She did not want Emma to return to a trashed apartment, nor did she want to spend whatever time she had left in a filthy environment. Someone rang the front bell, and Mina checked the camera James had installed before swinging it open.

"Is your phone still not working?" Cylus asked, he was holding her bag and a pizza box, which he dropped when he saw her. "What happened?" Aside from Mina's red nose, there were obvious fingerprints on her face, and he knew they were not there in the morning. He looked around her apartment, seeing that there were things thrown everywhere and Cylus assumed someone broke in.

"Unless you are ready for me to clear things up with your parents, you should go," Mina said coldly. She wanted the man to leave, but he seemed unwilling.

"Fine, let's go." Cylus did not know what happened to Mina, but he eagerly wanted to get her out of the environment she was in.

Mina walked into the mess of her closet and picked up something from the floor. She knew Cylus had followed her, but she did not care. When she found something proper to meet with his parents, she went into the washroom to shower and change. When she came out, she did not bother to dry her hair and instead pulled it into a tight bun at the back of her head.

Mina picked up the glasses she had borrowed from Zane's mother and put them on her face, fully aware that her eyes were swollen from crying.

"Shall we?" she asked the quiet man.

----

No matter how many questions he asked, Mina did not speak to Cylus the entire drive. When they finally walked into his parent's shared office, both people were waiting as if Cylus had called an important meeting, and Mina wasted no time. She politely greeted the man and woman, and went into full detail about the misunderstanding, and why it occurred.

Cylus was surprised when his parents claimed to have already known it was not her, and Mina was relieved. She turned to face President Rue, wanting to discuss the terms of her contract nullification, which gave Cylus pause. He had believed that Mina was just angry with him, but apparently, she was speaking based on a prior conversation.

Fortunately, Cylus' father changed his mind. He told Mina that she was now worth more to the company. Mina did not know what the man was talking about, but he showed her a video of herself being punched by the other Jeremy. Apparently, the Barnes family had already reached out to Rouge, wanting to settle with Mina in exchange for her to claim the entire thing was staged.

----

Back in President Lee's office, Ian listened to his friend chat with Olivia Kent. She sounded tired on the phone, and she told Zane that she and Mina had a terrible weekend. Without being asked, she went into detail about Mina taking the blame for her cousin's girlfriend, having back-to-back panic attacks, and then she touched up on the woman's shoulder injury.

Ian felt his entire face turn green when Zane asked Olivia to clarify and she told him that Cylus' girlfriend and Mina had the same hair. She said that people had wrongly assumed it was Mina in the intentionally released photos and then she told Zane about Mina being attacked by Willow's ex-boyfriend, which resulted in her shoulder dislocation.

"Mina said something about being paid," Zane said, knowing that the talkative Olivia would tell him what he wanted to know.

"Cylus likes Vanya, but my aunt doesn't. He paid Mina not to say anything so it could give him time to work something out with the family before they buried her." Cylus pretended to be enlightened, but he knew Mina would never sell her body to anyone, and he was angry that Ian did not.

"So, the rumor about Mina and Cylus?"

"Complete bull," Olivia added. "and I think Mina hates him now."

"Why?" Zane asked, curious.

"Because she suspects Vanya tried to have us-" Olivia cut her words, not sure how to continue, so Zane found a word for her.

"Hurt?" he asked.

"That is one way to put it. Anyway, she believes it was Vanya who arranged the whole thing, but Cylus thinks Vanya is a victim too."

"What do you think?" Zane asked, reading a question Ian had written for him on a piece of paper.

"I think someone used Vanya's jealousy to manipulate her into a tough situation." Zane had what he needed, but he did not want to just hang up on the girl after probing her inner knowledge.

"On a side note, I need to meet with you. Do you have time?" Zane asked, he had found a strong candidate for who was spreading rumors about Olivia, except he was not sure how the person was getting their information.

"I can meet you for dinner."