Chapter 431: Messed Up

Zane ended his phone call with Olivia, making sure to keep eye contact with Ian as he stood and theatrically placed his phone in his breast pocket. There were many things Zane did not expect to hear from her, and the first was that Mina's arm had been dislocated in some sort of altercation, but that could wait. Ian looked so pale that Zane thought he may be too busy getting his friend to a hospital to worry about anyone else.

"Please tell me you didn't do anything to Mina; because after hearing what Olivia had to say, I am more than sure the woman had enough stress to deal with." As if on cue, Dom texted. Ian was shocked to hear from the man who had taken Rebecca on some sort of wild goose chase that he was positive would yield no results.

[Sir. Received this video from Jade Hueland. She said it is Mina.]

Ian opened the video that was mostly two men fighting. It was dark and the camera quality was poor, but about midway through a woman appears in the frame. One of the men calls her a name before hitting her so hard that she rolled backward and did not get up again. Ian looked up at Zane who had also been watching the video.

"I messed up," Ian said, and soon as he did a frantic knocking started at his office door. Zane opened it and Secretary Kim came rushing in with her little baby bump leading the way.

"I don't know what happened,'' she said frantically. She handed Ian a tablet and he saw that several of the stocks he had invested in were plummeting in value.

"Find the trigger," he shouted at the woman; she was not frightened though. Her pregnancy had made her more diligent, and a little stronger, which Ian appreciated. She quickly handed him back the device, which showed an E-trader account having purged many of its investments. "Get me the IP" Ian demanded, and once again Rachel handed him back the device and he forwarded the information to his people. Ian went from ghost white to beet red when he got a response.

"What is it? Is it my father?" Zane asked.

----

Back in her apartment, Mina used her laptop to purge all her investments. Using the landline, she called her uncle and after making small talk about her 'new career', she told him that she was interested in paying off her parent's home. The man produced excuses about not wanting to take losses, and avoiding family strife, but Mina assured him that she could pay upfront within three days. She even offered to add value to the home based on its recent renovations.

Mina's uncle told her he needed to ask his wife, and he also made sure to remind her that his son was still single, which Mina knew from her conversation with her mother. She hung up with the man, not wanting to pretend to be civil with him, knowing that when he said, 'talk to his wife,' he meant, try to see how they could squeeze more money out of her.

Mina finally got out of bed and started to clean, she realized that nothing was really destroyed, it was just scattered as if it had been swiped off a table or a strong wind blew it. Either way, Mina was numb about it. She just did not want Emma to come back to a trashed apartment.

With her arm still healing, Mina's mobility was limited, and while she felt like she had been cleaning for a long time, she really had gotten nothing done. Someone rang the bell, and it was Cylus coming to drop off her bag in person. He had also bought a random pizza, which immediately turned to another mess Mina would have to clean. He questioned her about the bruises on her face, but they were not as bad as they looked. She was beginning to realize that she bruised easily because although President Lee did scare her, he had not hurt her at all.

After a brief conversation, and a lot of worried staring, Cylus decided that he wanted Mina to meet with his parents, and she agreed. She showered, covered the small bruises, and slipped into the sling that Connor had sent for her.

The drive to Rouge Entertainment headquarters was awkward, but Mina was long past the stage of caring. She just wanted her money to clear so she could be ready for whatever her uncle threw at her. While she had been away, some of the things she invested in grew way beyond what she had imagined, so when she sold her investments, she had earned more money than she thought she would.

The entire ride Mina could only think about how cruel life could be. For the moment she realized her family was poor, she had struggled to change it, and the reason life was coming to an early end had been because of poverty. Now, during her last days, or maybe even her last hours, money was falling into her lap and she had no way to use it.

Mina hoped that the letter she wrote would make it to her parents, because in it she gave them instruction on how to access her funds, as well as a budget for them to follow. She planned to give the letter to Cylus, but she did not want her mother to see the man, especially if it led to a paternity discovery that would put her parents in more danger.

----

The meeting with Cylus' parents was uneventful. Madam Rue told Cylus that they never believed it was Mina in the photos, simply because she had plenty of opportunities to exploit their family and had let them all slip through her fingers. Mina brought up the nullification of her contract, but President Rue shot it down, saying that Mina was more valuable to the company.

Mina stayed quiet when Cylus and his father began arguing about how the nullification had come up in the first place, and she only started speaking again when Cylus stormed out of his parent's joint office leaving her behind, yet again.

"Don't worry about him," Madam Rue said.

"I'm not," Mina replied coldly. "But he was my ride back. President Rue laughed, startling Mina with his voice.

"You really don't like my son at all do you?" He was asking a question with a negative connotation, but he was asking with a smile, which threw Mina off.

"Cylus has disappointed me in recent days, but I still find him admirable." Madam Rue caught the apprehension in Mina's willingness to speak, so she assured the woman that the Rue family did not have secrets, and that included Olivia. Mina shrugged, still reluctant to talk, and Madam Rue allowed her to leave, asking her husband's secretary to get Mina a secure car to take her wherever she needed to go.

When Mina entered her apartment, she was surprised to see it had been cleaned, and she felt bad thinking that Emma had come to find the place a mess and had to straighten it up. She was startled to see Zane sitting on her sofa, and she wondered why the man had chosen to visit after days of silent treatment.

"What is it?" Mina asked, no longer feeling the need to make pleasantries with anyone. Her tone was dead, and Zane noticed it immediately. Mina stepped fully into the sitting room and saw that President Lee was arranging some of the paperwork that had been scattered on the ground.

"What?" Mina asked, she had begun to take steps backward, fully prepared to run. Knowing she was going to die did not mean she was not afraid. It just gave her time to prepare, time that most people did not have, and time for which she was grateful, but she still wanted more.