Chapter 500: Charm

Mina was angry with her boss, who not only agreed to terms she could have further negotiated into having Carson work for almost nothing, but who also invited the man to the event at Wayvair without her consent. She had already heard from Cylus that Willow and the school were struggling to make accommodations. Especially because families who took IQ dating seriously were extremely interested in the woman who went unregistered as a genius for nearly fifteen years.

A person Mina's age should have had their IQ tested during the healthy child period, and more than anything, people were curious as to how she escaped it, and were probably wondering if there were others like her. Mr. Eric had to get a new number specifically because he started to get marriage proposals on Mina's behalf, but for some reason, Mina's parents went undisturbed. When she had called them, the only thing they complained about was her wearing a bikini and hugging a man who was not her husband.

Mina sat in the back of the car with a pout on her face that made director Porter sigh. He tapped her foot with his and flashed a smile that she wanted to wipe off his face. She threw cold water on the man by telling him that she could have gotten C Lu to agree to write the song for free, which made director Porter's gleeful smile fall. He did not even question her, because he knew she was telling the truth and he promised not to get involved the next time she was negotiating.

The car stopped outside Mina's apartment complex and she alighted from the vehicle somewhat relieved that her boss was letting her off early. He did not need her for anything, he just kept her around because according to him, she was his lucky charm. Mina opened her apartment door and was startled by the shouting of Jay and Olivia along with the clapping of Emma.

"You left so suddenly. If you had not responded to our texts, I would have thought something bad happened," Jay said.

"And if Connor hadn't seen you and Cylus hadn't spoken to you, I would have thought so too," Olivia added. Only Emma seemed to keep her comments to herself, but she still warmly greeted Mina, who asked about James. Jay made a pained expression and Olivia winced. Mina intuitively knew she had asked something wrong.

"It's fine, Mina has a lot to catch up on."

Mina listened as Emma told her about the things that occurred at a screenplay meeting she attended. She caught the eye of a local director, and James, who had forced himself along as her 'chaperone' did not like it. No longer interested in James, Emma said that she tried to explain to him that they were not in a relationship, and he took it poorly.

"The next time I saw him he was wrapped in another woman's arms. When we left, we did so on separate flights." Mina frowned because she had once believed that James was head over heels for Emma, but men were easily swayed, and she could not help to think of Miss Lisa who spent ten years waiting on a man who did not love her enough to hide the fact that he was cheating.

"Well, it's his loss then," Mina added. She was seconded by Olivia then Jay. "You don't have to worry about him showing up here, I no longer have a personal guard." Olivia looked perplexed, but Jay looked saddened.

"So, no more Dom?" Mina slapped her hands to her cheeks and pulled out her phone. How could she have forgotten about Dom?

----

Dom had been trying to get an appointment with his boss since the man's flight touched down, but it kept getting put off or pushed back. After speaking with Mina, who was more worried about his recovery then he was, Dom swallowed his pride, and showed up at President Lee's work office.

Inconveniently, only CEO Zane was in the building, so Dom approached the man and told him that he had vital information about Mina. CEO Zane tried to wave him off by telling him that President Lee was already dealing with it. Dom's face became pensive as he took in the man's words, and wanting to make sure they were on the same page, he mentioned one small detail from his report.

"So, he knows who tried to drug Mina?" Zane looked up at Dom, who had to have been talking about the earlier incident because absolutely no one knew of the one involving Cam, and it was that way for a reason.

"What are you talking about?" Throwing caution aside, Dom handed CEO Zane a flash drive, and the man opened it to reveal detailed reports of things Lisa had done or had tried to do to Mina. The most disturbing was the shirt ripping incident. "Keep this to yourself for now. Sadly, I do not think it is enough to convince Ian, but what I am working on will help."

Zane had been closing in on the person who ditched the resumes. At first, he ignored the fact that all the candidates were women as a coincidence, but when he checked in with one of the girls, pretending to be a manager at a local eatery, she declined his offer for an interview because she was already employed by the Anders Corp.

Zane knew it was common for failed interviewees to find employment elsewhere, but it was beyond a coincidence when more than one of the women he called gave him the same response. He started to think that maybe the women's resumes were not dumped because they were women, but because they had been selected to be passed forward. The issue was that no matter how many highly qualified women Zane had send in their resumes to the company, none had been discarded.

Zane wanted to be sure before he brought the information to Ian, and had it not been for the keen eye of Rachel Kim, he probably would not have been able to spot what the true similarity between the women had been. By chance, Rachel entered his office to bring him important documents for review. Her eyes fell to one of the photos attached to the resume and, thinking that he was hiring a new secretary for when she was out on maternity leave, the woman commented on being careful not to hire based on looks.

It was then that Zane realized that all the women were beautiful in their own way. He had of course noted that they were nice to look at, but he had been so focused on their gender and qualifications that he had not noticed that each one was as pretty as the next, with Mina included. That theory also lent to why there were some women who were underqualified in the bunch, and why none of those women were employed with the Anders Corp.

Of all the people Zane could think would choose to cut pretty employment candidates regardless of their qualifications, only one came to mind, and that was Lisa Anders. She was jealous enough, came to the Lee building enough, and could pay enough to tempt someone into working on her behalf. If Zane added that to all the information Dom had given him, Ian would have a solid and fool proof way to get out from Lisa's grip, but he did not know if he wanted to do that.

Without Lisa in the way, Zane was afraid that Ian would force Mina into being in a relationship, and when he spoke his concerns to Dom, who he could guess shared the same worry, the two men opted to wait to see how their boss and friend handled things with Mina going forward.

Zane had spoken to Ian since his return to Pan, and the man told him that he was done chasing after Mina, but it did not mean that he would not look out for her. Ian claimed to have chosen to leave Mina in peace. Zane was at first skeptical of Ian's words, but so far, the man had not brought the woman up in conversation unless it was related to Cam; something Zane could not fault him for.

Zane was further convinced because Ian had been ignoring certain things that in past times, he would not have been able to ignore. Especially after Mina had been spotted with the same unknown man on multiple occasions. Sometimes, the pair would meet in diners or cafés and sometimes, the man would drive Mina home.

Zane was tempted to figure out who the man was, but when he tried to get Ian to go along with him, he was told that he should ask Mina instead of spying. That in itself was enough to let Zane know that Ian was serious. Something had changed Ian and Zane was excited.