Chapter 523: Alone
Alone with Mina in an upper room, President Lee confessed that he had nothing significant to say. He did, however, tell her that she was working too hard, and he reminded her that he had previously asked her not to extend her employment contract with director Porter. She chuckled so weakly that Ian seriously considered taking her to his mansion and forcing her to sleep for a week.
"Has my cousin still been harassing you?" Mina laughed softly at the question.
"He has poor Camille doing it now. I am more than sure he makes her prewrite the speeches she gives me." Ian let out a light chuckle of his own.
"Is that why he insisted on having her work for him? So that he could use her against you?" Mina shook her head in a way that old women did when something did not make sense to them. Loud music started to play from outside the room, and Mina knew it was the live orchestra that had been hired for the entertainment segment. She looked at the door, then at President Lee, who still appeared as though he had something to say. She looked down at her hands, not sure if she was comfortable with the way the man was staring at her.
Too busy taking in how exhausted Mina appeared, Ian barely saw the hand that reached into the room, and pulled the door shut. As if all the exhaustion had drained from her body with the sound, she ran to the door horrified when she noticed that a key was needed to unlock it. She began to panic, pounding on the door, which she knew was useless because the music was too loud.
Ian watched Mina spiral; her whole body shook, but he remained frozen until he heard her struggling to breathe. He made his way to her side and tried to calm her, but her eyes focused on a nearby window instead. She ran to open it, and Ian had to forcibly stop her from climbing out.
"Mina! stop! We are on the second floor. You'll die." The woman seemed not to hear him, so Ian pulled her back against his chest and sat in the space directly below the window. "Do you feel the air coming into the room? You are okay; just breathe." Mina's legs were twisting, and her whole body writhed as if she were in excruciating pain. "Tell me. What is happening to you right now?"
"I'm locked in," Mina panted out.
"Okay, now tell me how I can help you."
"Unlock the door," Mina nearly shouted.
"I don't have the key, but I can text someone for help. If I let you go, you have to promise not to try and jump out the window again." Mina trembled, and Ian noticed that she did not promise. He wrapped his legs around her torso, and as he expected, the second he released her arms, Mina tried to scramble out of his grasp. He quickly pulled out his phone and cursed, he had no signal, and he was almost positive it was being jammed; Mina would have been locked in the room they were in with or without him.
With his arms wrapped around Mina's body, Ian tried to coax her into relaxing. He took deep breaths, encouraging her to follow, and anytime the winter wind blew into the room, he would remind her that she was fine. The woman's breathing eventually slowed and became steady, but not from relaxation, she had fainted and he could tell by the way her body had unnaturally gone limp.
Ian did not have to ask why Mina reacted poorly toward locked doors, and it suddenly made sense why he was able to walk in and out of her room while she was staying with him. He knew from Dom that Mina often 'forgot' to lock her apartment door, but it had only just occurred to him that she simply could not. He thought back to her using a couch as a barricade while sleeping, and he wondered how much added stress the fear of someone just walking in must have placed on her.
When the music stopped, Ian gently laid Mina on her side, and started to pound on the door himself, being extra careful not to wake the woman, who he was sure would jump out of the window in a panic. A short while later, he could hear loud banging from the other side of the room before a key was inserted and Dom came crashing in; his eyes falling to Mina on the ground.
"Ian!" Lisa shouted as she too scurried into the room. "What happened?" She was not acting, she genuinely wanted to know, because whoever had locked her man inside of the room with Mina would have to die. Especially because the woman was unconscious on the ground, making it look like he had done something to her.
"Someone locked us in; Mina fainted." The event host was also in the room, and she called for paramedics. "Dom, I know you aren't working, but I want all footage from tonight sent to me by the time we make it to the hospital." The man went to work at once, but Ian was greeted with yet another problem. Cylus Rue threw a punch at him, one that he barely managed to dodge, because he was too focused on making sure Mina was not being photographed.
"What the hell did you do to her?"
"It was a woman's hand," Ian replied cryptically. "When I find out who locked us in that room. I won't care who she is."
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Dom made excellent time, but the footage from the area where he and Mina were trapped had been deleted. All except the recording from inside the room, which showed a feminine hand reaching in and pulling the door shut. Ian reviewed that piece of footage tirelessly, trying to find any identifying detail, and with much reluctance, he sent it to Cylus Rue, wanting to confirm his suspicions.
Ian did not receive a response from Cylus, who he knew would be waiting near his phone, and he saw it as confirmation. He already believed that it was Vanya who locked them in the room, but he did not want to assume, since there were two other women capable of doing something so petty. Ian's main concern was how Vanya knew about Mina's condition, when he, who once lived with the woman, did not.
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Cylus did not want to believe that the arm in the video sent to him was Vanya, but he had been around the woman for so long and had known her for enough time to recognize her, even if it was just her arm. She had not come to the event with him, so when he looked for her, and did not find her, he assumed she had left early, but it was becoming clear to him that she may have fled the scene. Afraid of what would happen, Cylus called the woman, who answered the phone with a drunken purr.
"I don't know what you were thinking, but you need to find safety now." Vanya of course, asked why. "I told you to leave Mina alone. I told you things were complicated, but you did not listen. Leave Vanya, go to your family before it's too late."
----
When Mina awoke, she barely had enough strength to keep her eyes open. She did not panic because Mills' face was the first thing she saw, and when she looked around, she noticed that she had been taken to a hospital and had been placed on a drip. Mills wasted no time in calling a nurse, and before Mina knew it, she was cleared to eat and was being spoon fed by the woman she was glad to be able to call a friend.
"Did you cook it?" Mina asked, in barely a whisper.
"Shh, don't tell Drax," Mills said with a wink. Mina sipped at the soup but found herself too tired to finish it. She closed her eyes and fell back into sleep.