Chapter 545: In a Dream-1

Mina was laying on her back. The blanket underneath her was soft and the weather was perfect. With her mother's suggestion, she had layered up, but the breeze kept her cool. The children at school had begun to bully her again; mostly because they said she dressed like an old woman, but Mina believed that wearing her mother's clothes was keeping her safe, so she ignored it. Sadie on the other hand, could not. She had been in more fights than Mina could count, and it was starting to scare Troy.

An involuntary smile flashed across Mina's face, as she thought about the money she was earning while she did nothing but lay in the grass. Sadie and Troy were on the other side of the field, likely cuddling. Mina took a deep breath, feeling completely free in that moment, but a deep voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Why are you so happy all the time?" Ren was laying on his side facing her, and she positioned herself to look at him in the same way. He was handsome, so she did not mind staring at his face, although being close to him made her nervous, she knew his heart did not react to her in any way. "I don't think I have seen you sad once."

"What reason do I have to be sad?" Mina's face had taken on an expression of curiosity, and Ren reached out and shifted a piece of hair behind her ear. She flinched, not expecting the man to show any sort of gentleness toward her. He had never done anything of the sort, and her discomfort was obvious. Ren seemed to notice her apprehension, so he apologized, and scooted further away from her, but he did not change his position, and neither did she.

"Does it not make you angry? You are clearly the more reliable daughter, yet Sadie gets all the reward. Troy told me some of the things Sadie told him." Mina frowned. "There it is," Ren said, feeling victorious. Mina smiled at the man and his brow furrowed. "Why are you smiling now?"

"I just realized that things like that don't bother me." Ren laughed loudly, poking Mina's nose before he turned on his back. She stared at the man and before she knew it her mouth was asking a question that she did not know she wanted to ask. "Why do you like her so much?"

"She is just… different." Mina nodded, although she knew the man could not see her. She turned to face the sky and closed her eyes before she sighed out her response, not at all aware that the man next to her had opened his.

"I am also different," she whispered.

----

Mina was able to work late, her parents were visiting her adoptive grandfather and by the time she had gotten home, her sister was in bed, or at least she should have been. Mina's bedroom light was on, and she knew it was not accidently done by her. She snuck toward the door and peeked inside to find her sister rummaging through her things. She did not even have to ask to know what Sadie was looking for.

"You won't find it." Sadie did not even flinch when she heard Mina's voice. She just turned around and glared at her sister.

"You're hiding it from me?"

"Sadie, we need that money for school. I will not allow you to use it to abandon your family for a man whose relatives don't even like you." Mina watched her sister's beautiful face contort into a snarl that was terrifying.

"Mina, you saw what Ren did to Troy, and if you hadn't been crying so hard, he was going to do the same thing to me. Do you expect me to just stay here and deal with it?" Mina shook her head.

"You don't have to be with Troy. You are young, you can find someone else; someone who you won't have to uproot your life to be with. His parents kicked you out of their home Sadie. If Ren had not been there, you would have been stuck in another city with no one to help you." Sadie's eyes flashed with rage.

"You're just jealous of me. You hate the fact that I am happy, and you want to keep me here miserable with you." Her sister stalked toward her with her fists bawled and Mina slowly retreated. "You want Troy for yourself, don't you? That is why you won't help me." Mina had retreated all the way into the sitting room, but her sister was still prowling like a lioness. "You want to know why our parents hate you?" Mina's lip quivered because she had always felt like her parent's disliked her, but it was the first time another person had said it out loud.

----

Mina sat up abruptly. The lights in the room had been turned off and her eyes did not adjust to the darkness in time. She started to scream, and the sound of a door being swung open made her look in its direction. President Lee was standing in a doorway that Mina had not even noticed was there. It was not the front door, but a hidden door at the back of the room, but she could not process what that meant, all she could see was the light, and she tried to crawl in its direction.

"Stop Mina, you will hurt yourself." Mina felt the man pull her back to a lying position. He turned to her nightstand and pressed a button, making the lights in the room flip on. "It was only a nightmare. You are safe, no one can hurt you here." Mina's whole body felt heavy; reliving those memories were painful, and it was only getting worse.

"I can't breathe," Mina sobbed, not even realizing that she was hugging President Lee tightly. She needed to feel something real, something to remind her that she was awake.

Ian felt helpless, he knew Mina had been having nightmares, almost daily, but Doctor Witt or one of the nurses had always been there to calm her. She refused to speak about what was bothering her, or what her dreams were about, but Ian knew it had something to do with Ren Loam. He had at first wanted to believe that she was suffering from the guilt of having killed someone, which was why he lied to her about the man being alive, but now he could see it was something else.

Ian pried the woman's grip off his body, knowing that she was only holding him because she was in a panicked state, and as good as it felt to be needed by her, it was not real. If he continued to hold her, she would eventually snap out of it and become uncomfortable with the situation and he did not want that.

"Let's get up, okay? You can come help me with some work I have piled up. It will help take your mind off things." Mina nodded her head slowly, only half understanding what she was being asked to do. President Lee lifted her into her wheelchair, then draped a small blanket on her legs, knowing that she would not want them to be exposed. "Do you want to eat something first?" she nodded again; her voice seemingly lost. "I'm not a good cook, but maybe we can make something together?" Ian was not trying to flirt, but he wanted to snap Mina out of whatever daze she was in.

Once inside the kitchen, he pushed her around to where she needed to go, helping her reach things that she could not, and watching her work with a vacant and void expression on her face. He wanted to ask her what was so terrible about her dreams, but he knew he had to wait. When she was done cooking, Ian pushed her to the small table in the kitchen and waited for her to do… Something.

"I'm sorry," Mina whispered.