Chapter 551: Visit

Mina was in bed working on the request President Lee made of her. Sleep had started to come easier, not because the nightmares had stopped, but because they had become less frequent. Every now and then, Miss ruby would forget that she was afraid of the dark and turn off her bedroom light whenever they would chat until she fell asleep. Because of that, President Lee installed a small lamp by the adjourning door of their rooms, which automatically turned on once the lights were switched off.

Mina really felt like an infant at times, waking up panting in the middle of the night, only to be comforted by the sight of the light or President Lee. Wanting to feel independent again, she had experimented with locking the door, and so far, she could make it a full minute without panicking. Also, with Zane's encouragement, Mina was able to waddle around her room, which came just in time, because her environment was beginning to disgust her. She was brought cleaning supplies and was slowly able to get the room to a state in which she approved.

For as much as President Lee had changed, he was still a petty person and not long after she was able to stand, he told her that she could begin her chores again. Carmen had been cleaning the room, but the moment Mina was able to support herself, the woman dropped off the supplies and showed her where to store them. It was not a terrible thing, but she wished that President Lee would have given her a week more to recover.

Mina did not even bother asking President Lee for an extension, because Carmen seemed terrified by the idea, and she did not want to get the woman in trouble. She just did what she could, when she could, and when Zane came to visit, she made sure to hide it from him. It was, after all, in a way, a form of physical therapy.

Mina was back to work on setting the trap when an itching sensation hit the wound on her inner thigh. She shifted and tried to ignore it, but it became so intense that she found herself unable to work. Her room door was open, so she called out for someone to help her. Miss Ruby happened to be leaving President Lee's study, so she arrived quickly.

"It hurts," Mina said. Her hands had gripped the sheets and she was struggling to resist the urge to scratch.

"What kind of pain?" Mina told Miss Ruby what she was feeling, and the woman went to work. She massaged the area around the wound, and the pulling sensation helped to relieve some of the itchiness. "It's too dry, you need to add more ointment on it."

"How do you know what to do?" Mina asked. The itching sensation was still there but it was significantly less painful, especially after Miss Ruby started to add more ointment to it.

"I know the sensation firsthand." Mina peeked up at the woman, who lifted her shirt to reveal a giant scar that gathered at a single point. It almost looked as if the skin was being pulled into her stomach.

"How?"

"I took my children to the park. Ian was also shot that day." Mina's brow furrowed as her eyes asked for more information. "Ian was almost eight when it happened. He was never really the same after that." Mina could only imagine, she did not know how she would have coped if she had seen Troy and her sister go over that bridge, but she guessed that she likely would have jumped over the railing to try and save them.

"I am sorry." Mina's face was pulled into a frown and Ruby smiled at her.

"Why? Did you do something wrong?" The phrase was simple, but it held significant weight for Mina. She had spent a long time being sorry about things she was not responsible for. She was sorry about Sadie, sorry about Troy, sorry about Ren, and sorry for being alive. "Why are you crying?" Mina could not even form words as she touched her cheeks surprised to find her fingers coming away wet.

"No reason," she lied.

----

Ian was at work when Lisa showed up with lunch, she was smiling brightly as she sashayed into his office, but Ian was not pleased. It had been more than a week since Mina came back to his mansion and things were going well, but somehow his father had gotten the idea that he and Lisa were engaged. Ian could not blame Cameron, because he was the first person to call and release a slew of curses that were not entirely uncalled for. Cam had been working hard to help him woo Mina, down to using government resources to figure out if she was right about who shot her.

So far, Ian and Cam were unable to find the person who ordered Mina to be shot, but they did find a questionable conversation that Lisa had with Vanya. It was mostly random banter between women with a common enemy. Vanya complained about being forced to an economically unstable country, and Lisa mockingly brought up raising the rates she would give Mina after they toured the facility. She also mentioned something about revealing Mina's 'true colors,' and Ian believed it had something to do with his father's less than excited call.

"Lisa, why does my father think we are engaged?"

"How is your father?" Lisa asked. "I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion, but many clients of mine also think the same. I am only guilty of being hopeful and not correcting them." Ian rolled his eyes. He hated that Lisa's life was the bargaining chip she used to keep him tethered to her, otherwise he would have held a multi-country press conference to dispute the rumors.

"What brings you here?"

"It has been a while since I have visited, and I wanted to see you." Lisa had been pulling out food from a bag she was carrying but she paused in her actions and looked up at Ian with red rimmed eyes. "Ian, you know I didn't have anything to do with those people, right? I am not a fan of Mina's, but I would never do something so vile." Ian nodded, because he knew from his investigation that Ren Loam had been putting himself in places where he thought Mina would be and he got lucky.

"There is also the fact that she was shot while leaving your studio." Lisa sucked in a shocked breath of air and stood in anger.

"You think I would put you in danger? From what I have heard, Mina has a lot of enemies, the Arden family, the Rue family, and even Antonio Sylvan. I don't even want to know how she got mixed up with that man." Ian noted how Lisa was careful with her words. She did not say that she would not have harmed Mina, but only that she would not put him in danger, and as backward as it was, it lent toward her innocence.

"She thinks it was you." Lisa puffed out her chest in rage.

"I'm sure she would say that. Did she tell you what we spoke about in my office? She threatened me and my family with your name. Ian, do you know how that made me feel? She smiled in my face and showed me my stock value dropping in real time. All for a discount." Ian resisted the urge to smile, because he knew what Mina was capable of, and while she probably manipulated the market, she would never have used him as a shield. Either Lisa was lying, or Mina was a different person when he was not around.

"Are you sure?" Lisa gasped before storming out of the office, and Ian resisted the urge to chase her, but the conversation needed to be finished, so he sent her a text.

[I am sorry. Come to my home in the next two hours?]