Chapter 552: What's Real

Mina was able to make it up and down the stairs, albeit with significant effort, but it could be done. Food had stopped being brought to her, so she had to go down to cook it herself, and to make matters worse, the lift was out of order. She was on her way back from the kitchen when a familiar voice caught her attention. It was Miss Lisa and she looked nothing less than displeased.

"You think getting shot is enough to take him away from me?" Mina snorted at how delusional Miss Lisa was. She shuffled forward, moving extremely slow; the fastest she could go, but her path was blocked. "Did you hear me?"

"I heard you, but I know you will not believe my answer." Lisa's lip curled up into a snarl. She had already expected that Mina would be around. Carmen had texted her the moment she was placed in charge of Mina's care again, but she did not expect to see Mina walking around in lounge wear as if she owned the place.

"I know all about your sister. The Loam family was very forthcoming in their apology, and I cannot say that I am surprised you think crawling into Ian's bed is the only way to be successful. That was what your sister taught you isn't it?" Mina glared at Lisa but said nothing. She was exhausted and had only come down for a bowl of fruit and water.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to know how much you need to stay away from Ian." Mina scoffed, she tried to walk past Lisa, but the woman slapped the bowl out of her hands making it shatter.

"Answer me sl-" Lisa never got to finish her sentence because Mina had slapped her across the face with more force than she meant to use, and the woman went flying backward, cutting herself on the shattered glass; just in time for President Lee to shout out in alarm.

"Mina, what did you just do?" Mina shook her head, seeing no reason to explain.

"I told you Ian. I told you that she was acting. She hit me for simply asking her a question." Mina clenched her fists.

"You-" she was cut off by President Lee who was wrapping Lisa's injured hand in a handkerchief.

"Mina I saw you slap her. No matter what she said, you should not have gotten physical." Ian was not taking sides, but as Lisa had pointed out, Mina had enough enemies, and he knew Lisa was going to go home to her brother, flashing her injury to use as a tool against the woman.

"She-"

"Mina, stop making excuses. Just go upstairs." Mina rolled her eyes and started to shuffle toward the stairs, but another voice called out to her.

"Why are you walking up? Why aren't you using the elevator?"

"Zane!" Mina was genuinely excited to see the man. He had promised to take her to a bakery, and she was looking forward to it. "The lift is out of order." Mina was ignoring the couple that was still on the ground, and oddly enough, so was Zane.

"Why haven't I heard anything about it? How long has it been down?" Mina chose to ignore President Lee and Zane smiled at her.

"How long has it been inactive?" Zane asked.

"A few days, but it's good exercise, so I am fine." Zane looked back at his friend, who shouted for his head of staff. The man came running into the area with a bowed head.

"Why haven't I been notified about the broken lift and why hasn't it been fixed." The man looked baffled.

"Sir, it hasn't been reported." Ian was about to shout again, but he was distracted by a chuckling Mina who had her arm wrapped around Zane's shoulders while she used him like a crutch. He could hear his friend whispering, but he could not make out the words clearly. All Ian could hear was the melodious giggle as Mina left him and Lisa crouched together on the ground. He hoped he could explain to her later, but from her reaction, she was not even fazed.

"Ian, my hand."

"Right," Ian snapped out of it, and checked Lisa's wound carefully. It was a little more than a scratch and only needed a good rinse with soapy water. "Let's go to my study." Once upstairs, Ian was startled when he saw Zane leaving the room with a small grin on his face.

"You will regret what just happened." Ian could not tell if Zane was talking to him or Lisa, but he was already regretting it. He just could not up and say it out loud, and so he would have to wait. Ian entered his study and saw a thumb drive on his desk.

Ignoring Lisa, Ian turned on his laptop, and plugged in the drive, while Lisa tended to her cut in the restroom. When she returned, Ian could do nothing but glare at her, and her unease was obvious. She sat down, trying to put on a brave face, while simultaneously trying to pretend she was seriously injured, but Ian was no longer buying into her innocent act.

"Lisa, how long have we known each other?"

"A little over a decade, why?" Ian stood up and walked around his desk dropping his face low to meet Lisa's eyes.

"When did you start sabotaging my company?" Lisa tried to feign ignorance, but Ian shifted his laptop to show her a video of herself meeting with a man who worked in his human resources department.

"Ian, I can explain."

"Really? And can you explain this?" Ian pulled up a photo of Mina laying on a couch with a bruised face, then he started to play a video of a beaten man, who was begging for his life. The man in the video told the person who was interrogating him that Lisa suggested for him and his group to sell Mina, and when she had been ransomed, she was the one who ripped Mina's shirt open.

"He is lying!"

"Is he?" Ian pulled up another slide that showed a transcript from the man's polygraph.

"You know torture can make those test inaccurate."

"Then clear your name and submit to one." Lisa opened her mouth then closed it, and Ian went back to sit behind his desk. He pulled out his phone and called his father, he did not even have to tell Lisa what to do, because she already knew.

Lisa was in shock, all the work she had put into figuring out where Senior Lee was vacationing had gone down the drain, and she was about to be left with nothing.

She explained to the man that people had taken one of Ian's compliments out of context, and she assured him that she and Ian were just friends. Something that hurt her to do, but she was caught in a difficult situation. When the call ended Lisa was a mess of guilt and self-pity.

"If you were anyone else, you would be dead right now, and not because of Mina, but because you and your brother infiltrated my company and stole valuable resources from me." Lisa knew it was a mistake to hire some of the women who she had ousted from the Lee group, but she did not want to waste the potential, she just wanted to keep Ian to herself.

"Please give me another chance."

"This is me giving you another chance. You should be wise enough to take it." Lisa stood, taking the pardon seriously as she gathered her things.

"Did you ever care for me?"

"Up until a minute ago, you held a special place in my heart, but now I don't even know who you are or what was real anymore." Ian pressed a button, and his staff filed into the room. He dismissed everyone, apart from Carmen. "I remember you used to say we were 'in sync,' but I'm only just getting to realize that you had me under surveillance."