Chapter 620: Sickness

Mina could see that Miss Maggie was begging for Paul's life out of desperation, so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. She did not think she would be correct, but the look on Maggie's face told her that she was and that she was far enough along for them to have moved their wedding to a sooner date. A sick feeling overtook her, who thought back to the time she had beaten Maggie, wondering if the woman was already carrying at the time. Mina also thought back to how Paul flirted back with her, and it made her feel gross to think that he was sleeping with Maggie while simultaneously offering to be her companion or date to several events. If she had gone along with her plan, and continued pursuing the man, it was highly likely that she would have been making the man choose between her and his unborn child, a role she would hate to play.

"President Lee, do you have Paul?" She asked, and the man looked at her with telling eyes, but he did not speak. "Let him go back to his family."

"Mina-" She cut the man off, holding her stomach as if she were going to be sick.

"If he doesn't return, I will be guilty of making her one of the women Mrs. Meagan and I have an entire program dedicated to helping."

"No one will know," the man replied, and Mina nodded.

"Yes, but I will know, and even now, knowing does not sit well with me." Mina started to walk away from the area, and Ian knew she was serious. He asked Ellie to make the arrangements, and after a moment of complaint, she pulled Maggie Arden out of his home to do what was asked of her.

Ian went straight to Mina's room, but she had locked herself in the restroom, and seeing how pale her face was when she walked away, he knew it was because she was feeling physically ill. He texted chef Tan to prepare a light dinner for them as he waited for Mina in the sitting area of her room. When she opened the restroom door, she did not look surprised to see him, and Ian could see that she expected he would be there because she had changed in the restroom instead of in the changing area.

"Are you okay?" he questioned, but Mina just shrugged and asked for her notebooks to be returned to her. "You don't need to be worked up; you need to rest."

"If I sleep now, I will think of all the possible what ifs, and I do not want to do that. President Lee, I know you won't understand, but what happened to me in the past almost happened all over again and it was because I trusted the wrong person, yet again." Ian found himself nodding at Mina, and he asked her to follow him to his study. She did without protest, likely thinking he was going to return her notes to her, but he was not.

Inside of his study, Ian pushed at a specific part of his bookshelf, and it raised forward so that he could roll it to the side. Mina's face took on a curious expression and when she saw what the man had revealed, she started to laugh mockingly. She asked him why he had a hidden dry erase board but Ian really had no answer for her. When he had the house built, he had specifically asked for it, but it had been more than three years, and he had not touched it once. He only remembered it because Mills asked him why he had an invisible track on the wall, and she went to investigate, triggering his memory.

Ian told Mina that if she could explain her obsession with whatever she was working on, he would return her notebooks, and she of course agreed. He handed her a marker, and she went on a rant, jotting down numbers and sequences that really went right over his head, until she put everything in layman's terms, which helped with his understanding. She seemed to speak in circles, and when he interrupted her for clarification, the convoluted explanation only became more complex. Ian asked her which branch of math she was working on, because it certainly was not finance, and when the woman admitted that it was rocket science, he just looked at her as if she were insane.

"Mina, this is ridiculous, you know that right?" The woman just laughed at his expression before following up with her own question.

"You understand variables and margins of error, right?" Ian nodded, because of course he did. "Well imagine this is a formula in finance. For every millionth dollar, the margin of error would be between three and three hundred." Ian shrugged, three hundred was not a huge loss in a million-dollar profit, but he could see how it was to someone like Mina. "I guess money doesn't do it for you," the woman said, so she switched her analogy. "Imagine the same numbers as people and imagine that your loved ones are within the group."

"Are you included?" Ian asked, and Mina shrugged.

"If you want me to be," she said oblivious to what the man was hinting at.

"Then yes, it is an unacceptable loss." Mina was so happy that she had gotten the man to understand the problem the way she saw it, but when she noticed that he was still staring at her, she became confused.

"What?"

"Mina," Ian said, reaching out to take her hand into his. "Do you really not see it?" Mina studied President Lee's face, and when she realized what he meant, she gasped.

"President Lee, anything you feel for me is not real. It is a form of sickness. Likewise, anything I feel for you is also a sickness."

"Then we can be sick together," Ian replied, hating that she was repeating his sister's words to him, no matter how true they were.

"What about…" Mina did not get to finish her sentence because President Lee pressed a passionate kiss against her lips, and for the briefest moment, she kissed him back. "This is not right," she said, pushing the man away. "You… I… It's wrong. Let's just remain friends." Ian nodded at the woman, and although she had said those words, she had kissed him back, and his hopes were not yet dashed. Had it been a few months ago, she would have run away screaming, but she did not do that, which was a positive.

"Okay," Ian said, trying to rid his mind of the kiss. "Explain this to me again, because I feel like there are better things you could be working on." After the fifth and sixth explanation, Mina became frustrated and did not want to work on the problem anymore, which was a good thing. "Mina, I'm not a number-oriented genius, I studied hard, but you were born smart."

"No, you are just stupid. I explained the same concept several times. There is no way you did not understand."

"Stupid?" Ian asked, poking at Mina's side which made her snort. She took on a serious expression, clearly disliking the feeling of being tickled, so Ian did it again. Eventually, he had her pressed against a bookshelf where they stared at one another, but just as they were leaning in for a kiss, they heard his nans voice, and Ian swiftly apologized to Mina who nodded.

Ian and Mina made their way out of the study, and Luna was pushing the woman's wheelchair toward them. Mina could see the woman looking at her accusingly, and feeling guilty, she looked down. She was not interested in President Lee, but somewhere deep down inside, she was still attracted to the handsome skin suit that he wore, even though she knew it was not real.

"Welcome home," Ian said, kneeling in front of his nan's wheelchair.

"You look flushed," Luna said. "What were you doing?" she asked, and her brother looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

"Mina was explaining rocket science to me, and she called me stupid for not being able to understand."

"No," Mina interjected from behind. She had hung back, likely to avoid Luna, but she obviously did not want to seem rude. "I called you stupid because I explained the same thing to you repeatedly, and you couldn't grasp a single word." Miss Ruby chuckled and gestured for Mina to come closer.

"I heard that something bad happened to you again," the woman said, and the trauma of what Mina had experienced started to rise before she was able to push it back down. "My Ian may not be the best with his words, but please understand that he is just trying to keep you safe. Promise me you will not send away your security detail next time?" Mina nodded and it was genuine. She did not care who it was, she would take security seriously from now onward.

Luna stared between her brother and Mina, who both wore embarrassed expressions that she had only seen on the face of people who had been caught doing something they should not have been doing, so when her nan had been pushed into the room she usually stayed in, and Ian retreated to his study, she went to Mina's bedroom to speak to the woman. Mina looked shocked to see her, but she was polite and gestured for her to take a seat. It was the first time that Luna had been inside of Mina's new bedroom, and now that she had seen it, she was more uncomfortable with it than she thought she would be.

"Mina, I don't want to drag this out, but I feel like I have to tell you that whatever you feel for my brother isn't real." Mina nodded at the woman, not entirely sure why she expected an apology when she knew that Miss Luna and Miss Lisa were still very much friendly. It was clear in Luna's words on the day that she visited Miss Ruby in the hospital. Luna blamed her for everything, including the dissolved relationship between President Lee and Miss Lisa.

"You don't have to tell me that. I know what capture-bonding is and what captor-bonding is. Your brother and I are just friends." Luna stared at Mina for a long time. The woman had never referred to Ian as her friend, and it was very telling.

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Dom had only just released Paul to his fiancé when he returned to the Lee facility. He was beginning to grow tired of the amount of people who wanted to hurt Mina, so as soon as he got to a comfortable place, he sent the woman a text, telling her that regardless of whether he was there or not, she would begin training at a comprehensive gym, where many other people could help her. He had seen the footage, and he knew that part of the reason she had gotten taken was because she panicked. She had forgotten to make herself heavy from before the men got to her, and her hesitation allowed Paul to grab her from behind and cover her mouth.

Had it not been for the fact that Brayden and Paul were not on good terms, oddly enough, over Mina, the man would have already been dealt with, but as it stood, there was nothing linking him to Paul's actions, not even a small hint of compliance. In fact, the man wanted to go to the police, but director Porter had stopped him, which was good, since it was still unclear what president Lee planned to do to Miss Maggie and her fiancé.

Just as Dom was about to close the door behind him, Rebecca pushed herself into his room, and pressed her body against him. He chuckled as he bent to kiss the insatiable woman.