Chapter 640: Getting Over

Mina stood on stage, not entirely uncomfortable because she had begun to get used to being stared at. She opened her speech with statistical facts, and she backed it up with remarks about the current education system. She also remembered to mention that the program she was there to support was flawed by recollecting her own past.

Each year, the schools Mina attended would join the lottery for upgraded resources, and each year they lost out to a school that was nowhere near as bad. The reason was because no one cared about New Providence. As far as the citizens of Pan were concerned, the place was a mountain village filled with people who wanted to stay isolated and ignorant, and it was evident in every aspect of the place, down to the library which basically had nothing.

"In most of our classes, textbooks were shared between students on a first come first served basis. As a result, I began to memorize entire chapters, which I would later go home and rewrite." Mina made a gesture and Dom, who had come as her date and guard, handed her a stack of notebooks that had been in one of the dresser drawers that her parents had sold. "This is a fraction of one math textbook. It was released seven years before I was born and considered outdated before I entered a class where I would need it."

Mina could see the people in the crowd exchange glances at one another, clearly confused by her words. She knew that most of them assumed the government helped small schools stay up to date, but the truth was that they did not. Each zone was entitled to the amount that was collected in tax dollars, and with a school as old as the one Mina attended, every dollar went into general building maintenance.

Mina closed her speech by imploring the organization to investigate other ways to help impoverished school districts. She suggested for them to accept old text donations from wealthier districts to be sent to the smaller ones, as she believed that passing the books around was much better than having them destroyed. She did not receive applause when she finished speaking, and she did not expect to. She had not said anything the people standing in the room wanted to hear and when the organizer approached her, she knew she had done what she set out to do; she pushed buttons.

----

Cam listened to Mina's speech and rubbed at his temples. The girl was destroying his reputation at every turn. The organization she had been invited to speak at was run by his paternal family, which oddly enough, was also surnamed Lee, without the relation, and Mina had just made them look horrible at their own event. He called his Secretary of Education and asked if it were true that high paying tax districts received new textbooks yearly, and when the man confirmed, Cam instructed the organizer to bring Mina to him.

The woman was shocked when she entered the back room but sighed as if she should have guessed. Cam watched her plop down on the sofa and give him a look that told him she was expecting his rebuke.

"Mina, I feel like you and I end up on this topic anytime we are in the same room."

"I wish I had a remedy for that as well, but it seems as though we are destined to be at odds with one another."

"You don't believe in destiny," the man quipped, and Mina shrugged.

"My views on a lot of things have changed. I once did not believe in coincidences until one almost cost me my life and is still robbing me of my freedom." Cam sat up and glared at Mina.

"This is the last chance I am giving you to come clean. If you tell me the truth, I promise I will not kill your family." Mina scoffed. She was tired of people using her parents to hold her accountable for things she had no control over, but love was unconditional, and because her parents kept her despite the many times they could have gotten rid of her, she would continue to submit to each threat.

"I am working with the Prime Minister of Bal to thwart your family's current hold on the country of Pan. Our goal is to rid the nation of corruption and allow a fair and true election to decide the leaders of a nation that is falling behind in the world because of greed and immorality."

"Mina that is not funny," Cam said. She had spoken the words so fluently that he wanted to believe her, but he knew the woman was unlikely to tell the truth even when the truth was a simpler way. "What if I had you assassinated right now?" Mina shrugged, and Cam felt guilty for reasons he could not understand. "What is wrong with you? How come you aren't fighting me?"

"Your cousin is back with his ex, and I have the feeling that things are going to get bad for me. I have two workable options right now; marry my cousin or die and I'm sure you can guess which one I prefer."

"Ian is not an idiot; he wouldn't take Lisa back even if she begged him. What you are seeing is them being civil for the sake of peace, nothing more." Cam did not know why he was vouching for Ian, who was being silly for entertaining Lisa in any way, and he knew he had to let the man know that Mina was no fan of his actions.

"That is not what Miss Luna told me."

"Luna is a romantic. She was able to salvage her relationship with Doctor Bell and she thinks that Ian and Lisa will do the same." Mina shrugged, and Cam could not believe that she was displaying any sort of emotion toward his cousin's interaction with Lisa. He felt as though he needed to let Ian know right away, but not while the woman was around. "Don't let this situation bother you. Ian has his reasons."

"And when they start to torture me again, who do I turn to? I can't depend on my friends, my family does not even know half of what I have been through, and me… I'm just a pawn in someone else's game."

----

Ian watched Mina interact with many of the guests who attended the event, only becoming nervous when she spoke to someone who was related to him. She had invited Maribelle as a prop she could use to stress her point, and while he could tell that she was getting through to her crowd, some of them were angry that she was making them look incompetent.

It was such a simple thing to pass books down from one school to another, but in the eyes of the privileged, no one would want anything second hand, so they did what they felt was best, they repurposed the material to make new textbooks for the following year. It brought Ian back to Mina's reaction to his clothing storage, and if she knew how much of it was sent to be burned, she probably would have been disgusted.

Ian decided right then and there that he would allow her to send the clothing to whomever she wanted. He did not want Mina to see him as wasteful, and while that was exactly what he had been doing, it was ignorance that fueled his actions. Since she had come into his life, he had begun to see a new part of the world that he had not noticed before. She was opening his eyes to life as a common working person, and while he would never experience the hardship firsthand, he was beginning to see why Cam was worried about her.

If Mina's message got out to the people, she had the potential to push him out, and with her political views, she would overhaul the entire system that had kept the Lee family in power for decades. She needed to be brought into the family to prevent that from happening, and right now, Ian could see some of his relatives wondering if she needed to be eliminated.

"The President requests your presence sir." Ian waved the guard away, and covertly called Dom to his side, telling the man to escort Mina to safety. Because Dom was acting as Mina's date, he was not wearing his Lee family seal, and that would work in everyone's favor. The last thing Ian wanted was his family to show up at his home wondering why they had not been introduced to Mina, who before now, was nothing more than an actress who had slept with Cam and got herself a degree and a Mark in return to them.

"What?" Ian said as he approached Cam, who was hiding in the back until it was time for him to make a brief appearance.

"Mina is mad at you." Ian made a face. He already knew the woman was angry about the clothing, but why she would tell Cam was beyond his comprehension.

"I've already decided to let her send the clothes to whoever she wants, I just haven't had time to tell her yet." Cam smirked. He had the urge to hold onto the information and let his cousin figure it out on his own, but as much as he liked to cause mischief, Mina was an asset far too great to waste.

"I don't know about any clothing; Mina was angry because she saw you talking to Lisa." Ian dashed out of the room, calling Dom who said that they had only just gotten to their car. He instructed the man to wait for him, and when he spotted them in the parking garage, he entered the vehicle in Dom's place.

Just as Cam had said, Mina looked upset. She rolled her eyes at him and turned to look out of the window that only had another car as the view. Ian tried to gently pry a response from her, but she only gave him one word answers or just ignored his question completely.

"Mina, you can send the clothes to whoever you want, okay?" Ian was not sure whether his cousin was guessing or not, so he threw out a safer presumption.

"You can give it to Mills. I don't want you and your girlfriend holding anything over my head later." The tiniest smile grew on Ian's lips. Mina had practically snarled the word girlfriend at him.

"I don't have a girlfriend," he admitted. "The woman I want doesn't see me as an option, but I am working very hard to change that." Ian reached for Mina's hand and the woman looked down at where their skin touched before looking back up at him in confusion.

"President Lee, I-" Ian cut the woman off. He knew what she was going to say, and he did not want to hear it.

"I'm not forcing you. I just want you to know that I am still open to the idea of us."

----

Mina could not sleep. After President Lee's words she found herself wondering what could have happened if they had met on different terms, and that was a scary thought for her. She did not want to see the man in any light except cruel, but it was becoming more difficult to hate him and easier to like him. She remembered hearing Willow tell Emma that the best way to get over someone was to find a replacement, so Mina opened her phone and text Brayden who responded faster than he had ever done in the past.

[Are you busy?]

[No, I am just preparing for a sendoff dinner next week. I would love it if you came to see me off.]

[When?] Mina replied, seeing nothing wrong with attending the event.

[I will send you the details now.]