Chapter 692: Exchange

Mina did not want to believe the Youngs', or the Greys', as they now called themselves, but she listened to their claims anyway. Apparently, they specialized in helping people create new identities for themselves, and among their clientele was Sadie and Troy. However, for as much as she hated to admit it, the more the man spoke, the more she believed him. He told her that her sister was afraid for her life, and when she came to them, she was the one who suggested faking her death.

"Witnesses said they saw a red sports car force her off the bridge, but later they claimed to see nothing, how do you explain that?"

"Miss Mina, we aren't in a position to lie. When Troy's car went over, my wife and I started shouting about a red sports car that forced them off, and when people started to repeat the information, we left."

"Then what happened afterward? The water was cold, and someone would have seen them swimming away."

"Do you even know your sister?" Adley asked. "They were never in the car. They used weights and dummies. Don't ask me how it worked, but it did." Mina felt her head spinning, on one end of the spectrum, she was happy her sister was alive, but on another she felt betrayed by her.

"If you walk me into another trap, your child will be orphaned." Mina stood and gestured for Mike's bindings to be released. "Keep his wife here. If you don't hear from me every hour: shoot her."

----

Mina's car stopped in front of an apartment complex that was only a few miles from her restaurant. She wondered if Sadie had ever ventured inside, and what would have happened if she had not met the Youngs' first. She likely would have confronted her sister, without caring who could overhear, and since people like to stop by just to get a glimpse of her, there was no telling how many phone cameras would have been recording the scene.

However now, Mina could let her emotions free, and anger was the dominant feeling. All that occurred between herself in Ren, even her decision to attend Wayvair over her other top choice was made because Sadie left her to clean up a mess she started. Her sister did not need to be with Troy, she wanted to be, and now that Mina had relationship experience of her own, she knew what she would have done in her sister's shoes. She had once loved President Lee, and while difficult, she was fine without him.

With her gun discreetly aimed at Mike, Mina made the man knock on the door to the apartment where her sister was said to be staying. As soon as she heard the voice question the knock, she knew it was Sadie, and when the door pulled open to reveal the woman, Mina nearly trained her gun on her instead, but Sadie's protruding belly, kept her from acting.

"It's you," Mina whispered, unconsciously moving forward to hug the sister she had believed was dead. "Why didn't you tell me?" Mina questioned. "I wouldn't have told anyone." Mina was so overwhelmed with her conflicting emotions that she did not notice that her display of affection was not returned, and by the time she realized her sister was not happy to see her, she had already lost the resolve to kill her.

"How did you find me?" Sadie asked, and Mina pulled away from her sister wearing a confused expression.

"Is that all you care about; how I found you?" Sadie realized that her greeting came off as cold, but the truth was that she was finally settled, and she did not want Mina coming in to snatch it away from her.

When they were young, Sadie was extremely jealous of her sister who got all the attention, albeit negative, from their parents, and when boys started to pull their attention away from her and toward her younger sister, she promised herself that she would not live in Mina's shadow anymore. Meeting Troy was like a godsend, because he was the one who showed her all the affection she felt her sister would get without even trying. People feared her, and to Sadie It was Mina's fault for never standing up for herself.

"I want to put the past behind me Mina, Troy and I have only just gotten to this point and I don't want any trouble from you or your husband."

"My husband?" Mina asked in confusion. "Who is my husband?" Sadie's face turned dark, and Mina began to chuckle with incredulousness. "You think I married Ren?"

"We saw you together and-" In a fit of anger, Mina removed the gun from her sleeve and pointed it at her sister.

"Why would I be with him?" Mina asked, tilting her head at her sister who retreated in fear. "Do you know what that man did to me? Do you know the torment I faced?" Sadie shook her head at her little sister. The once gentle as a dove Mina was now pointing a gun at her, and she did not know how to process it.

"He vacationed here with you not too long ago. Troy and I worked at the hotel where he stayed. You were with him-"

"That wasn't me!" Mina shouted. "That was a woman he butchered into looking like me because I ran away. Did you know that he tried to kidnap me? Do you even care how terrified I was of the man who I thought killed my sister?!" Mina's voice raised in octaves with each word. Her mind was racing, and now, instead of hating and fearing Ren, she pitied him. The man had lost out on years of his life because his obsession with Sadie trickled over to her.

"Mina, please think of your niece." Mina chuckled, roughly rubbing her face as she gestured for Mike and her sister to sit. She sat across from them, folding her hands in front of her face as the storm raging inside her mind slowly settled.

"You are still breathing because of that child," Mina coldly replied.

"What happened to you?" Sadie whispered. The woman she was looking at was not the Mina she left behind, she was someone cold; someone like her.

"Sadie, after you left, Ren started to stalk me, and then his family threatened ours. I went far away for school, thinking he would find someone else to occupy his time, but he continued. He only stopped when his brother intervened, and after that, my life took another terrible turn." Mina told her sister about her struggles in school, and when she got to the bits about President Lee, her sister viciously attacked Mike, who Mina kept her gun trained on, ordering the man not to move. "Sadie stop! You'll hurt the baby."

"You knew! All this time you knew, and you didn't tell me! You made me think she was fine! You made me think she was safe! I should kill you." Mina found herself being transported back into the past when her sister would go against anyone to protect her. It was how she met Troy, and oddly enough, how they were in the situation they were in now.

"We were scared, okay? We didn't know what to do. Haven't we helped you all these years? When Troy left; Adley and I took care of you."

"What do you mean left? Where did he go?" Mina found herself growing angry again, her mind telling her that her sister was someone else's Miss Lisa; chasing and pining after a man who no longer wanted her.

Seeing that her sister was too focused on Mike, Mina put away her gun, and pulled her away. She turned to Mike and told him that in exchange for him taking care of Sadie, she would spare his life. She also warned him about involving police, and about the fact that no one knew she was still alive. The man was clearly confused, but Mina told him that she took a page from his book, and he understood that she too had faked her death. Before he left, he asked about his wife, and Mina made a call to have the woman released.

"You never saw me," Mina insisted, and Mike nodded vigorously before bolting through the doors. Turning back to her sister, Mina repeated the question regarding Troy, but she could see that Sadie was in physical discomfort, so she pushed her curiosity to the back of her mind and helped her sister onto the couch where she draped her legs on her lap, massaging them from the ankle down.

"I dreamed about you every night Mina. I really didn't know, and when I saw you in that commercial, I thought you were okay."

"I was okay Sadie, but I would have been better if I didn't think the only person who ever loved me was dead." Sadie winced; she had hoped that her parents would begin to cherish Mina more after she left.

"I thought it would help them love you."

"I didn't get to stay home long enough to find out. I moved out a few weeks after, but either way; knowing that they didn't care about me until after you were gone, hurt. How far along are you?" Mina asked, wanting to change the subject. She had made peace with the fact that she was an unloved monster, and she did not want to go back to the past and dredge up old emotion that no longer had its place in her life.

"Almost nine months; I guess you found me just in time." Mina gently reached up her hand to pat her sister's belly, and although they had been apart for years, she still felt a sense of familiarity with her.

"Is Troy the father?" Sadie nodded, and Mina raised an eyebrow. "And he left because of the baby?" Once again, Sadie's expression went pained, but this time Mina knew her sister was doing it on purpose. "You can tell me; I'm not the same weak person I used to be. I can take care of you, I can protect you now."

"Troy left me because he thought I didn't love him." Mina literally had to do a double take because as far as she knew, Sadie and Troy were the ideal image of love. "Come on Mina, what did we have going for us? I liked Troy, but forever wasn't in my plans with him back then."

"Then why did you want to run away with him?"

"I didn't want to be alone and I was afraid Ren would find me." Mina's facial expression revealed her confusion, and Sadie gripped her sister's hand tightly before going into detail. She told her that Troy became insecure because she had settled into the four cities well, and when she refused to give him children after seven years of being together, he left. "I didn't feel it at first, but after a few months without him, I realized that the problem was me. I gave him those feelings because, in all honesty, I enjoyed the male attention I was getting; no one here was afraid of me."

"Sadie I-"

"It's not your fault Mina. I was the one who attacked people when you were fine ignoring them. I was the one who didn't see Troy's pain in time, and the year I spent without him helped ground me in reality; I was always in love with him, I just convinced myself that I wasn't."

"How many children do you have now?" Mina questioned, making an expectant face that made her sister chuckle.

"Mina," Sadie replied, sitting up to look her sister in the eye. "I really missed you." She reached out to stroke her sister's cheek with sadness in her eyes.

"Then why weren't you happy to see me?"

"Because; I have had this dream before."