254 Chapter 254: I'll Fix It
Ian looked over at Mina who had gone back to lazily gazing out of the passenger side window. She said that Lisa looked beautiful, and he knew she was not being sarcastic. Lisa did look lovely, but what Ian did not understand was why Mina was bringing it up.
Ian thought about Mina's missing dress and he assumed that Mina had become sullen because Lisa had the same one, but as he mulled over that possibility, it was way too coincidental for his taste.
"Mina, why did you bring up Lisa?" Mina glanced in President Lee's direction and narrowed her eyes.
"There is no need to pretend. She already told me." Ian was more baffled. He wanted to know what Lisa had told Mina, but his stomach spasmed and he swerved the car just a little; panicking Mina who felt that the passenger side had come too close to the guardrails.
"What are you trying to do? If you want me dead by car accident, then hit something that will kill me instantly; not something that will only disfigure me," Mina said. She was staring at President Lee, whose face was pulled into a grimace. "What is wrong with you?" She asked.
"Stomach pain," Ian said.
"Stomach pain? Did you eat at the venue?" she questioned. If the man died while he was with her, she wanted to have a solid place to point the finger.
"No, I ate at home." Mina knitted her brow.
"Then it was poisoned!" She shouted out.
"What? No, If I eat when I'm stressed, I get stomach pains." Mina stared at the man. She knew what he was describing was stomach anxiety, and based on what she had read, it could range from mild to severe.
"Are you sure?" Mina asked, and Ian looked at her like she was crazy.
"Do you think I need to use poison?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Fair enough," Mina answered, but Ian was unsatisfied by her response.
"Mina, if you were stranded in the desert, and I showed up with a glass of water and then Lisa showed up with a glass of water. Which one would you drink?" President Lee asked.
Mina did not even take a minute to consider.
"I would drink the one from Miss Lisa of course." Ian was shocked. He knew the women were anything but friendly toward one another.
"Why?" He asked.
"Because then at least I would know it was poisoned." Mina's response was so flat and filled with seriousness that although she did not mean for it to be funny, President Lee could not help but to let out a chuckle before his eyes shut in pain again.
Mina looked at the man in the driver's seat; she could see that his pain was nearing severe as droplets of sweat began to form on his face. He had originally been laughing, but now his face was pulled tight and she knew he was focusing on ignoring the pain. Slowly and cautiously, Mina reached out and pressed the tips of her fingers on President Lee's abdomen.
"W-w-what are you doing?" He asked with a stutter. Not sure if he should stop her or if he even wanted to.
"Look, you're not driving steadily, and I don't want to suffer before I die. If it does not help, I will stop," Mina said. "Consider it pay back for the Two Million."
Mina began to move her fingers in small circles, and she traveled up and down from his pelvic bone to his rib cage. She kneaded his firm muscles the way she had done to herself in the past. After just a few minutes, President Lee brushed her hand away and Mina sat back in the seat.
"Did it work at all?" She asked curiously, and the man nodded, although he was not sure if it was because of her actions or because of the blood flow that had been pulled between his legs.
"It's better," Ian said. Hoping that Mina had not noticed the tent that was now perched on his lap. She must not have because she nodded and looked back out of the window.
"Where did you learn that?" Ian asked. Desperately trying to keep his cool and regain control of his raging hormones.
"Thirteen days," Mina said as a reply.
"Thirteen days?" Ian asked.
"Yes, I lived with that pain for thirteen days, but on the third day I figured out that I could massage the pain away for a few hours." Mina adjusted the flow of heat coming from the vent before she continued to speak. "It doesn't work every time though," she said.
Ian's heart beat wildly inside of his chest. He wondered how much Mina had been through in her life.
"When did that happen?" he asked, and Mina shot him a glance before chuckling sarcastically.
"Someone had been feeding me poison." Ian's heart sank. He knew that 'someone' was him.
"Mina…" President Lee said, his tone was so gentle that it surprised the woman who turned to look at him suspiciously. "I am truly sorry," he said. Mina narrowed her eyes at the man then took a deep breath.
"President Lee, may I borrow your phone," she asked, and the man obliged immediately.
In the next second Mina rolled down the window and threw his phone out of the moving car. President Lee brought the vehicle to a halt and pulled to the side of the road.
"What the hell was that?" he said. He removed his seatbelt and exited the car to fetch his phone. He was not worried about Mina driving away because he had killed the engine before he went to pick up his device.
When president Lee got back to his vehicle, he turned on the lights and inspected his now broken and scuffed phone.
"Mina, my phone is useless now," Ian said. "The screen is completely shattered." Mina looked over at the phone and creased her forehead.
"Give it to me, I'll fix it," She said as she held out her hand.
Hesitantly, President Lee handed Mina his device. It was already broken so there was not much more damage she could do, but what she did next shocked him.
Mina dusted off the cracked phone screen and shook some of the glass shards out of the open window. After a few seconds she blew on the phone and then whispered to it.
"Sorry," she said into the phone as if she were whispering into a person's ear. She then brightened up her face and handed the device back to its owner. "Good as new," Mina beamed and President Lee just stared at her.
"It's obviously still broken," President Lee said.
"But I said sorry to it," Mina quipped.
Ian looked at Mina, not viciously, not lustfully, not even adoringly. He looked at her as if she were an enigma.
In all of Ian's life Mina was the only person who he felt the need to repeatedly apologize to. Her demonstration made him realize that every time he uttered that two syllable word, it meant nothing to her.
Mina believed she had been broken by him, and no amount of regret he felt was going to fix that.
