Chapter 451: Miserable Future

Mina was startled when the doors to the room flew open, and a handcuffed Dr. Sancho was pushed inside of the facility. She was torn, she wanted to run to the man and help him, but at the same time, she did not want to give President Lee the impression that hurting him would affect her. She desperately tried to convey that emotion through her eyes and Dr. Sancho seemed to understand, looking away without saying a word.

Mina's eyes lit up when Zane walked in behind Dr. Sancho, because she knew that he was not as cruel as President Lee and would likely let the others go if she asked nicely enough. She asked what was going on and Zane took a deep and steadying breath before responding. He told Mina that she needed to be more forthcoming, because they had found her healthy child file, and had discovered that she knew more about Ian than she had let on.

Mina tried to explain without sounding creepy, but there was no way around it. She was obsessed with stories about the man, and in the time that she was not studying with Dr. Sancho, she was listening to stories about the boy who was not much older than she was. At that time, Mina believed he was also a part of the healthy child initiative, and she took pride in the fact that her test results were the ones against which he was competing.

President Lee entered the room, and Mina looked away, embarrassed by the information she had just given. He did not even wait before asking her follow up questions, which she answered with a red face. Rebecca was enjoying seeing Mina put on the spot, and the smile never left her face as she watched Mina turn red in shame. She never had that sort of reaction, and she suddenly felt like it was a one up on the woman.

"President Lee, the problem is between you and me. Why not handle this like adults and talk it out?" Ian's mouth hung open.

"So, now you want to talk it out? I have tried to talk to you on many occasions, and suddenly you want to talk?" Mina looked at Rebecca and Doctor Witt, trying to see if they too saw something wrong with her logic, but both were staring at President Lee, which, to her, confirmed that he was the one with the issue.

Mina once again tried to reason with the man, who looked angrier the more she spoke. She looked at Zane, wondering if she was saying something wrong, but the man was pinching his brow as if he wanted nothing to do with what was happening.

"Okay, the truth is that I know this man, and it's largely due to his help that I was able to get into Wayvair University, but the only thing he is guilty of is helping me avoid being taken away from my family." Mina's admission served to calm Ian, but he pressed with another question.

"And the men you were with?"

"Really, we were just playing. I will stay away from your subordinates in the future, but I thought your words were clear. You said you were done, and I'm just trying to make the most of my time." Once again Ian found Mina's words cryptic, but instead of assuming as he would have done in the past, he asked for clarity.

"What?" As soon as Ian heard Mina's response about waiting for him to kill her, he felt like he had been punched in the chest. "What made you think that?"

"You said it; multiple times."

"Mina I have never said I was going to kill you." Zane looked between Ian and Mina; he was unable to fathom how two people could misunderstand each other so often.

"You implied it!" Mina shouted. She was staring at President Lee with her lips slightly parted. Her expression told him that she believed in her words, but he could not recall a time he had threatened her life after he found out she was telling the truth. He also had not told her that he did not plan to kill her either.

"Mina, I think there has been a huge misunderstanding." Mina chuckled, then resumed a serious expression. She looked at the man, as if waiting for him to shout 'gotcha' but his expression remained stoic. She chuckled again, this time running her hand through her hair before squatting down to the ground.

Mina laughed in a way that a person laughed when something was so unbelievable that it was the only way they could express their disbelief. She kept pausing in her laughter, then resuming, but everyone knew she found nothing funny about President Lee's words.

Someone called Mina's name and she finally stood, clapping her hands together in a satisfied gesture, but there was no relief in her expression. With a smile, Mina lunged at President Lee repeatedly hitting him while speaking through gritted teeth. With each blow, she spoke another word, and although her hits were not heavy, everyone in the room was shocked into silence.

"Do. You. Know. How. Many. Sleepless. Nights. I. Have. Had. Thinking. You. Were. Going. To. Kill. Me?" Ian did not dare to stop her from hitting him, because he knew she needed to vent; she was not hurting him anyway. Mina then turned to Zane who held up his hands in surrender.

"Hey, hey don't look at me like that. I specifically told you that Ian was not going to hurt you." Zane's words went unheard. Mina stalked up to him with her finger pointed like an angry old lady.

"When?" she asked, still stalking up to the man as if her pointed finger was a knife. Dr. Sancho had never seen Mina behave in the manner she was displaying, but the fact that she had assaulted a Lee in his own facility without immediately being shot, told him she was going to be okay.

Mina was angry, but she had no idea who she was angry with, and she felt like she had wasted too much time being afraid of an outcome that was never going to happen. She pushed past president Lee, almost wishing he had not told her that he did not plan to kill her, because now she did not know what she was going to do with her life.

There was no way Mina could see herself living as the forever prisoner of a demented man and his girlfriend or whatever Miss Lisa was to him, but at the same time, her mind told her that what he was saying was a trick. She stopped walking long enough for the man to catch up to her, because she knew he would follow; he always did.

"What is it that you want from me?" She asked. "And don't lie. I don't think I can take another lie right now."

"Mina, that was the truth. In the beginning, I was not sure whether I could keep you alive or not but so far, you haven't given me a reason to kill you." Mina spun on her heels looking the man in the eye.

"I just asked you not to lie to me." Ian went over his words and realized that Mina was right.

"Okay, you have done things I would kill other people for, but you are not other people." Ian tried to take a step closer to Mina, but she took two steps back in response.

"Don't touch me," she warned. All the things she had been doing was only because she believed that she would not live long enough to regret them, and if President Lee were telling the truth, she had a long and miserable future ahead of her.