Chapter 634: Personal Hero

Zane arrived at the Lee mansion feeling like a true personal hero. He and Linette had discussed her 'uncle' in detail. She told him that the man only saw her worth when he noticed that she had grown into her features, but before then, he treated her poorly. The woman was almost positive that her aunt was aware that her sister and husband had an affair, but it was one of those family secrets that everyone knew, but never said anything about. The truth was even evident in their names; Lenard and Linette, Mina's uncle's name was Lionel.

By the end of the evening, Zane felt sympathy for the woman, who he knew understood that she had been sent out to seduce President Lee to secure her family a better future. Her cousin on the other hand, the woman admitted, was genuinely obsessed with Mina, and had been for years. His father had set his eyes on his niece's looks and intelligence. He had done everything in his power to make sure that Lenard saw her as the only woman eligible for marriage.

When Zane relayed the information, Mina shook her head, clearly having come to the same conclusion. She told him that Linette lived far away, but in more recent years, her aunt's sister had moved so she could be 'closer to family,' but she had not guessed that her uncle was using his illegitimate daughter in the way the woman had described.

"It's not as uncommon as you would think. Ian and I came across many cases of such things, and it was one of the first problems we addressed as a team." Mina frowned at the information, but she had heard something similar from Miss Luna. "I'm going to help her," Zane added, making both Mina and Ian look up at him in shock. "Don't look at me that way. You both know how I feel about these things. Linette is not a bad person, she just got used to being used."

"Told you," Mina quipped, looking to President Lee, who was so against going on a date with the woman that she had to beg Zane to do it. "So how are you going to help?" Mina asked, wondering if she could lend her aid in any way.

"Don't get involved. I do not want your uncle coming after your parents for your actions. Let's just say that Linette ran away after being embarrassed that Ian did not show up to their arranged meeting. She already penned a letter home, saying that she let the family down, and wouldn't return until she was married to someone who they would approve of." Mina's face took on a confused expression. Linette barely had an education, so she worried about how the woman would care for herself.

"Relax," President Lee interjected. He could see Mina's posture become tense and he knew panic and guilt was about to set in. "I will send her to train as a nurse." Mina's eyes snapped to President Lee, who she was now certain had changed for the better.

----

Olivia could not sleep, so she woke and started to prepare breakfast for Peter's parents. The couple was extremely nice to her, and if anyone from the outside would have been looking in, they would think she was their daughter, not that Peter was their only son. The man had sisters, who were both married and moved away, but when they found out they were expecting a nephew, they came running.

At first, Olivia believed that she would be uncomfortable in the environment, but she was fine. No one stopped her from house work unless they felt it was dangerous, no one judged her for getting pregnant, and they did not even ask her about the rumors that had once followed her around. She had believed the kindness was fake, but so far, their masks had not cracked.

"What are you doing in the kitchen this early?" Olivia heard.

"Sorry Mrs. Twan, I couldn't sleep so I started on breakfast." The woman flashed a smile before walking around the kitchen counter to see what Olivia was preparing.

"Are you making your own jam?"

"A friend of mine showed me how. In fact, everything I know about cooking or cleaning came from her. She is the one who gave Ollie his name."

"Will we get to meet her?"

"She and Peter aren't friendly, but I hope so." Seeing an opportunity to bring up meeting people from Olivia's side, Mrs. Twan pressed about the woman's family, but Olivia was dead set on never contacting the uncle who tried to hurt her mentally and monetarily.

"My father also did not want me to be with my husband. We did not have much money, but if we did, I am sure he would have gone as far as your uncle. He hated that I was able to move on without his help, but there was nothing he could do to stop me."

"Did you forgive him?" Olivia asked, sensing that the conversation was going in that direction.

"I did; but I will never know if he heard me. My father had a stroke, and I cried out my forgiveness while he was laying in the hospital bed. He died an hour later."

----

Mina awoke feeling uncomfortable. She had that ridiculous dream again, and this time around, she was sure that stress was its trigger. The dream was not terrible; and she knew that it was a manifestation of her subconscious. Regardless of her personal beliefs, she was an adult with needs, but the way she felt after that dream always made her feel embarrassed.

Starting her day out with a shower, Mina mentally prepared to speak with her uncle, who had yet to come with a counter offer now that Linette had 'run away.' She called the man several times before he responded with a text that asked her to check her email, and eager to see if the man had sent her a scanned copy of the sales document, Mina opened it in excitement.

Sadly, Mina's excitement was short lived. The contract that had been emailed to her was a sale document but based on the language of the first page alone, Mina could tell it was not the same one she had drafted. While she was reading, her heart began to race as she took in the awful clauses in the document. 'Sale is contingent upon the continued support of 'Mina Harlow',' 'buyer must make a fair offer to the original owner before selling,' and the worst thing she had ever seen in a sale document, 'land can be seized at will,'

Standing up abruptly, Mina ran to President Lee's study, and when the man was not there she barged into his bedroom, using the adjoining doors of the room. The man had been getting dressed, and while she was uninterested in his body; she did look. After seeing enough, she turned and started to explain her issue to the man, who had not even said a word about her walking in while he had only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Print it out and let me take a look." Mina nodded and took one more peak at the man before darting out of his room, and back into his study. She had seen him in swimming clothes, and she had seen him without a shirt, she had even seen him naked, but she had never seen him fresh out of the shower, and she was not sure she would be able to picture him any other way.

President Lee's body was what she had considered ideal; the only other person who came close was Brayden, but his muscle was mainly in his arms, and likely came from playing the drums. She had never seen the man without a shirt in person but based on images she had seen of the man, she knew that his stomach was flat, but not chiseled the way President Lee's was. The man did not have that prominent V line that made her eyes travel, and while Mina was uninterested in President Lee, it did not mean that her eyes were blind to his beauty.

"Is it printed?" Mina stood and turned to hand the man the document, but she paused when she saw that he had stepped into his study without a shirt. "My hair is still wet," the man replied, seeming to have read her expression, and Mina nodded while handing him the contract. She did not know enough about real estate to spot what was illegal, but she knew that President Lee did. "I'm sorry Mina, but this is a downloadable template from the government website. Your father shouldn't have signed without talking to you first; the contract is binding."

"Can't you do anything?" She asked, and President Lee raised a brow at her. He could do something. He could make it so that there would be no one left to inherit the land except her father, he could make it so that her uncle voluntarily gave the land away to preserve his life, and he could even make it so that the government would commandeer the property as unfit for inhabitants, but he knew that Mina would not want any of that. "Forget I asked," the woman said, clearly seeing the meaning behind the look he was giving her.

----

As stated in the contract, Mina began wiring her uncle the money for the sale of the home. The man wanted monthly payments of 10k after a first payment of 50k, which was doable for Mina without the aid of President Lee. She had planned to pay everything up front, but the way the contract was worded, made that possibility impossible, and since her father had signed, she was left with no choice.

Mina contacted her parents, who were jovial on the phone. They thanked her profusely, and the rebuke that she wanted to give her father for blindly signing anything his 'brother' had given him without having her read it first melted into the far corner of her mind. Her parents were happy, and clearly relieved that the home they had lived in before they were even of legal age to marry was finally on its way to becoming theirs.

"Oh Mina, Lenard helped us post your things for sale online. He felt bad for making you pay to fix the holes in the walls, so he said that we could sell your things and give you the money." Mina's breath caught. She did not want to sell her things. They held precious memories and she wanted to keep them all, which was why she asked her parents to wait.

"Okay, I will check it out. If there is something on there that I do not want to sell, can you have him take it down?" Mina did not want to contact her cousin herself, and after getting the sight information from her parents, she was shocked to see that everything had already been sold.

Not wanting to spoil their good mood, Mina resolved to keep the hurt she felt to herself. She ended the call and left her room, sluggishly walking into President Lee's study, where the man was working on something. She signed dramatically as she dropped down in her chair, and the man looked up at her with a raised brow.

"I'm not going on a date with Lenard for you," he joked, and Mina chuckled despite feeling down. The thought of Lenard and President Lee on a date with one another was funny to her, not because she found anything wrong with being attracted to the same gender, or that she belittled it, but because they had strong personalities and she could see the date becoming a show of who could out 'man' who.

"There's no date this time," Mina replied. "My parents sold my things."

"I know," Ian said. "It's outside."