Chapter 298: Offshore

It only took James a few minutes to explain himself to his charge. Although Mina was still hurt by his actions, she decided to forgive the man. James had even explained his experiences during basic training to her. The revelation made it easier for Mina to understand why he would take her mindless chatter seriously.

However, it did not give James an excuse to put his hands on her. If she had seriously been contemplating self-harm, his actions could have sent her over the edge. All Mina could think about at that moment was what she had done wrong and not knowing where she had gone wrong terrified her.

Mina told James off regarding that without caring for how deflated the man appeared. Nor was she concerned with Emma being in the next room listening in. She wanted to embarrass James so he could know that what he had done was unacceptable. She let him know that if he wanted to help, he should have started with a conversation.

----

After being thoroughly scolded by Mina, James felt a little better. Her mood was slowly returning to normal, but he could not get her words out of his mind. He hoped to put things further into perspective for her by coming clean about his plans to woo Emma, who had either been ignoring his attempts to ask her out or had missed his advances.

Mina let James know that she did not find his reasoning to be an acceptable excuse. All he had done was tell her that she was his get out of jail free card. The problem with what James was saying was that he stood to benefit from Mina remaining a captive, and that worried her for many reasons.

Mina decided that James being in the dark about who she was to President Lee was for the best. Still, she needed to try and prepare the man for the inevitable, but for now she would tread lightly.

"James, what happens to you if I disappear?" James said Mina's name in a defeated tone as a response. He obviously did not want to answer. "I'm just asking," Mina said.

"I would go back to my basic duties. The only reason I have been assigned as your guard detail is because I was close to you," James replied honestly.

Before being assigned to Mina, James did not do much for the Lee family. He spent more time training with the government soldier than he did with other Lee soldiers.

Since James had no plans for a military career, he had not attempted to make rank or even apply for a higher position. He literally just rode the tide wherever it took him, but after meeting Mina, and subsequently Emma, he realized the benefits of taking his military service seriously.

Had James made rank, he would be no different from Dom, who was high enough up the ladder to have free time and days off. Even Jessica, who was a rank lower than Dom, had free days. Between the three of them, only James had to report back to a Lee training camp after his day ended, and whenever he was not with Mina, he was back in training or logging hours at a Lee guard gym.

James' confession made Mina feel guilty, she did not want to say anything, but she knew that sooner or later, he would be pulled away from Emma and there would be nothing she could do about it.

Even if President Lee allowed her to live, once Mina was out from under the man's thumb, James would go right back to his regular routine, which would likely curb his ability to see Emma at all.

Mina kept that information to herself; she did not want to start panicking over something she could not control. All she could do was hope for the best. Just because she would probably never find love, did not mean everyone else would not, and maybe Emma would be willing to wait.

----

Mina was browsing the markets on Olivia's phone. Since the device was not known to be in her possession, no one tried to confiscate it. It had been a few days and Mina had used the device to reactivate her E-trader account. The platform worked with small sums and did not require any identifying information to get started. Once the cash out threshold was met, the funds could be transferred anonymously to any bank account.

The platform appealed to Mina because it did not report earnings to the government, and Mina had used it to earn nearly 15k in the past. It was not the best trading platform, and because of the thirty percent service fee, it only made sense to use E-trader if you wanted to keep your activity hidden.

Mina was no fan of paying taxes, and she went through great lengths to make sure she seldom had to cough up more than she believed fit for a government that did nothing for its poor. Which is why Mina kept most of her money in another country. President Lee may have confiscated her cash, but he had yet to find her offshore account, and Mina was confident that he would not.

Before Mina had snuck into President Lee's hotel room, her account had been nearing emptied. With the responsibility of her family, her thieving uncle, and the added expenditures of losing her housing grant, Mina had to lean heavily on the money she had earned over the years. Now that she was living rent free, while still earning money from AccuVision, she saw no reason not to try earning again.

If Mina were lucky, she would be able to make enough to pay whatever her uncle asked to secure her family's land deed before she served no use to the Lee's. Even if she could do nothing else for her family. With that, they would at least have a home that belonged to them fully, and if ever the need arose, they could sell the property and live off the money.

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The last time Mina visited a global transfer with Dom, she had sent her parents a large portion of the remuneration she had procured from AccuVision's unfair use of her image. From that account, Mina paid a 'bill' and more than eighty percent of the money she used to pay the 'bill' had been sent to the offshore account, which was the same account Mina used on E-trader.

So far, Mina did not have enough in her account to make a huge investment, nor did she have enough to buy and trade valuable stocks, but Mina had a job opportunity lined up that would give her the extra money she needed.

Since Mina knew a fair bit about contract law, she was able to talk her way into repeated payments from AccuVision. She argued that just because her likeness did not exclude her actual image, she was still entitled to payment from the company, because the contract did not allow for the long-term use of her image or likeness. It was a loose argument, but because AccuVision hoped to work with her again, they conceded.

In good faith, Mina agreed to appear in another advertisement during AccuVision's next quarter, for which she guessed she would still be around. Worst case scenario, she would die before she was able to meet the commitment, and if death arrived that soon, she would not have been able to help her parents anyway.