Chapter 9: Worth More Alive

Once outside of the hospital room, Luna pulled the door shut. She noticed that her brother looked much better, and although the color in his face had not completely returned, he did not look as terrible.

Since Luna knew Ian well, she did not want him to put his guard up before she could ask him what she needed to know. She had to be careful while speaking to him if she wanted him to answer openly.

Ian's personality was restrained and resolute, so once he felt uncomfortable with a subject, or he considered a conversation over, it could not be brought up again. Luna tried her best to lightly pierce the silence by explaining herself.

"I dismissed both the gynecologist and the pathologist. In their place, I called in a hematologist. I have already requested for your doctor to send your blood samples to this hospital. The hematologist is working on getting the results now, but he does not know who the samples belong to."

"Could you not have told me this inside of the room?" Ian knew his sister was approaching whatever the problem was with caution and it irritated him. Luna studied Ian's face for a moment before she took a deep breath and released her question slowly.

"I need to hear what happened in your own words." Anger flashed across Ian's face, it was brief, but Luna had seen it. It was impossible for her not to notice when her brother was upset. He was already domineering and cold and his dark eyes could be described as both beautiful and terrifying. He rarely lost his composure, but when he did it was always due to anger.

Luna and her brother had grown up as friends, and in that time, he never fully succumbed to his emotions. Only sometimes would he allow a moment of expression to hit his face, and in her opinion that was more terrifying.

It gave Ian an inhumane aura and made those around him feel as if they were on borrowed time. She knew that if her brother were to ever express his anger truly, the target would regret it into their next existence. Fortunately, she had never been on the receiving end of his ire. However, the girl who was laying in the hospital bed would probably not be as lucky.

Ian could feel his sister's judgement as she stared at him. He could tell she was asking only out of concern, but there was a hint of doubt in her voice. In response to Luna's question, he angrily responded, wanting to make sure to crush any suspicion she may have.

"What did that woman tell you?" Ian was pointing toward Mina's direction as he spoke.

"Nothing actually, but your reaction just now concerns me. Explain it to me in detail, only then can I understand." Ian knew that his sister was attempting to pacify him, but what he did not know was that the doubt in Luna's voice was because she also suspected Mina of something.

Ian also recounted his side of the story from the beginning. Two weeks before, he had received word from a credible source that some of the men he had ousted from his company were still trying to get back at him. He had set a trap for them by pretending that he was inspecting some of the common rooms and small suites in some of the hotels owned by the Lee Group. He did not release his schedule because he wanted the visits to be random, and he did not make the reservations under his own name.

Ian knew he was being followed and had his guards change shifts at a specific time. He also had them leave a ninety second gap in between the shift change. He knew that the person following him was looking to establish a pattern and it was just a matter of time before someone took the bait.

In every room he visited, Ian would place a small, portable camera at the entrance to monitor the door. The afternoon before, Ian watched from his car as a young girl snuck into his room. He had gone to an important meeting, but he did not reveal the meeting time or how long the meeting would last. He really wanted to know what the girl was doing in his room, but the camera's sole purpose was to monitor the door and it did not have a clear view of any other place. He had waited in his car for hours, but after some time, the girl still had not exited the room.

Ian did not know the woman's intentions and he assumed she wanted to kill him. In the footage he had viewed of her exploiting the shift change, the woman did not appear to have any weapons on her, so Ian decided to test her. He had hoped that he would be able to flush more people out by entering the room and he was confident that the person inside would not be able to reach anyone on the outside, because he had already installed a cell phone jamming device before he left.

When Ian and his bodyguards entered the room, they headed straight to the restroom as they had planned. Ian spoke loudly about a shower and pretended to ask them to wait outside. He did not know how perceptive his assailant was, so he removed his clothing and started the shower. Barely two minutes had passed before the girl was caught, but she did not have a weapon at all, she was trying to take his picture.

Ian also told his sister that he had seen the girl at the Lee building the same day those terrible interviews were done. He almost told her that Mina was the reason for his last-minute decision to relocate the women interviewed, but he decided against it. It would only make him look guilty of succumbing to temptation.

Luna's forehead creased. Both Ian and Mina had near identical stories, but something was off.

"Brother, did you by any chance eat anything while in the room." Ian raised one eyebrow. He had given Mina a pillow mint as her 'last meal' and then he took one for himself.

Ian told his sister that there were four pieces of mint chocolate in total. They had been in the room before Mina came, and they appeared untouched, so he did not think much about them. Ian had not even completed his sentence before Luna quickly called someone to bring her the remaining mints in the room. She also called an old colleague of hers, who worked as a research chemist. When Luna ended the call, she looked at Ian and needed to know.

"Should I allow her to be given a contraceptive?" Ian's eyes flashed with anger.

"Why are you asking me? Shouldn't she be making that decision? and besides, she won't need it." Ian's words meant that Mina would not live to carry a child, but Luna still felt; wrong.

"Ian, there is a good chance that the girl is hiding something from us. She is worth more information alive. Once this matter is settled, you can handle her as you wish, but I do not recommend killing her before you understand what her motives were." Ian could sense the wisdom in his sister's words, and he nodded in compliance.

"Ian, brother, after the results I'm waiting for return, I would like to give Mina a polygraph test." As if on cue, a bald man in his mid-forties walked hurriedly in Luna's direction. He handed her a few sheets of paper and her face slumped. She dismissed the man before turning to speak to Ian again. "Before you came, the doctor who stitched Mina's injury said that she was 'clean'." Ian looked at his sister not understanding why she was telling him about the woman's personal life. Seeing no reaction in her brother, Luna decided to be a little blunter.

"Ian, you were her first." His eyes grew wide with disbelief.