Chapter 665: Family

Ian could barely breathe after Drax spoke to him. For the first time in his adult life, he cried bitter tears that burned his face as they fell. Mina was gone, their future was destroyed, and he had no recollection of the events that led up to it. Drax told him what Luna walked into, but Ian could not believe it. He liked Mina far too much to betray her, and now that she was gone, he realized that he loved her.

Sophia entered the room, and Ian found himself turning away from his mother. She had enough to deal with, and he did not want her to worry about him. He would recover, he would find the person responsible for drugging him, and he would make them suffer to the fullest extreme.

"We need to talk," Sophia said. She knew her son was in pain, but the family name was at stake, and people were already poised to attack.

"Can I just have a minute?" Ian asked, surprising his mother who had never known her son to be emotional. It hurt her that she was going to have to give him more unwelcome news, but life did not stop with one person's death.

"Ian, I'm sorry, but we need to talk about Lisa." Ian flung his legs over the side of the bed, he knew what he was being accused of, and he was having trouble believing it.

"I didn't touch her," Ian growled.

"Unfortunately, her injuries say otherwise. She contacted her family, and they have already started to make a fuss." Sophia sighed, stepping closer to her son who she knew was struggling. "I understand that you have no memory of the incident, but you and Lisa were the only two people in that room, and something definitely happened; your handprint was on her neck."

Ian rubbed at his face, he knew what was coming next, and it was like torture to him to think about it. He had plans to propose to Mina, he had everything set up so that the evening would be romantic and private. He was going to make love to her afterward, and then he was going to schedule an appointment with a doctor to confirm his suspicion. Now, he was alone, and while everyone kept telling him that Mina was gone, he could not force his heart to accept it.

----

Of all the times Mina wished she had kept her mouth shut, now was the time that mattered most. Nael's previous accountant had been murdered within her hearing and she had just gotten a 'promotion.' She was moved from her basic room and into another that was closer to where the captain and first mate quarters were, and she was almost positive that it had previously belonged to the man she had gotten killed.

Mina's mind reeled as she considered the man's family, and every time she recalled the sound of the body thumping to the ground, she felt sick. She had only been spared a bullet because she was still being viewed as useful, but she knew she had to get off the ship as soon as possible. The only problem was that they had set sail.

"I didn't see you at dinner," Leal said, opening Mina's door unimpeded. "You should start locking that," he warned. "Lots of men on this ship." Mina gagged, and Leal rolled his eyes at her. "You'll get your sea legs soon, just don't throw up on me." The man handed Mina an alcohol wipe and she quickly held it under her nose.

"Thank you," Mina whispered. Leal dug in his pocket and pulled out a granola bar, setting it on the bed next to her.

"Eat that when you can. If you miss dinner again, there will be consequences."

"Why?" Mina asked. "I just wasn't hungry." Leal studied the woman. She was clearly a gentle person, and she had no business being mixed up with him or his brother. He had no idea what Mills was thinking about when sending her their way, but the situation must have been dire.

"Ami, my brother is not a nice person. He does not do well with being disrespected and you have already tested his patience multiple times. The only reason you are still breathing is because you claimed to be able to make 10k in ten minutes. I really hope you weren't lying about that."

Mina shuddered; she did not need to be told what would happen if she had lied because she knew. She could infer it from Leal's words, and based on Nael's openness to killing, she knew she would not last more than a few seconds if they even suspected her words as false.

"I did not lie, but right now I'm not in good enough shape to think logically. Please ask your brother to give me time."

"How bad is it?" Leal asked, pointing to Mina's side. He had seen her clutching the area when she got sick, so he knew there was an injury in that place as well.

"Bruised ribs, maybe a fracture. I haven't gone for treatment."

"And your leg?"

"Jammed knee," Mina replied, and Leal pulled a gun on her.

"You go to medical school too?" he asked mockingly. He was already having trouble believing that a woman from Sani could even look like her, but she claimed to have been abandoned in the country as a child and moved to Pan in search of her family. It was one of those things that could not be proven; like her claims to have attended an online finance course that she never completed.

"It's just a guess," Mina replied. The man put away his weapon, and once again Mina found herself thinking of President Lee. He too had pointed a gun at her, and while she had been terrified at the time, it was that memory that was helping her keep her composure now.

"Don't keep testing him," Lael added, leaving the room without a parting.

Mina pushed her bed against the door, and laid down, completely devastated that her life had come to such a point. What seemed like only days ago, she had felt as though she were in love and that everything in her life was shaping up to help her achieve her goal, but here she was, injured on a ship with men who would kill her without so much of a thought as to who it would affect. She thought about her parents, and she hoped the money she had left them would be used properly.

Sadly, more than she thought about her parents, Mina thought about President Lee. She wondered if he would eventually be happy; she wondered how he was taking the news of her demise, and she wondered if she had made the right decision. As much as she hated to admit it, Miss Luna was right. Ian had to do the right thing by Miss Lisa to avoid a crisis, and with his father still in recovery, she did not want to stand in the way of the man's ability to appease the Anders family.

----

Ian's hands trembled as he anxiously waited to enter the Harlow family home. He had already collected information about the circumstances surrounding Mina's death, so he knew what happened, but he wanted to hear it from them. There were several witnesses to the incident, including one of the men Cam had put in place to make sure she did not try to escape. She had been labelled as a prime suspect, but after speaking with Cam about how far his relationship with Mina had gone, that idea was dropped. Unfortunately, it did not bring her back to life.

The car Mina was driving had already been pulled from the ocean, and in it were countless empty bottles of liquor. Ian had been told that the woman developed a heavy drinking habit in the time he was unconscious, and while it did not sound like the woman he knew, he could understand her need to want to drown everything out. She was being suspected of drugging him, and if he had died, there was a very good chance she would have ended up as a prisoner. Even if Cam did not think she had anything to do with it, Luna remained unconvinced.

With her word alone, Ian knew his mother would side against Mina, just like Luna had convinced her to side with Lisa. There was no way he was going to propose, marry, or look at Lisa in an intimate manner. If her family thought otherwise, they would find out soon enough that he had no feelings for their daughter, and if they wanted to play dirty, so would he. All Ian was prepared to do was remain friendly with her. They could attend a few events together, but they would never be in a relationship. He would just lead the woman on until she gave up hope and moved onto someone who wanted her.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Zane asked. Mina's family had put together some sort of memorial. They did not want to hold a funeral for their daughter because her body was never recovered. She was not wearing her seatbelt when she drove off the bridge, and the impact shattered the windshield. In addition, she had the windows rolled down, likely wanting the car to sink rapidly. It would have been suspicious to them, but no one could have survived that fall, especially at night.

"I'm not," Ian admitted. The event was for friends and family, and right now, Ian felt like an outsider. Swallowing his pride, Ian alighted from his vehicle and entered the home. He was met with complete silence, until the sounds of a woman's shouting voice shattered the quiet.

"How dare you?" Willow asked, her fiancé was trying to calm her down, but she was clearly distraught. "How dare you show up here?" The woman's eyes darted behind him, and her face grew red with anger. She pushed forward, intending to attack Ian, who only held her arms as she tried to strike him. "Why did you bring her here?" she wailed, clearly heartbroken.

As the woman's fiancé and Cylus Rue pulled her away, Ian turned to see that his sister had shown up. She wore a sorrowful expression, having witnessed the scene that just occurred, but what triggered Ian was that she had brought Lisa. Before he could even speak, Willow was shouting again.

"Why are you here?" she asked. "You did this to her." Ian's face contorted in confusion and he turned to face Luna, who looked down in shame.

"You have ten seconds to tell me what she is talking about."

"Oh," Willow called out from behind him. She shrugged out of the grip of those holding her and stood right in front of Luna. "You don't know?" Ian glared at Willow, who snorted. "Your sister told Mina that if she really cared about you, she wouldn't interfere with your relationship with Miss Lisa. She told her that you made a decision, and it wasn't her." Ian's eyes widened in horror, and it was clear from Luna's expression that there was no lie in Willow's words, but he needed to hear his sister say it, otherwise he could not believe it.

"Ian, Mom said that-"

"Tell me it's not true," Ian interjected. He grabbed his sister's arms and shook her vigorously.

"I had to think about the family," Luna cried.

"Mina was my family," Ian shouted. He regretted coming to the memorial, because just like he had done with Mina, he was destroying it. "Luna, when Mina drove herself off that bridge, she was carrying a part of me with her." Luna's eyes went wide, but before she could speak, David Harlow had come to pull Ian away.

"Now isn't the place," the man said. "President Lee, can we speak in private?"