Chapter 467: Open

For some odd reason, Mina did not feel uncomfortable sitting in her bed as Drax laid beside her. There was at least two feet of space between them, and with Mills pretending to shower in the next room, she knew the man was not going to try anything with her. Drax had at first opened conversation by questioning her, but his question was so vague that Mina could not answer. After reanalyzing the situation, she understood what he was trying to hint at.

Before he left, Drax gave Mina twenty-four-hours to come out and tell the truth. He told her that he did not believe in coincidences, and honestly neither did she. When he told her that either she was never the target to begin with, or that someone was so desperate to get to her that they did not care if they had hit the wrong mark; only one person came to mind, but Mina was unsure if she wanted to relive those memories.

When Mills came back into the sleeping area, she went to switch off the lights, but Mina stopped her, telling the woman that she was afraid of the dark. Mills did not question her, instead she moved a small lamp to the other side of the room, turned it on, and then turned off the overhead lighting that made the entire room bright.

"I used to fear the dark as well, but when I learned to take care of myself, that too disappeared with all my other worries."

----

It was morning, and Mina was sitting in President Lee's study. Zane, Drax, and Mills were around, waiting to hear what Mina planned to tell them. She started by admitting that she was not hiding any part of her life from them, but that what she was about to reveal was something she preferred not to ever talk about. Mills reached out and held her hand and Mina was thankful that she had at least one person show a hint of understanding.

"I was legally twelve when my sister decided she wanted to go to the lake to celebrate her birthday," Mina said, choosing to start from the beginning as opposed to skipping things that may force her to repeat herself.

Mina told the listening group that she had gotten into trouble earlier in the day, but her sister spoke up on her behalf, which was why she was even able to go to the lake in the first place. Once there, the girls found a quiet spot to lay out a blanket, and while Mina opened a book, Sadie jumped into the water to swim.

"There were boys there, a lot of them, but Sadie and I were in our own world. People in town were afraid of my sister because of her anger, and they were afraid of me, because-" Mina paused, because she did not know how to explain. "I don't remember it, but they say that I attacked and hurt a little boy." Ian knew that Mina was innocent of that, but he did not want to interrupt her story just yet.

Mina went on to tell them that eventually, Sadie convinced her to enter the lake. She removed the sweater she had been wearing, and Sadie's mood instantly darkened. Before Mina could stop her sister, she had already stalked up to some of the nearby teens, snatched one of the boy's phones and tossed it into the water. She expected the boy to become angry, but he did not, instead he looked at Sadie as if she were the only person he could see.

"If the story ended there it would be great, but he was not the only teen in that group who looked at Sadie that way. There was another boy as well."

"Troy, the boy whose phone Sadie had tossed into the lake, demanded to know why she had thrown his phone when he was trying to record his friend doing backflips into the water. Mina remembered her sister's face crushing in confusion before she shouted for Mina to run. The girls fled, leaving their things behind, but it was of no use.

"Troy, and his cousin Ren, found us. I do not know how they did, but they showed up at our school. I thought they were going to hurt us, but Troy just wanted my sister to go on a date with him. I noticed it then and I should have said something sooner, but I could tell that Ren was jealous."

With Sadie and Troy dating, Mina spent a lot of time with them, and oddly enough the cousin that would not leave the couple alone. Mina was kind to Ren, because she felt sorry, knowing that he too had feelings for Sadie, and she could tell that the feelings only grew stronger the more he was around her. Ren started to become pushy, and bitter. He even went as far as to try to make Troy believe that Sadie had been flirting with him, but nothing he did worked, and it went on like that for over a year.

"Seeing a greater issue growing, I tried to convince my sister to break up with Troy, but we fought about it and she even slept with him. She said she was 'ready,' but I knew it was also because she thought it would stop Ren from pursuing her. Sadly, it only made things worse." Eventually, Ren became violent. He fought Troy, and tried to beat Sadie, but Mina was able to stop him before he hit her. She said she reminded the man that love was a two-way street. "I told him that even if he killed Troy, Sadie would never love him."

Mina thought that would be the end of things, but the relationship between Sadie and Troy started to affect the family relationship between Troy and Ren. She ended up giving her sister money to run away, but before Sadie and Troy could even leave New Providence, their car was forced off the road by a bright red sports car.

"It was Ren's car, I know it, but while there had been several witnesses in the beginning, as soon as people found out who the owner of the vehicle was, they pretended not to know anything."

After Mina lost her sister, Ren started to stalk her and with his family's money, there was nothing she could do about it. She told her listeners that the stalking became physical and Ren had cornered her several times while calling her Sadie. Mina believed that the man had some sort of mental breakdown, and she said that Ren would grab her face and pinch her cheeks in a way that made her believe he wanted to break the skin.

"His parents eventually got involved, but they accused me of trying to seduce their son. He was twenty-one and I was legally fourteen. Dr. Sancho had foreseen what would happen though, and to help me escape, he helped me move to Scal."

"And do you think he may still be after you?" Drax asked, he was the one who suggested for Mina to be open, but he did not know he was going to be on the listening end of eighteen and nineteen-year-old boys praying on ignorant little girls from the country. He had heard of it before, but he always thought people over exaggerated.

"I don't know," Mina admitted. "After my first term in Wayvair, I went to visit my parents and Ren was outside waiting for me. There was no way he could have guessed when I would get home, and that was when I realized that he never stopped following me, he just stopped showing himself. That night, he tried to force me into his car, but he did not call me Sadie, he used my name, and I knew it was a sign of trouble."

"How did you get away?" Mills asked.

"His brother Drew showed up, they fought, and I ran."