Chapter 556: Breakdown

Ian hated when Mina told half stories or danced around the truth, but he was beginning to realize that it was the only way she knew how to speak. He found himself wondering why she talked in circles in the first place, but that was a conversation for another day. What he needed to know now was why she looked as though she had done something wrong.

"Mina, you have already told me that the Loam family offered to 'allow' you to marry their son. What you are doing now is avoiding my question. Why do you look as though you have something to hide?"

"I don't," Mina said. "I just- I needed to protect my family."

"How?" Ian did not have to ask; he knew exactly how Mina would think to protect her parents. She had likely traded herself away the same way she had done for several other people in the past. "You agreed to be with him, didn't you?"

"But I didn't go looking for him. That was the agreement, and I haven't broken it." Ian pinched his brow. At fifteen, there was no way Mina would have understood what she was getting herself into. She took Drew's words as truth, and she agreed to his offer as a solid choice.

"Mina, Ren is sick. No matter how young you were, you should have been able to see that. Do you really think his brother cares that you did not go back on your word? It was never his intention to honor any deal made between you two, and now that your value has increased-" Mina stood up and staggered backward making Ian halt in his speech.

"I won't go. I would rather die. I did not do anything wrong. Just give me a gun and you can tell the Loam family that I killed myself before you could send me away."

"Mina, that's not what I meant." Ian glanced toward Rebecca who wore the 'I told you so' expression. "I am not sending you to anyone. I just-"

"So why didn't you lead with that?" Mina shouted. Her eyes were darting around the room, taking in the faces around her as if everyone was a threat.

"Let's talk later, okay?"

"I don't want to talk later. Later there will be something else, or someone else who is here to hurt me. I want to go home. Please president Lee, can you send me home?" Ian looked to Dom, who approached Mina, but she jerked away with enough force to make herself fall. He went to help her, but Rebecca blocked his path.

"She needs space." Dom took a few steps backward and Rebecca turned to face Mina. Ian did not at all feel comfortable allowing the woman to talk to her, especially because he knew they disliked one another, but it seemed for the time being that Rebecca had laid aside her intolerance. He watched the woman sit on the floor, away from where Mina was cowering, before she started speaking.

"Your mind is telling you things, and I know it is hard not to listen, but no one in this room is going to hurt you."

"He is going to find me again. He is going to catch me, and I don't have enough time to prepare."

"How would 'he' find you here?" Rebecca asked.

"He already found me. President Lee told him where I was."

"Mina I did not-" Rebecca held up her hand just as Mina covered her ears.

"He found me," she whimpered. It was in that phrase that Ian realized that Mina was deeply scarred by all that happened to her. Everything bad was swallowing her up as they converged on one another.

"Do you want to leave this place?" Rebecca asked and Mina nodded before shaking her head in the negative. "Why?"

"It is the safest place for me."

"Mina, how can that make sense? How can you be safe here if you are not in a safe place?" Ian left the room, unable to handle Mina's breakdown. She was a fractured mess, and while part of it was his fault, a larger part belonged to the Loam family. He was not even paying attention when Zane grabbed him by the arm and he involuntarily swung, catching his friend's jaw before he realized what he was doing.

"Sh*t Zane, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was you." Zane knew that distant look in his friend's eye, and he was glad that getting hit could snap Ian out of whatever trance he was in. He massaged his jaw, moving it back and forth to make sure it was not broken, as Ian roughly rubbed at his own face in remorse.

"Think Ian; you cannot do what I know you want to do without making her a target for your family as well. Not only that, but you have to give up on her. Mina is sick and needs help you cannot give her. Even being here is setting her backward. Do you know how hard it was for me to get her to smile again?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you're better for her?"

"No Ian, I would not even know where to begin, but I know that you are not the right person for her."

"She will not leave this mansion." Zane held up his hands seeing that there was no point in talking to his friend. Whenever Ian was in a foul mood, he allowed his anger to push him toward decisions that often made things worse before he could make them better.

"Listen to yourself Ian. The whole reason you are here right now is because you allowed anger to cloud your judgement. There was nothing stopping you from just killing Mina from day one, nor was there anything preventing you from leaving her alone. You are every bit as guilty for how she is right now as that Ren Loam person, and to be quite honest, you may be worse." Once again Ian found his fists swinging, but Zane was prepared. "Look at yourself, you're fighting your best friend for telling you the truth."

----

The room was silent, but Mina knew she was not alone. Doctor Rebecca was right, she could not be safe where she was unsafe; she could not feel comfortable where she was uncomfortable. There was something she was missing, something she was not seeing.

"President Lee said it wasn't him. Is he telling the truth?" Mina was still looking down, but Dom knew she was speaking to him and Rebecca gestured for him to sit on the floor, which he did with a grunt that made Mina's eyes shoot up toward him in what looked like fear. He intuitively looked away from her face until her breathing became even again and Rebecca made a hand symbol which meant for him to speak.

"Be clear. I don't know what you are referring to." Unlike Rebecca, Dom knew about what happened between Mina and President Lee, and he was not about to go there with her; especially when she could not even look at him.

"The mush?"

"A chef who was instructed to keep you alive and got lazy doing it. He was demoted, and eventually sent to work in a restaurant instead."

"The guards?"

"You saw them, so you know that was real, but it wasn't because of you. It was because they disregarded orders. They were also saved because of you. No one else can say that."

"The earrings?"

"A misunderstanding that I had to explain to President Lee personally. The money you spent isn't a lot to someone like him, and it was an act of ignorance."

"The rumors?"

"No excuse," Dom said with finality, and Mina looked up at him again.

"My parents?"

"Really in danger. They have been shielded from a lot of things concerning you, and it's mostly to keep them from reaching out. You made a deal with President Lee concerning their safety, and he has done everything to make sure his promise is kept.