Chapter Text
"Ma? Why do I have to be here again?" Mina was surprised her mother asked her to go to work with her today. It was Saturday, one of Mina’s days off from work and she didn’t have practice, she was free and clear and wanted to nap all day. Not go to the Master’s mansion up on the hill, though she didn’t mind keeping her mother company while she worked.
Her mother was unusually quiet but she smiled and hummed softly as they pulled into the back entrance to the mansion. A small parking lot for the housekeepers, gardeners and such. Mina only grabbed her messenger bag from the floorboard of the car and followed her mother into the giant house. Confused, when her mother simply walked through the hall and into the main house, not going toward the kitchen or the laundry rooms.
"Ma?" Still, her mother didn’t respond and Mina grew apprehensive as they came through the foyer from the west side and the large double doors of what she remembers as the Masters study.
"Ah, Agatha, right on time." Vlad Masters himself stepped from the open study doors, making Mina blink and then blink again as she caught sight of Dan standing just inside the doors behind his father. His thick, corded arms crossed and a solemn look on his usually calm face. Mina’s hands gripped the single strap on her bag as she looked around, suddenly nervous and confused.
"Please, come in, come in." Vlad opened his arm to them to step into the expansive office. Mina’s feet grew heavy as she followed her mother and sat beside her in the two chairs across from the desk, Dan leaned against the windows back behind and Vlad took up residence at his own chair.
"Mom? What’s um, going on?" She could see Dan tense, his shoulders growing taut as she asked the question. They hadn’t been close in a long time but she knew his tells. Beside her, her mother tried to smile but it looked forced.
With a deep sigh her mother reached out and gripped Mina’s hand in her own. "Sweety, I got the results back from the doctor."
Her world froze in that single moment, for what felt like hours. Mina blinking at the sad and nervous face of her mother as the information set in her mind. This had been a constant worry in their small home for nearly two weeks now. She knew the possibilities, what the blood tests could show. "Why are you telling me this here? In front of your boss?!" Mina went to stand, her voice shrill and scared. Confused.
"Mina, Mina, Mina, it’s okay please just sit." Her mother’s calming voice pushed and Mina sat with a heavy slump in the leather chair. "Hey, hey, look at me." She did, teary eyed she met her mother’s own haze.
"We’re here, discussing this. Because…" She took a shaky breath, "Because you need to be taken care of sweetheart." Blinking, Mina tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"What... do you mean?" Her voice sounded small, she didn’t see the way Dan lowered his head and closed his eye to the sound.
"My dear, if your mother... Loses her battle sooner than expected, you are too young to be left on your own at just sixteen. Your mother doesn’t wish for you to be uprooted from your school or life here." Mina turned her head to look at Vlad Masters, the very tall and stoic looking man behind the desk. She’d never really liked the man, not really, he was stuck up and snooty. But he seemed to always look down at people even though he tried so hard to have a good public image as a kind hearted man.
"I’ve asked mister Masters to take over as your legal guardian, should I leave you too early." Tears welled up in her eyes, a light track smearing the line of mascara under her eyes as she looked wide eyed back to her mother. "Otherwise, you’ll have to be put into the foster care system. Oh, baby don’t look at me like that." Her mother could see the absolute look of terror coming over Mina’s face at the idea of foster care. "I never had any siblings, my own parents are long gone. We’ve got no one else to turn to, mister Masters is offering you a safe place until you go out on your own."
"May I be excused…" Her voice was so scratchy and dry, hung in her throat like barbed wire as she pulled her hands slowly from her mother’s grip and collected her bag that was at her feet. She didn’t even wait for a reply, dashing from the open study doors and running down the hall.
"Oh dear…" Vlad softly spoke as he blinked and the teen was gone from the study. Agatha stood, hand to her lips as she watched her daughter run but she didn’t have the strength to run after Mina. "Danial, why not go find her? I’m sure she might get lost on her own."
"Yeah, sure..." Dan quickly excused himself from the study, leaving Agatha and his father alone.