Chapter 268

Zinnia scheduled her meeting with Maelis for Saturday. As soon as she got home that evening, Zinnia told Yannis about it.

Donald was still missing. Though Yannis never said a word about it, Emily and his team shadowed Zinnia everywhere, never letting her out of sight. As long as Donald remained at large, he was a lurking threat.

Yannis accompanied Zinnia to meet Maelis.

A staff member greeted them. “Mr. Perkins, Ms. Moore.” Upon arriving at the prison, Zinnia and Yannis were met by a staff member who escorted them to the door of the supervision room.

“Maelis is inside,” the staff member said.

Zinnia stopped and turned to Yannis. “Yannis, let me go in by myself. You can wait for me out here, okay?” Maelis had specifically requested to see Zinnia alone. Yannis frowned, uneasy about Zinnia being alone with Maelis.

“Don’t worry, she’s not dangerous anymore. She won’t hurt me,” Zinnia said, her eyes crinkling as she gave Yannis’s sleeve a playful tug.

“I’ll be right outside. Call me if you need anything,” Yannis said, his heart melting at Zinnia’s gentle tug on his sleeve.

She knew exactly how to sway Yannis, without saying a word, just a playful tug on his sleeve, and he’d give her the world.

“Okay,” Zinnia said, handing him her scarf. Yannis draped the cream–colored scarf over his arm, watching intently as Zinnia entered, then peered through the window in the door.

The moment Zinnia stepped inside, her eyes instantly locked onto Maelis, who was sitting on a chair nearby.

For a moment, Zinnia barely recognized her.

Maelis’s long hair had been chopped off into a blunt, ear–length bob, revealing a weathered face etched with wrinkles. Her skin was sallow and yellowish, her lips dry and chapped. Her eyes were lifeless, her head slightly bowed. Her hands rested on the table, wrists cuffed. She wore a standard prison uniform, her back hunched. All life seemed to drain from her instantly.

At the sound of the door opening, Maelis slowly looked up. Maelis’s dark, lifeless eyes finally flickered with emotion when she saw Zinnia in a white down jacket and khaki skirt.

Maelis’s unfocused gaze gradually converged, coming to rest on Zinnia’s exquisitely beautiful face. Complex emotions flooded Maelis’s eyes.

Zinnia stood tall and graceful. She had a sparkling crystal butterfly hairpin in her side–braided, silky long hair that fell over her left shoulder. A delicate crystal bracelet was on her wrist. She was exactly what Maelis had envisioned when pregnant with a girl.

She would have taken such good care of her, wanting to bring the best things right to her. But sadly, they never had a chance to truly bond. As a mother, she was never there for her; instead, others took good care of her.

“You’re here,” Maelis said, her voice rough and weary, yet eerily calm. It was the calmest tone Zinnia had ever heard from Maelis.

Zinnia asked, “Do you know where Donald is?” Zinnia sat down on the chair across from Maelis, casually removing her bag and setting it aside.

Maelis’s gaze lingered on the bag Zinnia had carelessly set aside. It was a custom–made piece from LV, embroidered with a white kitten, worth over 300 thousand dollars.

Zinnia’s gaze was calm as her fingers idly picked at the embroidered kitten on the bag, seemingly oblivious to its hefty price tag. With Yannis not around, she had no idea what to do with herself, so she just kept fidgeting with her bag.

“How is your grandpa?”

Maelis watched as Zinnia handled the bag with casual, carefree ease, completely unconcerned about whether it might get scratched. Such things probably didn’t even register with her, Maelis reckoned.

A bitter smile touched her lips. ‘What was I even thinking about?’ Maelis wondered, ‘What did any of this matter to me now? Knowing she’s doing well enough.”

“He’s fine,” Zinnia responded flatly. After all, given their history, they were never the type to sit down and have a civil conversation.

“Are your hands and your legs cured now?” Maelis asked quietly, her weary eyes lingering on Zinnia’s wrists, unfazed by Zinnia’s cold demeanor.

Maelis heard Zinnia was administering injections for six hours straight, and her hands were shaking afterward. She was kneeling for six hours; it’s unclear if she suffered any lasting effects in her legs.

Since entering prison, she had faced far more hostility than she’d ever dished out herself. To Maelis, even Zinnia’s cold expression now felt like a rare kindness.

“Don’t bother,” Zinnia replied flatly.

“How have you been these days?” Maelis asked, her gaze lingering wistfully on Zinnia’s face, which faintly resembled her own.

‘Her face had thinned. Before, she looked more like me. Now, only a close look reveals any resemblance,’ Maelis stared, her eyes softening. She studied Zinnia, trying to see traces of herself in Zinnia’s features.

But it was too late. She had realized it far too late. She didn’t deserve to be her mother.

With a slight frown, Zinnia said, “Pretty good.”

“Could you tell me about your childhood?” Maelis asked, concern softening her eyes. “You once mentioned you were almost choked to death. Did it leave any lasting effects?”

Only after truly calming down and reflecting on everything that had happened to Zinnia did Maelis feel a pang of concern for Zinnia’s health.

Zinnia was nearly strangled as a tiny baby at its most fragile stage when any risk could be fatal. After such a harrowing rescue, there’s no way she came out of that unscathed.

“No,” Zinnia replied coldly, her expression utterly impassive as she met Maelis’s worried gaze. Zinnia thought to herself, ‘Didn’t you wish I was dead before? So why the sudden interest now?’

The brief spark that had returned to Maelis’s eyes dimmed once more. “You…” Maelis’s gaze lingered on the right side of Zinnia’s face. She wanted to ask Zinnia but the words never left her lips.

Maelis had long been mentally unstable. Her emotions could spiral out of control at any moment. Only after hitting Zinnia did the dull ache of regret begin spreading through Maelis’s chest.

Maelis couldn’t figure out her feelings for this newly found daughter. There was hate, blame, and resentment. ‘I wished she would soften towards me,’ Maelis thought, feeling the complexity of her emotions.

Zinnia’s tough personality led to constant clashes. With the Betty incident, she knew Betty framed her but couldn’t calmly explain. She just said, “Betty did it, not me,” without softening her stance.

She never realized that they didn’t actually care about the truth. If only she had shown a little vulnerability to Maelis, Maelis would have protected her. But she was so stubborn. She just had to turn the house upside down, insisting on clearing her name.

As time went on, Maelis began to see Zinnia as simply being unreasonable and gradually distanced herself from her. Both of them were stubborn, which doomed them to an endless stalemate.

But now, after all she’d been through, Maelis no longer wanted to dwell on the past. She had already paid the price for her mistakes. Donald got his comeuppance too–cuckolded and raised another man’s child.

Zinnia instantly sensed what Maelis was getting at and cut her off firmly. “If you called me here just to talk about this, then there’s no point in meeting at all.”

Zinnia came here to find out about Donald’s whereabouts. Yannis had been racking his brains over Donald’s situation this whole time. If an early lead turned up, it would ease his burden. But Maelis kept dodging the real issue, and Zinnia’s patience was wearing thin.

Outside, Yannis was waiting for Zinnia. With the year–end approaching, he was very busy and had squeezed out a rare day off. Zinnia didn’t want to waste this time and hoped he would hurry home to rest.