Chapter 539 Growth That I Was Told, But Didn’t See

Indeed, this regal woman was none other than Hayley King, Zayn’s birth mother and Sicut In Caelo’s Saintess… in the past, anyway. Ever since she ran away from the organization and became the wife of the oh-so-mortal Valentine Larson, she had lost any privilege and trapping that came with a title as high and mighty as the Saintess. Now, trapped in a mandated quarantine, she was but a glorified prisoner. “Are you sure? Is my dear Zayn living so well?” Hayley pressed on, both anticipating and queasy about the answer. Lysithea bobbed her head hard into a nod. “Oh, he’s doing better than well, Aunt Hayley! Seriously, he’s as talented and intelligent as you would expect your son would be! He might have not experienced any of our organization’s elite training, but he’s matured and grown so much anyways. My identity was this close to being exposed!” “Oh, that’s good news. Yes, that’s the best news I can hope for,” Hayley replied, her body visibly relaxing before the same easygoing smile resurfaced. Her eyes once again radiated with gentle love and longing as if Zayn was all there was to her life. Every second of his joy was hers to enjoy as well. Lysithea picked up the embroidered fabric and examined Zayn’s face. “Your craft is truly nonpareil, Aunt Hayley! It looks almost exactly like the genuine article. Except… Well, Zayn has changed quite a fair deal now. He isn’t that much of a showboat as before. Now, he’s subdued… modest.” “Subdued?” Hayley froze a little. A sentence with “subdued” and “Zayn” placed together? It seemed a little hard for the mother to believe, especially since she did watch him grow up when he was just a little boy. She knew her son like the back of her hand, including his penchant to be as swanky as his excitable extroversion could allow. Even as he had grown into a young adult, his son had always remained a bit of a showboat. Zayn had always been a shrewd genius growing up. He picked skills up fast, and as a scion of the eminent Larson family, every step in his growth was rich with fulsome attention and a surfeit of compliments. It fed his ego enough that he always seemed to love being the center of the limelight. However, now Lysithea claimed the very same son had become a lot more subdued and modest. That was indeed a hard turn to the unexpected. A thought struck her, causing Hayley to spring up on it and ask, “Did any catastrophic changes befall Zayn while I was gone for four years?” Hayley was perceptive and fast-thinking—two traits that aided her in understanding the untold part of the story. She knew her son too well to know that the only reason why he would go against his nature was if something monumental and life-changing had happened to him. Lysithea lowered her head and nodded slightly. “Well… Zayn did suffer quite a bit over these four years. You see…” She began to recount everything that had happened to him, from the moment the Larsons disowned him all the way to Zayn’s life as a maligned, useless son-in-law who married into the Carter family all for a roof over his head. Being a resourceful, intelligent young lady of her own right, Lysithea had no trouble locating Zayn or piecing together the four missing years of his life through exhaustive research. Tears streamed out of Hayley’s eyes. When she spoke, her voice cracked with abject guilt and dolefulness. “God, no, my poor Zayn! You’ve suffered too much over these years, my little baby!” Her anguish distressed Lysithea, so she quickly cupped her hands around Hayley’s and smiled as sunnily as she could. “Oh, but that was all in the past now! The current Zayn is a matchless, glamorous success story! As it turns out, those four years of hardship helped refine him into the man he was today. He’s now wealthy, powerful, and has a family of his own. You don’t know how happy he is, Aunt Hayley! Don’t worry!” Hayley sighed darkly. “It’s great that he’s so happy, but I can’t help… Sigh. It’s all my fault for shirking my duty as a mother. It’s my fault that he’s suffered so much!” Lysithea went quiet for a moment before saying, “Aunt Hayley? I recently found out about something. I think Zayn… Well, I think he’s gotten a handle on what happened that fateful day. He’s now looking for you.” “What?!” Hayley’s reaction was dramatic. She shook her head hard in objection. “No, I will not allow it! He cannot be allowed to look for me! If anyone here knew about it, he’ll seal himself to a dark fate he cannot hope to escape!” Lysithea bit her lip. “It’s fine. I’ll continue to protect him from the shadows. I’ll make sure Sicut In Caelo never knows where he is."