Chapter 90: Did You Like Her?
[FLASHBACK: 14 Years Ago]
Little Zenith who was only a 5-year-old toddler and had started attending his playschool, came running with a bunch of bright pink peonies within his small grasp which he had selectively picked each from the giant flower garden of the Agastya Mansion.
There were thousands of flowering plants scattered all across the garden, among them, the beautiful fragrant peonies of different colors outshined every other flower. Glistened with the warm sunrays, the garden had a massive sculpture engraved water fountain at the center of the garden.
The scenario of that beautiful fountain standing tall in that radiant garden appeared very soothing to the eyes when different varieties of colorful birds would play with the water, especially during the warm summer.
The garden was very neatly taken care of and there were no signs of weeds hampering any delicate flowering plant. And, each work starting from cleaning the garden to nurturing the flowers was personally looked after by Zorina, who used to treat this garden as her other child after Zenith. She had named it Paradise, where she used to spend her entire day after Zenith had left for the school.
Once when she caught a very bad flu and was advised by Dr. Albert not to stress herself with the tedious gardening and at least rest for a few days.
It was one mild summer, but Zorina couldn’t suppress her urge to come and see the garden slowly from her room which was looked after by a maid until she healed completely. Dr. Albert had even forbidden Zenith from going near her as small children were susceptible to bad colds, so it had been a few days since she had gone near Zenith as well.
But when she came downstairs to look at the garden, the first sight that made her smile was her little bundle of joy Zenith, running towards her with a bunch of fresh peonies. His soft silver hairs rustled with the wind and his pearl-white teeth widened with his innocent giggle when he cheered for her, "Mom! Look, what I picked for you..."
Before Zorina could stop him from getting close, little Zenith whose height only came up to her thighs had hugged her tightly, spreading his soft smile to her as if it was contagious. The maid who was looking after the garden also came running after him.
But watching the endearing scene of the mother-son reunion after a few days made her smile as well as she didn’t feel the urge to hold back Zenith anymore.
Every worker in the mansion was very aware of how much Zenith loved being with Zorina... Indeed she was the light of his small world.