Choosing Love

Chapter Twenty Eight

Evie sighed. "The hyenas were my mother's idea. To have them in the baddie bags. Since hyenas were so powerful, they'd be good to have for allies and she figured it'd be a good way to get me some allies as well. Or even a potential match later on."

"And you didn't try to put the kibosh on that?"

"A Princess doesn't say 'no'," Evie said, her dry voice sounding out of place. "Not to mention, what would have happened if you'd told your mom no Uma?"

Uma paused, knowing full well what would have happened. Her arm or leg or even torso would have been squeezed by one of her mother's tentacles, if she was lucky. If she wasn't so lucky, the tentacle in question would have been around her neck. And then her mother would have just done the thing Uma had objected to regardless—so the only thing Uma would have gotten out of the whole thing would have been pain.

"Exactly," Evie said after a few minutes of silence. "As you've said, we're VKs. My mother may not have been a typical Isle parent but that didn't necessarily mean I was taught 'love' and 'friendship' like they were here in Auradon. My mother taught me how to apply blush before I could talk. Looks and matches were all that mattered to her. It was my father who tried to teach me there was more in life than finding a prince."

The blue haired girl smiled at the thought of her father. Daniel had finally gotten out of the hospital and had actually moved into Snow's castle, on the insistence of the royal. Daniel had an open invitation to stay until he got back on his feet, and even then Snow said he and Evie could stay as long as they wanted.

Evie loved the idea of staying with Snow but she wanted to have a place for her and her father to stay on their own. Hence the reason why she was working so hard to get her business off the ground. Doug ran the numbers. With all the dresses and the cape she was making for Chad—and Mal and Ben's clothes—it wouldn't be long before she'd be able to make a down payment on a castle.

It'd be a modest castle but Evie didn't need a lot of rooms. All she needed was a place for her and her dad. And Doug and eventually Dizzy.

"I am sorry though," Evie said softly. "About not inviting Mal when we were six. It was stupid to do and maybe if I hadn't, Maleficent wouldn't have abducted my dad. But the rivalry was always just between the two of us and now Mal's buried the hatchet."

Uma sighed. "Do you remember our motto? My crew's motto, I mean?"

"It...it was something like Ruthless yet Loyal right?"

"Right," Uma nodded. "Meaning I look out for my allies and attack those who go after them. You hurt Mal that day. She probably would never let you know it, and she would have never let me know it, but I'm her cousin. I've been in her life for as long as I can remember so I'm going to be able to read her better than most. Probably better than even Ben. Though...there was a benefit to you not inviting her."

"There was?" Evie asked, tilting her head a little in confusion.

"Because you didn't invite Mal to your party, Aunt Steph gave her Estelle," Uma explained and paused as she realized something.

Estelle had saved Mal's life that day when they were nine. Yes Harry had helped by holding her up for twenty five minutes while Uma ran to get her Uncle Hades but if it hadn't been for Estelle jumping in and grabbing her collar, who knows if Mal would have been able to stay up long enough for Harry to get her?

Evie, in a strange way, had done Mal the biggest favor she could by not inviting her. Because who knows what creature she would have gotten in her baddie bag had she gone? It definitely wouldn't have been Estelle though.