Teacher's Pet (OUAT)

Chapter Twenty-Six

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: ONE MONTH LATER

Cora dropped the small device that she had been holding onto the opposite side of her mattress, a satisfied smirk spread widely across her lips. The lawyer sat there, very nearly staring at the wall in front of her as she thought back to the conversation that she had ended just mere moments ago.

That was a phone call that the woman had been looking forward to for months. It was the phone call that had linked her to her daughter and the brunette teacher's standing within the school.

"What has got you smiling?" A crisp, English accent brought Cora's attention to her bedroom's doorway to spot her auburn haired daughter.

Instead of the normal bite that she would usually snap at her eldest daughter, the brunette lawyer remained with that same smirk on her face as she shifted on the bed, dropping the leg that had been under her onto the floor when she moved to stand.

"I just got off the phone with a man that I had been waiting to hear from for the past month."

"Did you finally land yourself a date, Mother?" Zelena smirked, humoring herself as she glided the distance between the two of them. Cora shook her head, the lilt of her lips suddenly disappearing into a scowl.

"That was Gold, the principal of the high school that your sister works at." Her arms crossed tightly over the white blouse, her crimson lips pursing.

"Of course," the redhead sobered quickly with a nod. "What did he say? Did he inform you of her standing? Did she finally make a move on the game board?"

"Yes. Yes, she did." Cora chuckled delightfully, hands coming together as she rocked on the balls of her feet. "It seems that our darling Regina has decided to finally pick a side."

"She saved herself." Zelena muttered coldly, a look of distaste crossing her features. "Are you disappointed in her for choosing... that girl?"

"I already knew that she had chosen the girl over me before I left. It was all inevitable the moment that she had suggested I give that blonde a chance. I only humored her on the subject and formulated the plan that I had told you at Granny's that day." The lawyer smiled, almost proudly as she recollected back on her doings.

Zelena nodded, but didn't seemed to be too terribly pleased with the news. One of her brows quirked as if she didn't quite understand what her mother was getting at. She was still rather confused as to what her mother was planning with this whole thing and she even voiced her thoughts, then, inquiring: "What are you benefitting from this? Your daughter hates you and she is losing her job, but her woman lover is still there. Isn't what you wanted was for the two of them to part? What is any of this doing?"

It was then that Cora faltered, and Zelena had noticed it. Then a slow smirk spread across the redheaded woman's face. Her mother hadn't thought it through, apparently. Whatever initial plan she had, turned into something twisted. Something completely indiscernible than what it had originally been played to be. The road was no longer clear and she had definitely veered straight off the path.

And landed somewhere halfway to Jupiter.

Zelena knew that Cora had no intentions of Regina losing her job, nor resigning from it either. She only wanted to use it as a mere threat to scare her youngest daughter away from Emma, but that hadn't worked out so well in the end.

Cora had realized that her daughter didn't have simple, lust-driven feelings for the blonde student that would be easily canceled out if her job were at stake.

What she had was far deeper than she had ever thought possible. The initial thoughts of her daughter's sexual orientation had been twisted into something like that of her plan. It was becoming fuzzy; unable to be clearly read on the dampened pages of the book she somehow had tossed into the toilet from her last visit.