Choosing Love

Chapter Thirteen

Evie smiled slightly as she sat by her father's hospital bed, sketching the final design for Mal's cotillion gown. Like everything she did, Evie knew Mal's dress was going to look stunning but there was still something in the back of her mind that didn't sit well with her.

This wasn't Mal's style. Evie might not have been the closest of friends with the Godling but even she knew that. Mal's style was more dark colors, leather, and dragons. Not this bright yellow and blue strapless gown.

It's none of your business, Evie thought as she continued to sketch. If Mal wants to change her style, you just nod and go along with it. After all, Mal could have insisted you be punished for your actions at the coronation but she didn't. Instead she was able to go ahead and work with Ben to get your dad back.

And he was truly back, something Evie would be forever grateful for. Dr. Sweet had brought her father out of the medical coma about a week ago and Evie had been by every day after classes.

"Hmm..." Daniel groaned as he woke up. The unfortunate thing about being Maleficent's captive for around eight years or so was the fact that he seemed to tire easily. He was always coming in and out of naps which didn't necessarily make him the best companion.

Evie didn't mind in the slightest.

"How long have you been here?" Daniel asked, his kind voice still tinged with sleep as he looked over at her.

"Not very, just maybe an hour or so," Evie said.

Daniel shook his head slightly as he sat up in the bed. "Your mother would have had my head if she knew I had been sleeping when you arrived. She would have said it was bad manners and that it was always important to greet a guest."

Evie gave her father a soft smile as she set the sketchbook off to the side. "I think mother wouldn't have minded if it meant she got to be with you. She missed you."

"I missed you two as well," Daniel said, giving a weak smile. "Once I'm out of here, I'll talk to King Ben about getting guardianship of you."

Evie looked at her father in shock. "I...I thought you'd be going back to the Isle?"

"And leave you?" Daniel asked as he looked over at her. "Evie, I love your mother. Always have, always will. Will I miss her? Of course I will, I'd be crazy not to. But I'm not leaving you alone in a strange land. Maybe once you're eighteen I'll ask King Ben about getting visitation visits for the Isle but right now, you need me more, light beam."

Had her father not been lying in a hospital bed, Evie would have leapt into his arms. She'd waited eight years to hear those words from her father. Especially her old nickname.

Her father used to say that she was the light of his life, always beaming with energy. Hearing that again...it was like a dream.

"Can I see your sketch?" Daniel asked.

"Oh...sure," Evie said softly, handing her father her sketchbook. "It's just a design I'm working on for Lady Mal's dress for cotillion."

"Maleficent's daughter?" Daniel asked, his voice growing sharp as he said Maleficent's name. Not that Evie particularly blamed him for that; she knew she wouldn't be fond of anyone who held her captive for years because of an imagined slight. "She's a Lady now?"

"She's not Maleficent's daughter," Evie said quickly. "She's Lady Persephone's, they said so at King Ben's coronation. Mal likes to say that Maleficent may have given her life but that didn't make her her mother. She's not a big fan of her title either, she only really puts up with it when it's an official event."