Secret in the Heart ||Descendants|| (♡Ben)

31

As Kara and Ben stood on a balcony of the castle overlooking the sea, Ben turned to her with a furrowed brow. "How come Uma knows who your father was, and I don't?"

Kara sighed, glancing out at the water. "There was only one person who knew."

"Then why did Jay know and not me?" he pressed.

"Jay?" Kara asked, confusion crossing her face as she turned to him.

"Yeah, I mean, you're close with Jay, so I figured he must know," Ben replied, staring at the ground.

"Jay didn't know," Kara stated firmly.

"Wait, what?" Ben looked at her in disbelief.

"Nobody knew," she replied, her gaze drifting back to the sea. "Not Jay, not Evie, not Carlos, and not Mal."

"Then who knows?" he asked, urgency in his voice.

"Somebody on the Isle I considered a friend," she said, bitterness creeping into her tone.

"Who?" Ben inquired desperately.

"Harry. Harry Hook." She spoke the name with anger.

"What?!" Ben exclaimed, his eyes widening.

"When my father was still alive, we were friends. He came home with me one day, and since then, he knew who my father was. He swore to me that he would never tell anyone he knew, let alone who he was," Kara explained, her frustration palpable.

"But he told Uma," Ben stated flatly.

"It appears so," she replied, her voice steady.

"But why? You said you guys were friends," he pressed.

"When I went to the Chip Shoppe to find out their demands to let you go, he said it. He said it out loud that he knew who my father was. Uma seemed to relish in that information, and seeing how she has him under her thumb, he probably told her, and they had a good laugh about it."

Ben nodded, absorbing the information as they fell into silence, both staring out over the sea. After a moment, he broke the stillness. "But Jay does know, right?"

"I told my friends the day of Cotillion who he was," Kara said.

Silence hung between them again, and Kara felt Ben's gaze burning into her. "Do you really want to know?" she finally asked.

"Of course I want to know. I love you, and I want to know more about you," he replied earnestly.

Kara sighed, realizing he was right. She had promised to open up to him. Turning to face him, she took a deep breath. "My father is Rumpelstiltskin."

"As in the Dark One?" Ben asked, his eyes widening as he processed the revelation. Kara nodded.

"Okay," he said slowly, glancing left and right as he processed the information. "And your mother?"

"Agathe," she replied.

Ben frowned. "Who?"

"The woman who cursed your father to be a beast," Kara explained, watching as his expression shifted to one of shock.

"I know, seems like the world isn't that big after all," she added with a small smile.

"How?" he asked, still grappling with the revelations.

"I don't know how they ended up together. My father only talked about the adventures they had and how much he loved her," she said softly.

"Right. I'm sorry to be asking about this stuff," he said.