Like a dream - a Descendants story (Bal) {Sequel}

Chapter 14

"Morning," Ben greets his mother the next morning when he walks into the breakfast room the next morning.

"Morning, honey," Belle greets him. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, you've got a nice house here," he tells his mom.

In the divorce Beast got their castle, so Belle got the beautiful townhouse her ex-husband had purchased a few years prior. They barely ever stayed there during their last years of marriage, but now she's quite glad they bought it after all.

"Your father bought me this for our 20th anniversary," she tells him.

"I remember," he says. "He was very good at buying things we didn't need."

"Hmm," she mumbles. "I always used to tell him how I adored this house, everytime we passed by it."

"Why don't you go live here then?" he asks her.

She chuckles. "I'm much happier back in my hometown, I teach at the elementary school and help out at the library as well. I'm in a good place there," she tells him. "I do miss you a lot, but being here... it brings back a lot of things I just want to forget."

Ben smiles at her. "And yet you came back."

"For you two I'll do anything," she says, smiling at her son. "How is she doing?"

"Still asleep," he says. "Not much of a morning person."

"She seemed a bit quiet last night," she says, sensing there's something they haven't told them. "What's going on?"

"Nothing ever gets past you, huh?" Ben chuckles.

"I always see when something's not right with my kids," she says. "So?"

"It's uhm... remember when grandpa asked if we knew who made that video?" he asks her.

"So, you do know?" she asks, curiously.

He nods. "Mal found out when she caught them talking about it," he tells her.

"Who?" she asks.

"Jay, Evie and Carlos," he says.

"Oh my God, you're kidding..." she sighs, not even being able to comprehend what she must be going through.

"They wanted us to break up because they just didn't trust me, so they staged the whole thing with Amelia and then edited that video," he explains.

"How is she handling it?" she asks, quite taken aback by this new information.

"The first few days she was down bad," he says. "But after that short mourning period it was like she just flipped a switch and she was completely fine again."

"Have you talked to her about it lately?" she asks.

"I've tried... she's really good at changing the subject," he tells her. "But last night she did tell me how she always pictured her best friends to be in the ceremony and how this wedding planning is kind of hard on her."

"Well, she considered them her siblings, her actual family..." Belle sighs.

"I'm still not able to fully grasp the fact that they betrayed her like that, I just- never would have ever expected that from them," he says. "Not to mention I considered them my friends as well."

"Have you talked to them? After it got out?" she asks him.

Ben shakes his head. "I'm not going to until Mal's ready to talk to them first," he says.