Kingmaker (Ace of Queens #5)

Pt.8 Daisy

Chapter 8

Ruby passed around the salad as the whole family sat around the dinner table in the corner of the living room. Ella and Lily sat across from each other as Piper sat next to Ella and Mia next to Lily.

"Dean, honey, pass the potatoes, please," Ruby said as she took a seat. "My back is killing me."

"I've been telling you to quit your job, but you won't listen," Dean grumbled. "What did those leeches do now?"

The girls passed the bowl of potatoes down from their father to their mother like an assembly line.

"I only have two more years left," Ruby shook her head. "If I stick it out I can get the monthly pension."

"We don't need their money," Dean stabbed his potato.

"Yes, we do," Ruby laughed. "The bank isn't going to take pancakes for their payment."

Dean didn't argue back. He knew his wife had a point. Still didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"Mom, have you seen the prince around the palace?" Piper asked eagerly.

"Many times," Ruby smiled.

Ella kept her eyes on the plate as she felt both Mia and Lily's eyes on her.

"Isn't he so handsome?" Piper sighed. "I can't stop thinking about him on a white horse."

"Pip," Dean looked up from his food. "Eat your dinner and don't drool over mutts."

Ella's hands gripped tightly around her fork. Her irritation clouded her blue eyes as she looked up and found Lily grilling their dad through her lashes.

"Honey," Ruby said gently. "They have done nothing to us."

"That's the point, no?" Mia asked. "They have done absolutely nothing for us."

Suddenly, without begging ale to control herself, Ella gave a harsh laugh. Everyone at the table turned to her in confusion as she set her fork down and looked up at her sister.

"What's so funny?" Mia asked.

"All of it," Ella looked around. "You want the royal family to take care of you. Yet you sit around your dinner table and call them mutts and don't want anything to do with them. Pick a side."

"I don't need to pick a side," Mia narrowed her eyes. "They chose to rule us, I didn't vote them into office. I don't have to like them."

"For the sake of your child, maybe you should be less disrespectful to them," Ella shot back. "Leo has a 50% chance of carrying the shifting gene. What are you going to do then? Call him a mutt too?"

"Look at you," Mia shook her head with a ugly smile on her face. "The royal family's little lap dog."

Ruby and Dean looked at each other with worry. Piper's bounced back and forth like tennis balls and Lily tried her best to hide her mark with her hair.

"What won you over, Ell?" Mia raised a brow. "The flowers or the chocolates?"

Ella had the sudden urge to throw her dinner plate at her sister. Why did Mia have to be so vile?

"I don't know," Ella looked into her eyes. "Why don't you remind me what won you over?"

A gasp erupted in the room. Ella didn't know who it came from. Piper's hand flew to her mouth as her eyes bugged out of her skull in shock. Lily's mouth hung wide open as she stared at Ella in disbelief.