Mal stared at the invitation in her hand. Her name and Ben's was printed in gold; no, not some cheap imitation; actual gold. It was detailed with fancy embroidery. If Mal had her way in any of the wedding planning, the invitations to the engagement party would have been vastly different and much more simple. The over-the-topness of this invite wasn't what was bothering her though; it was the fact that this was the last one and Mal could no longer avoid the situation: she needed to decide if her mother would be invited or not.

"Well, she's a lizard now, I'm sure she can't do that much damage." Mal muttered to herself.

Mal exhaled and stuffed the invitation into the envelope. As she lifted the pen to write her mother's name; she heard footsteps behind her.

"Hi, Mal." Ben's voice greeted.

Mal turned to face her fiancee and plastered on her best smile. "Hey."

Ben kissed Mal on the cheek and then leaned over her shoulder. "How are the invites coming?"

"Oh, great." Mal placed her elbow over her mother's unfinished name. "Couldn't be better."

Ben gently moved Mal's elbow out of the way and then looked down at the envelope. He smiled.

"Why were trying to hide this? What's so bad about inviting your mother to our engagement party?"

"Because she tried to take over Auradon last year. I don't think everybody is ready to forgive and forget around here."

Ben shrugged. "She's still a lizard, right? If she tries anything, we can just put her in a jar."

Mal gave a small chuckle, but started to frown seconds after. "It's a special day, Ben. I'm trying so hard to be good and, I know this sounds selfish and everything, but...What if everyone thinks I've decided to be evil again? What if they want us to call off the wedding? What if I'm sent back to the Isle? What-"

Mal was cut off when Ben kissed her. She returned the kiss and smiled.

"That's a whole lot of "what ifs" over a tiny invitation. Come on, Mal. She' still your mother, everyone will understand that." Ben assured.

Mal leaned back in her chair. "Did anyone tell you that you are way too optimistic?"

"I'll take that as a compliment. " Ben gave Mal a kiss on the cheek and then left her alone.

Mal sat up and sighed. "Okay, here goes nothing." She picked up her pen and finished writing her mother's name.

The engagement party was held that next weekend. There was over fifty people there, and Mal only knew a few of them by name, and only her friends from the Isle of Lost were considered close to her. As she and Ben stood with his parents, greeting the guests that came, Mal was constantly standing on her tiptoes to see if anyone was arriving with a cage carrying a certain tiny lizard.

"Hey." Ben laid a hand on Mal's shoulder. "She'll come, I'm sure of it."

"That's kind of what I'm afraid of." Mal whispered.

As the guests continued to mingle and finger foods started to be served; Lumiere, the servant to King Beast, came rushing out of the castle. He was sweating and frantically whispering something in French to the king.

"What?! Are you sure?!" King Beast nearly shouted.

Before Mal could ask what had happened; there was collective gasps and screams and whispers. She looked up, and there, standing at the entrance, with no tail or slimy skin to be seen was her mother, Maleficent.