Hello everybody!

I am so sorry that it took me so long to update this story! But as I promised I did not forget about it ;)

I want to thank everybody who reviewed this story or put it on his or her story favorite/alert list! Please keep them coming, reviews make my day!

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Btw we are almost done with this story. I think there will be one more chapter or so!

When Maleficent woke up the next morning Lily was already gone. Maleficent got dressed quickly and made her way down the stairs into the kitchen. Lily was standing in front of the oven making breakfast.

"Good morning, darling." Maleficent said after hesitating for a moment. What happened yesterday still stood between them and Maleficent didn't want to pick a quarrel this early in the morning.

Lily didn't even look up as she answered. "'morning"

Maleficent sat down on a stool at the kitchen island observing her daughter closely. For a couple of minutes she contemplated addressing the ordeal from yesterday but in the end she decided to wait for Lily to be ready to discuss the topic.

"Where is Regina?" Maleficent asked instead.

"She had to go to work. That means it's just you and me today." Lily said turned around and grabbed two plates from the cupboard. She slammed the plates down on the table with more force than necessary. She obviously was still angry. Very angry.

During breakfast not a single word was spoken. Only after the two of them had swallowed down their last bite Lily raised her head and for the first time looked Maleficent directly into the eyes.

"Don't you want to justify yourself for what you have done? You promised me to tell me the truth and I trusted you. I thought you were being honest when you said that you want us to have a good and loving relationship." Lily growled angrily. Maleficent sighed sadly.

"Please let me explain to you what happened. I can guess what Cruella told you and from her point of view that might be true but you know that there are always two sides of a story." Maleficent said and carefully took Lily's hand into her own.

"So what is your side of the story?" Lily asked not drawing her hand back but not returning the gentle squeeze either.

"Actually everything that I've told you is true I simply did not tell you the end of the story. After your father, Isaac, left he travelled through the realms to find interesting stories to write about. That's how he met Cruella. I don't know what you know about Cruella's past. I won't tell you everything about her past because that is not my story to tell but Cruella grew up in the land without magic. Her mother kept her locked away in the attic of their house. One day Isaac came to their house asking for an interview with Cruella's mother who was a famous dog trainer. That same evening he met Cruella. He ran away with her. But you know how Cruella is…please don't get this wrong, but she is not the most affectionate person. Isaac had other expectations and in his eyes Cruella could not fulfill those expectations. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that Cruella loved him in her own way but things between them didn't work out and from one day to the other Isaac left hurting Cruella's feelings quite badly. He returned to me apologizing for leaving and I accepted his apology. We lived happily together until I was seven months into my pregnancy. Then Cruella who had been looking for Isaac all this time came to visit me unexpectedly finding out about Isaac and me. She was furious as you can imagine. Even more so when she realized that the child growing inside of me was his. In her eyes I had taken away her happy ending and she said she would never forgive me. Remember when I told you that she has the ability to control animals? She used her power to manipulate the dragon inside of me to follow her. She brought me away from my castle making Isaac believe that she killed me. As a response he took away the ability to kill from her. Cruella lifted her spell over me when you were born. She was quite clever to do so because I was so distracted that I could not concentrate on being angry with her. Then we met Ursula shortly before we realized what Charming and Snow intended to do to you. I knew that I needed Ursula and especially Cruella if I wanted to protect you. I could not allow myself to be angry with Cruella anymore and I had more important matters on my mind to think about than Isaac. You know the rest of the story, how we failed to protect you and how the three of you fell through the portal."

Maleficent took a deep breath after finishing with her story. Lily was quiet for a moment and then nodded. It was a lot of information to take in. She had heard the story from Cruella's point of view yesterday and today from her mother's point of view. She could not decide what to think about it.

"I'm just glad that she's got Ursula now." Lily then said quietly and Maleficent smiled and nodded.

"Yes, me too. I know that she is not an easy person but she deserves to be happy. I know it might have looked differently yesterday but I think that she is over him. Yesterday just everything came back rushing back in and I also think that she won't be angry at me for long." Maleficent said.

"Do you still love him?" Lily asked. Was this hope in her eyes?

"Sweetheart, love is not that easy. I don't think that your father and I will ever get back together." Maleficent explained and Lily sighed sadly.

"But I still want to get to know him"

"Of course my love. Meet him and get to know him as you like."

"I will" Lily answered with determination in her eyes.

I'm personally not very happy with this chapter but I hope you could enjoy it at least a little bit ;)

Feel free to tell me what you think!