"Regina, you are fifteen years old. This... infatuation you have with the stable girl is nonsense!" Cora watched her daughter's spine stiffen with a confidence she'd never seen, not in front of her and certainly not while being scolded. "Love is weakness!"
Her daughter blinked, seemingly unaffected, "I could be fifteen or fifty, it makes no difference mother. I love Emma. When I'm with her, I don't feel weak. I feel strong."
"Foolish!" Cora growled. She felt her magic coming to the surface, pulsing at her veins. "You are marrying the King and that is non-negotiable, dear. You better forget this girl... Or I'll make you forget."
Before Cora could make her way into the palace, she heard the telltale clanking of the stable girls shoes making its way across the harden dirt. She flicked her wrist and made herself invisible to the eye before creeping back toward the opening of the stable, where she had exited moments before after her spat with her daughter.
"She's going to force me to marry the King, Emma!" Her heart would've twisted at her daughters desperate tone if she had one in her chest.
"We will work through this together, just like we always have." It was said with such affection that Cora knew she should've felt something, should've appreciated the love the stable girl had for her daughter, but as usual she felt hollow.
"I can't live that life, under scrutiny and under... under him! I want to be with you!"
"I want that too. I'm just afraid of what Cora will do to you if you disobey. She hates the idea of you and I. She hates what people are saying about us-"
"I don't care! Go ahead and let them talk! Their words mean nothing!" Cora listens more intently, hearing the slight tremor in Regina's voice. "Sometimes... I wish we were older. I wish we met when we were free of obligation and we could just love each other and have a simple life together."
"Regina, with Cora, it does not matter what age you are." She hears Emma sigh. "Just trust in me. I'll never run away. I'll always be by your side. And one day, we will be free."
And if Cora had her heart, it would've broken in two. Because the pain in their voices was not caused by anything but her own cruel actions. But Cora didn't have her heart. So she did what her hollow chest dictated. She walked into the stable, ripped out the stable girls heart, and showed her daughter how weak love could make someone.