What are you supposed to do upon finding your daughter after 28 years? What is the norm? Where's the rulebook? Do you play it cool and let her come to you? Or do you go in all guns blazing, telling her how you've never stopped thinking about her?
I found it hard, I didn't know what to say or what to do. Emma grew up not knowing us, to her we are complete strangers. Well; over the past few months, she's got to know us but that was our alter egos. We were Mary-Margaret and David, her friends, now we are Snow White and Prince Charming, her parents.
All I've ever wanted was a family. A loving husband and children, even now I've found her I'm still scared that she wont want to be part of my life. I have no idea how she's feeling. Does she resent us? Or does it go deeper than that? Maybe she hates us?
I hoped that my love for Emma would show instantly, I wanted to reassure her that she was always loved. The choices Charming and I made were hard, but we felt it was the right choice. There was nothing else we could do. We had to give her up. It was the hardest thing I've had to do in my entire life. Even harder than saying goodbye to both my parents. Emma was ripped from my arms only moments after coming into this world, my whole life was shattered in an instant.
Of course, it was never meant to be that way, I was supposed to go through the portal. We were going to be together, we would have been a family. When I look at it that way, a lump comes to my throat. I missed everything. Her first steps. First tooth. Curl. I missed her taking those first few steps. Her first day at school. I wasn't around to give her advice on men and wasn't there to hold her hand when she had Henry and that kills me. She had to do all of it alone. She was in and out of foster care, she never had a stable home, I could have given her that; but I guess fate wasn't on our side. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.
Fate is a funny thing, you can think that you have everything planned out and then suddenly you whole life is turned upside down. The odds were against us. Charming could fight a million armies and I could shed an ocean of tears, but nothing would or could change our fate. We had to give her up, the future of our people, our future depended on it.
Now I just have to rebuild bridges, I need to show her how much we loved and still love her. We need to show her that we are there for