"Isn't it time we stop pretending we make each other happy?"

It's the most solemn he's ever seen Lacey French. Usually she's draped over him, whisky on her breath and a hand down his trousers. But now she's standing before him in his shop, small and sad, her hair damp from the rain.

It's funny how the weather sometimes echoes your mood. Gold awoke that morning knowing it would be a shit day and the weather clamored to keep up, clouds forming by midday and the heavens opening up by early afternoon.

"What are you talking about?" he asks, his voice hoarse, though he already knows what's coming. They were never made to last and it was only a matter of time before Lacey realized what he'd always known.

Lacey shrugs, just a bob of her thin shoulders beneath the thin fabric of her summer dress.

"You're using me," she says sadly. Her face is damp and he can't tell if it's from the weather or tears. "I'm not the one you really want and we both know it. And I suppose I'm using you too. Because you're the only person who loved my sister as much as I did and for some reason that meant something to me."

Gold looks at Lacey, really looks at her, for the first time since this affair started six months ago, and doesn't see Belle looking at him from behind those pale blue eyes. She's the spitting image of her sister, but for the first time, he fails to see a resemblance at all. Lacey is her own person and he hasn't been fair to her, or Belle's memory, or even himself.

Lacey isn't Belle. But that doesn't mean she's less. The realization is too little, too late.

"This thing we have," Lacey continues. "It's toxic. When you look at me, you only see her and I can't do it anymore."

Gold just nods. He isn't sure what he could possibly say to convince her otherwise. Because until a few moments ago, what she said was true.

When he looked at Lacey, he saw his dead lover. When he accepted her kisses and her love, it was a consolation prize for the love of his life being ripped from his arms too soon.

And now, as he finally realizes he's managed to fall in love with Lacey on her own merits, it's right as she's leaving for good.

"Goodbye, Gold," she says, her spine stiff and her jaw set. She is determined. He won't change her mind.

"Goodbye, Lacey."