Chapter 3

Five years later, it was time for Regina to grieve.

Henry, her father, died of heart attack. It seemed like it was a businessman's disease. Killian's father died of it as well. Why does it have to be cruel to them? She asked to herself.

After graduating from college with the highest Latin honors, Regina spent two months to herself, travelling to different parts of the world, from European countries to Asian countries. Coming back from her well deserved vacation, she was immediately trained by Mal Draco, the companies Chief Operating Officer. It was a pretty high rank for someone who had been working in the company for just 7 seven years, but she was intelligent and resourceful, enough to be a head of an important department.

Mal insisted that she should show Regina the different works and employees in the company starting from the lowest ranked employees. Her first day, she was introduced to their cleaners followed by the security guards, then the front desk people. For seven days, she tried to work with the ladies and gentlemen of the front desk, receiving inquiries through telephone calls, e-mails, and personal visits. After one week, she was then introduced to staffs under different departments and again, she worked with them, spending one week with each department, doing the same jobs as the employees had. After several months, she knew mostly of the employees working in their company and Mal was very proud of her. Of course, each department heads knew who Regina was but Mal still insisted to introduce her to each and every one of them.

For two years, she spent her time and work efforts rotating jobs from different departments. She was a jack of all traits after all so it was easy and fun for her to do different jobs from time to time. It was after one year when she decided working for the Marketing departments was what she wants, planning for their advertising and promotions strategies and because of her hard work, not due to her last name, she became the Chief Marketing Officer of the company at the age of 25.

As for Killian, since moving back to Ireland, he was able to sort his life a little better. It only took him one semester to finish his studies. After the death of his father, Killian spent his time studying, having overloaded subjects to finish his studies on time while Liam took control of the business. After finishing his college, he enrolled himself in a maritime school; it was a passion of his. It was his dream to drive a boat and be captain of it. It took him two years to finish it. He then became the Chief Operating Officer of their shipping line and sometimes he would personally be the captain of the boat that was loaded with different goods. He was on his way back to America when he heard a very devastating news. He just thanked the God that his route was to America and not back to Ireland.

He received an email from Liam saying,

"Killian, as soon as you arrived in the port, he gave the ship to one of our captains and immediately go to the Mills'. Henry died last night and I and mom are on our flight to America. Respond as soon as possible. Keep safe. See you soon."

It took them two days before arriving to the docks and of one their captains was there to take over the shipments and he immediately drove to Boston where the Mills mansion was located.

It was dinner time when he arrived in the mansion. The Mills being a Catholic family had a lot of tradition and superstitions when it comes to death in general. The whole household was busy, unlike when his dad died where the household was pretty quiet. The maids and cooks were busy preparing food to be given to those people at the funeral, grieving with the family. He was greeted by Joana, the head maid in the Mills mansion. She told him that his brother and mother were waiting for him in the family area.

After the foods were prepared, they went to the funeral home where there was a public viewing just like Brennan's. The Mills were also adored by the townspeople due to their help in the community.

When he entered the place, he immediately looked for Regina. He saw sitting beside her mother in front her father's coffin while people line up to get to see Henry for the last time. He approached their seats and gave Cora a hug first then Regina. Upon seeing Killian, she did not know why but her instincts told her to just hug him tightly as if her life was dependent on him.

On the last night of Henry's funeral, the public viewing was closed off, and only friends and family were allowed inside. The Jones were seated at the next row of chairs after Regina's and her mom's. Killian knew that Regina was bottling a lot of her emotions, trying her hardest not to cry, and be strong enough for herself and her mom. He was at that stage not so long ago. His thoughts were only confirmed when Regina excused herself and went outside of the funeral homes. Quietly, he followed her but she was quick to disappear. A few minutes after, he saw at the backyard of the funeral homes sitting on a log in the dark, alone. Only her muffled cries could be heard.

"Regina? Love?" He asked, as if he was asking for her permission so that he could go near her.

"Killian how did you do that?" She asked.

"Do what?" He asked.

"This. How did you make yourself strong? It's so hard! I don't know what my life would be now that dad is gone! When I look into his coffin I tell myself that he was just sleeping, that one day he will wake up and come back to us." She said with her broken cries. At this point, Killian worked up his courage and went to Regina to hug and comfort her. He then said, "It was because of the people around me. I knew that mom needed me. I knew that the company needed me. And I knew that dad would not be happy to see if I throw my life away because he was gone."

"I know that! Killian, I know that! But it's so hard! I'm so tired to be strong! I know that mom is hurting as well."

"You have me, you have us, Regina. You don't have to be strong alone. We are here for you and your mom just like you were when dad died. I'm gonna be honest with you. Five years since dad's death and it's still so hard for me, the pain will be never go way but you'll learn to live with it. " Killian explained to her but she did not respond anymore. Killian felt her breathing became steady and that was when he realized that Regina fell asleep on his arms. He thought that it was probably due to exhaustion and the next day would be harder for her. He carefully carried her inside laid her body at the back of the funeral home where a bed was placed for tired family members. He did not leave her side until he knew that she was sleeping deeply.

The following day, everyone was busy getting ready for the interment of Henry. Regina woke up in her bedroom, clueless how she got there. She then went downstairs and saw her mom with the Jones family having a breakfast before going to the cemetery. The whole ceremony lasted for almost two hours due to the beautiful eulogy from Regina, her mom, Killian's mom in behalf of their family and Mal in behalf of the company employees.

The Mills and Jones family stayed at the cemetery after Henry was buried to the ground. Someone unexpected then showed after. It was the family's lawyer, actually he was also the Jones' lawyer.

"Hello dearies." He said.

"Mr. Gold? What are you doing here?" Cora asked.

"First, condolences to you and Regina. I am sorry, I am sorry for couldn't be here when I heard about Henry's passing." He said.

"Thank you but what are you doing here?" Cora asked again.

"I am here for the will that Henry and Brennan wrote together, it's rare for a joint will but it was their decision to have this so I am glad that the Jones are here." He explained.

"I guess cemetery is not the right place to discuss this. Let's go back to our house to discuss this matter, are you okay with that?" Cora asked and Mr. Gold agreed.

After an hour, they arrived back at the mansion.

"So what is this will about?" Cora asked.

"I see, you're still business minded Cora even after the death of your dear husband."

"I just want to get this over with. We are very tired and we are still grieving. So please, make it quick and tell us what Brennan and Henry asked you to do."

"Well, this doesn't concern you. It concerns Killian and Regina and their inheritance. You see, the gentlemen were very business minded and wanted to secure the future of their companies. This will was written before Brennan died five years ago and with an agreement to only disclose this to you after their deaths. Killian, you and Regina have to get married within a year. However, before you get married, Killian you have to court Regina first. If you did not get married within that time, both of you will not get your trust funds and you fathers knew how much you need them for your future."

After hearing it from Mr. Gold, Killian was speechless however, Regina was quick with a very angry, "No!" and stormed out the house. Seeing her walk away, Killian got worried. He followed her outside. It was after five minutes that he found her somewhere significant to the both of them.


A/N: Hello! So I know this chapter is pretty boring again but this will give you something to look forward to*hopefully*! Hahaha! But still, I hope you'd enjoy this chapter. Thank you for supporting this! Keep reading and reviewing please. It really helps. Thank you for your kind words :) I'll be updating maybe after 3 weeks, I'm sorry about that but finals are coming so I have to study. But please, keep holding to the story. God Bless us all!

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time and it's characters.