A/N: Nice to know this fic still has readers even after the hiatus (which is now over - hurrah!). You're all lovely folks :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 29

"Don't you use your sweet girlish tones and looks on me, madam!" Robert snapped, on his feet now, practically breathing fire. "I know what you are! Well-practised LIAR!"

Belle swallowed hard, tried to rally all her strength - she was going to need it. Unfortunately, she was struggling for anything to say, anything at all that would help. She had never seen Robert so very angry, not once. He got annoyed at the office when things didn't go quite as planned. She had seen frustration and even anger cross his face, indignation and frustration fill his voice as he snapped at Astrid or Ruby for something and nothing, when he lost it over August's portrayal of Baelfire. With her, he had been so kind, so gentle and sweet. That man seemed to be gone now and in his place, the monster that Gold had always been suspected to be before she got to know him for real. This monster that she had caused to erupt, it was all her own doing, and that was what hurt Belle the most.

"I... I need to explain," she tried to say, but her voice came out so very quiet and shaky. "If you'll just listen!" she tried more forcefully, but one glance up into his red face was enough to silence her in a second.

"Oh, I'm all ears, dearie!" he told her harshly, all kindness gone from what ought to have been a sweet term of endearment, but no more. "Do please explain to me your wonderful plan to seduce and ruin me!" he boomed.

Belle winced at the harsh sound, feeling the urge to cover her ears with her hands and hide as she did when she was a child and the thunderstorms came at night. The simile was not lost on her. This was her own personal nightmare of crashing thunder and lightning, ruining a time of sunshine and smiles that came before. She and Robert had been so happy, so in love. Now everything was ruined, cast into the darkness and it was all her fault. There just seemed to be no escape from the quicksand Belle felt she had been plunged into. Any excuse she thought to make or reason she tried to give felt wrong. There was so much she couldn't say, and plenty more she shouldn't, she just felt sick.

"I never planned to seduce you or ruin you!" she yelled out of pure frustration. "If I'd wanted to do that, don't you think I would by now?!"

That elicited a cruel and hollow laugh from Robert's throat, the like of which Belle had never heard before and never wished to hear again. If there were such a thing as a truly evil laugh, she imagined that would be the perfect example. She hated it on instinct, just wanting to shy away from the sound but there was nowhere to go.

"Really, Belle? You do think so very much of your infinite charms all of a sudden," he sneered at her. "You think I could be so easily led?"

"No, I don't," she shook her head. "Of course, I don't, but that wasn't what I was trying to do, I just told you that," she tried her best to explain, actually starting to feel a little better as she battled his accusations with her own words.

She had to stand up for herself, she had to at least try and talk her way out of this. After all, it was what she did, what she had been doing from the age of sixteen. She could tell him much of the truth. Belle knew she must still conceal her team's work, all their identities, their plan against Regina. She couldn't risk other people's lives to save her own skin, she had never done it before and she wouldn't start now. The problem was that she must mix truth and lies in perfect harmony in order to get out of this safely and without losing Robert completely. On a normal day, Belle could do it, even under a certain amount of pressure she could cope. This was too much, this was a whole chunk of her world crashing down around her head, her mind spinning, and her heart breaking all at once. It was just too much, and yet Belle had to do her best with what she had.

"I'm waiting, Belinda," said Robert then, snapping her attention back from her jumbled thoughts, more so with the use of her real name than anything else.

It sounded wrong, not because she had never heard him speak it until today, but because of the way he sneered it like a dirty word. Belle had always wanted Robert Gold to know her true name, to know everything real about her, but not like this, never like this.

"What do you want me to say, Robert?" she asked him, facing him with determined eyes but lips that couldn't stop quivering under the strain. "All that should matter right now is that I love you," she said definitely, determined that he still had to believe that above all things.

It was the truth, the one completely true thing that would always be so, no matter what else was said and done in this room today.

"Love?" he scoffed, though she could see from the pain in his eyes that he had felt it too, he could never be so hurt by her deception if he didn't. "How dare you say...?"

"I say it because it's true," she cut in. "Robert, no matter what else you believe, I know you believe that I love you. I know that you love me too. That is the truth."

He didn't answer that. No flat-out denial, but certainly no corroboration either. She hadn't really expected the latter, though somewhere deep inside, the fool in Belle had wished for it.

"You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and kicked you in the head!" he told her nastily, though he had calmed down considerably from the first moment he exploded at her.

That was good, he was prepared to listen to her reasons and excuses, he wasn't throwing her right out of the door. Belle saw a chance and she grabbed onto it. If he could just listen to her, if he could just believe in the love they had shared, it might be enough. True love conquered all, it was a cliché but Belle had seen it ring true before, not for her, but for others, she had seen it. David and Mary were her perfect example.

"I never meant to hurt you," she said softly, moving in a step closer. "Robert, when we met... I had no idea how much I was going to feel for you. I only knew rumours and hearsay, and so much of that was wrong."

"Not all of it," he told her sharply, turning dark flashing eyes to meet hers once again. "Don't be fooled, dearie. Some of those rumours you hear aren't so far from the truth."

"I know you can be ruthless and tough," she agreed without flinching, not at all afraid he was going to physically strike at her or anything so vicious, not a chance. "A man of business has to be, to become as successful as you are, but you're not a monster. Out of the two of us, I'm probably closer to that," she cried, the tears coming too easily as the real truth of her own life began to leak out, just like the salt-water from her eyes.

Robert swallowed hard, kept the hard look on his face purposefully. He hated to see her cry, even after everything, even knowing she was a liar and worse. She was still Belle, in looks and voice, beautiful wide eyes and sweet temper. She was crying and his first instinct was to take her in his arms and assure her all would be well. This time, he couldn't. She was the reason they were both wounded right now, both screaming and crying, inside if not out-loud. She had to explain herself, if she possibly could. Robert hoped she could, he just couldn't quite believe it.

"You lied your way into my life," he accused, watching Belle's eyes dip to the floor.

"Yes, I did," she admitted. "I didn't have the interview with Mrs Potts, and... and Isabelle isn't my real name," she told him unsteadily. "But everyone does call me Belle, they always have. So it was spelt differently once, why does that matter?"

"If that was all it was, Belle, of course it wouldn't matter," he sighed heavily, anger dissipating in a second as he took in her shaking voice, quivering lip. "But you lied about everything. Everything," he repeated, tone growing angrier again when she seemed to make no attempt to deny it.

"Not everything," she said eventually, bringing her gaze back up to meet his own. "Robert, I... When I started to fall in love with you, nothing else mattered. Everything that had been a lie became true somehow, I can't..."

The laugh was back, the horrible echoing sound that made Belle want to crawl away and hide.

"She speaks in such pretty riddles," he said, to that audience that wasn't there again, as one hand snaked out to touch Belle's cheek. "But you don't fool me, dearie, not anymore. You spin a nice tale..."

"It's not a tale! Don't patronise me!" she yelled then, turning her face away from his touch.

She was incensed by the way he was speaking to her. He accused her of making a mockery of everything they had shared, but now he was being far worse. Robert was taking whatever was left of their relationship and stamping it into the ground. Belle couldn't stand it, not for a moment. She was so angry that she just started yelling, right from the heart, without even thinking.

"Why won't you just listen to me?" she raved, stamping her foot hard into the floor with pure frustration. "I never wanted things to be this way! I didn't ask her to choose me!"

Belle realised her slip immediately, moments before Robert's eyes darkened to the deepest depths of blackness. She had mentioned Regina, not by name, but it was enough. The moment was lost, the last spark of a chance she might have had to turn the tide. It was over.

"This wasn't just you," he said in a low voice that made Belle shudder in all kinds of ways she couldn't explain as he stalked towards her across the wooden floor. "You... You're working for her!" he boomed.

Belle tried her best not to flinch away, but it was hard not to when he was right in her face and yelling.

"I'm not," she countered weakly - he barely heard her.

"You're working for her!" he repeated, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking. "That evil witch, Regina Mills! You're her lackey, her... her whore!"

Belle yanked her arm free from his grasp, brought it back and swung at his face with every ounce of strange she possessed. There was almighty crack as she struck him across the cheek, her hand stinging like crazy just as soon as it was done and shock flooding her body. Robert looked genuinely stunned, more so than she had ever seen him, even in the last half hour she had been here today. She hadn't really meant to hurt him but his name-calling cut so deeply, she couldn't help her own natural reaction of anger; before she knew it, she had lashed out.

Robert looked up gradually, turning his head as if in slow motion. He couldn't quite believe what had just happened, and should see from the way Belle was staring at him that she hadn't quite been expecting it herself. His face stung terribly, but it was nothing compared to the knife in his heart.

"Get out," he ground out.

Belle looked as if she might be considering arguing at first, but in the end her own good sense prevailed. They both knew there was nothing to be said right now, nothing to be done that would make this situation any better. Robert highly doubted there would ever be a way to fix this. Belle had not denied working for Regina, not even now as he stood here ordering her to be gone. It had to be true, and it hurt, so much so that he almost couldn't breathe for the pain. He needed her gone, and it had to be now.

"I said get out! And don't you ever, ever come anywhere near me again!"

Belle's heart shattered at the sound of those words, the shards clattering into a pile in her chest with such a force she swore she heard the sound of it somehow. Still, she had to do as he asked. After everything, she owed him that much. With a single unsteady nod of her head, she turned to go, stopping by the door and looking back just one more time.

"I'm sorry, Robert," she all but whispered. "Whatever else you choose to believe, I did love you. I... I always will."

Belle left then. By the time he looked up she had already gone from his sight. Still, Robert Gold waited until he heard the front door close behind her, before he allowed himself to break down completely.

The tears made him all the more angry and frustrated, his hand reached for his cane and power seemed to surge through every vein and nerve ending. With an almighty crash, he put through all the glass panels in the china cabinet, laid waste to every ornament and trinket on the mantle, systemically destroyed every delicate item in the room one sweep and smash at a time, until all there was nothing left to do but sink into a heap in the centre of the floor and cry.

To Be Continued...