Reaching inside across the front seat of his Cadillac, Rumald collected the bouquet of flowers he had stopped to buy on his way home from the shop. He had been feeling down about the argument Milah and he had started the day with, throwing accusations across the breakfast table at each other. The feeling deep in his stomach would not leave him, a nagging that she was seeing someone else behind his back. Why he had chosen to bring it up at the breakfast table still eluded him. It had just come out when she put a plate of toast down on the table, asking if there was something she wanted to tell him. The way she had aggressively defended herself did not lull the feeling in his stomach, but his heart had lurched to her with an apology.
He shut the door to his Cadillac and crossed the front lawn to climb the steps to the porch. The red sports car by the kerb caught his attention from the corner of his eye. A young man sat on the wing of the car, black sunglasses on, with his phone pressed against his ear. Rumald did not know the man, but judging by how young he looked, they probably did not share the same circles.
The front door creaked as Rumald opened it, adding the job to his list to do, he shut the door. He threw his keys on the entrance hall table whilst looking through into the living room. The sight of his son, Albert, watching the television, sitting cross-legged on the floor, made Rumald smile. The five year old was everything to Rumald. When he had learnt that Milah was pregnant, Rumald had left everything in Scotland to join them and make a life in Storybrooke.
As he thought of Milah, Rumald peeled himself away from the sight of his son and went in search of his wife. The suitcases at the bottom of the stairs caught his attention as he walked pass. The only trip they were due to take was not for another two months, when they were going to be visiting his family in Scotland. Frowning at them, he carried on through into the kitchen where he found Milah pacing back and forth on the other side of the kitchen counter. She was chatting in hushed whispers to someone on the phone, her hand quickly waved through the air as she made her point. Rumald loved that fire about her. It was how they had ended up in the situation five years later. A spilt drink on her dress and several later, he had awoken in his hotel room with her beside him.
"Oh!" Milah gasped, spotting Rumald lingering in the opening between the hallway and the kitchen, and held a hand over her chest. "Okay, I'll be there in a minute."
Making his way over to her as she put the phone down, Rumald held the bouquet of flowers towards her and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "My love, I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" She asked forcing a smile and took the flowers from him to put into the sink.
"For this morning." He explained following her around the kitchen, reaching to touch her arm. "I'm so weak. I should know you wouldn't do that to me."
"Yes… Well…" She mumbled twisting away from his touch.
"How about I see if Mrs Potts could watch Bae and we can go out for dinner?" Rumald suggested to her as he caught her in a hug and kissed her near her ear lobe. Her hands pushed strongly against his chest. Relenting he let her escape his arms and watched as she quickly moved to the other side of the kitchen island, putting space between them.
"Rumald," Her tone was neutral but her eyes avoided his as the feeling in his stomach knotted. "I'm leaving you."
He gestured towards the direction of the suitcases in the hallway. "I saw the bags. I'm sorry for this morning. You don't need to go to your mother's over this."
"I'm not going to my mother's." She informed him as her eyes finally met his. There was a time that he had seen love in those eyes for him. Now all there seemed to be was a coldness towards him.
"I don't understand. Where're you going?" He inquired taking a step around the island and reached to touch her arm.
Milah jumped away from him as if his touch would burn her, her arms clutched around her, her fingers digging into the bare skin of her arm. "I'm going. You were right this morning. There is someone else." She paused when his shoulders fell. "I'm sorry, Rum, I don't love you."
"Milah, I love you though." He pleaded taking a step towards her, but she counteracted him by taking one back towards the hallway. "I gave up everything for us and Bae."
"Don't call him Bae! It's Albert!" She seethed at him, always hating Rumald's nickname for their son.
"Okay, I'm sorry. Look, let's just sit down and talk about this." Rumald gestured to the breakfast table beside her. He could feel his eyes were glistening with the idea of her leaving him. It broke him. Milah shook her head forcefully at him as she took further steps backwards towards the hallway.
"There's no talking about it, Rum." She told him grabbing her coat from the hook in the hallway. Staggering through from the kitchen to the hallway, Rumald slumped against the wall and rubbed at his chest, feeling like someone had shot his heart.
"Please, for Albert's sake. Stay and talk to me." He begged her with a tear falling down his cheek. The look she shot him was quickly shook away by her head as she collected the two large suitcases and avoided looking at him. Five years spent with her, destroyed in the five minutes of him being home.
The door creaked before the door handle banged against the wall behind the door. Milah struggled through the doorway with the two large suitcases. Even though she had broken his heart, Rumald could not help himself when he leaped forward to help her. As he reached for the handle on one of the cases, he touched the hand of someone else, a larger hand than his wife's. His eyes followed the hand up the arm it belonged to, to the face that peered down at him, grinning coolly at Rumald.
Milah gave the suitcase to the other man quickly, taking advantage of the momentary lapse in Rumald's reaction. While watching the younger man traipse down his porch steps, he was barely aware of Milah telling him that it was in his and their son's best interest if she left. Rumald watched the young man open the trunk on the red sports car and tossed the suitcase into it. The man made his way smugly up the path towards the steps of his porch. Clenching his hands at his sides into fists, Rumald took a step out onto the porch, ignoring Milah as she told him that it was unfair to keep pretending she loved him. As the other man came to the top of the step and reached for the other suitcase, Rumald could not help himself and uppercut him, sending him sprawling back down the steps.
"Rumald! What the hell!" Milah cried at Rumald, chasing the other man down the steps with her suitcase in hand. He watched as Milah dropped her suitcase and cradled the other man's head between her hands, asking if he was all right, as Rumald trudged down the steps. Seeing Rumald coming towards them, Milah encouraged the man to get to his feet and helped him, guiding him to stand behind her.
"You're not just leaving me and our son," Rumald fumed at Milah and pointed an accusing finger at the other man. "You're leaving us for him!"
She swallowed and glanced over her shoulder at the other man. "Rumald, don't make a scene, please!"
"A scene? You're worried that I'll make a scene!" He shouted at her.
"Look, mate, don't make this any worse than what it is." The man said holding a hand to his jaw.
"Mate? Did you just call me mate?" Rumald raged taking a step forward but Milah stopped him by putting her hands on his chest.
"Killian, take the case to the car." She told Killian over her shoulder. Crooking his neck, Rumald glared down at Milah with her hands still hovering over his chest. He slapped her hands away from him and watched her take a staggered step back, shocked by his reaction. Never in the time they had been together, had Rumald ever laid an aggressive finger on her. He had worshipped the ground she walked on, given her everything she had ever asked for and more. Changed his life to be with her.
"Rum, I didn't want it to be like this." Milah tried to explain. "But when you said what you said this morning, the guilt was too much to bear. I had to put an end to it before I hurt you both."
Rumald could not help the chuckle that erupted from him before he responded. "Hurt us? What do you think you're doing? Putting us out of our misery like an animal?"
"It doesn't have to be like this." She said as Killian called to her from the safety of the sidewalk. Hearing his call Milah glanced over her shoulder to see Killian gesture to his watch, reminding her they had somewhere to be. Expectantly, Rumald waited for whatever crap she was about to tell him as she turned back to look at him. When her gaze returned to his direction, it strayed to somewhere behind him. He frowned following her gaze over his shoulder to find Albert stood at the top of the porch, his eyes red and tears streamed down his cheeks.
Leaving her stood in the middle of the front lawn, Rumald hurried up the steps to Albert and scooped him up into his arms, cradling his son's head to his shoulder. "Believe me, Milah, it does need to be like this. Now leave."
He watched her slowly make her way down the path to the sidewalk. When Killian opened the door and held it open for her, Milah stopped to look back at what she was leaving. There was no show of remorse or any kind of emotion as she turned away from the sight of them and climbed into the car. Killian shut the car door and dared a glance at Rumald, rubbing his jaw absently as he went around the car to climb into the driver's side. The car roared to life and sped off down the road.
Holding his son tightly, Rumald carried him inside and kicked the door close behind them. He dropped into the couch in the living room with Albert in his arms and laid his son's legs across his lap to make him comfortable. Mentally Rumald swore he was never going to let that happen to him or his son ever again. They did not deserved to be abandoned by Milah and he was never going to let anyone be in the position to do it again.