Chapter 1: Meet Isabella Mills
My mom is tearing apart Henry's room, "where could he have gone? He's ten years old and people are just letting him run around?"
"Mom? What are you looking for?" I ask again, with no answer. I've rarely seen my mom so unraveled, she's usually a little too uptight, especially with my brother.
"Are you sure you don't know anything about where your brother is?
"No," I answer honestly before pausing and noticing someone in a yellow bug pull up in front of the house, "Whose car is that?"
Mom barely glances at me before practically running to the front door. I can't help but feel a twinge in my chest as I think about how it didn't use to be like this but lately, my mom has been so focused on Henry and trying to pretend everything is normal that it feels as if she doesn't bat an eye at me. Mom tells me that now that I'm a teenager, it just feels like things are different but I've always been Regina's mini-me following my mom around while worshiping the earth she walked on ever since she adopted my brother and me, and lately Henry has been causing so much trouble that my mom rarely looks twice in my direction. I can't help but pull myself out of my own pity party when I realize I need to find Henry's fairytale book before my mom does and thinks that's the reason he's been a pain lately.
I quickly slip back into his room and start searching in his usual hiding spots trying to find his "magic" book when I hear stomping up the stairs and before I can move, Henry blows past me and throws himself onto his bed, "Henry! Where have you been all day? Mom's been freaking out!"
"I went to Boston. I had to find the savior, Isabella!" Henry huffs. He seems to take after our mom and can be a lot to handle when he's upset or in a mood like he is now.
I try to play along, Henry explained to me before how he thinks his fairytales are real and that there's a hero who is supposed to come to town and save everyone and provide the happy endings, "Who is the savior? Did you find them?"
Henry's entire body perks up when I play along, "It's our mom!"
"Mom's here, not in Boston, Henry."
"No Isabella," Henry sighs like I'm missing the obvious, "Our real mom. She's here now! She brought me back. She didn't believe that Regina is the Evil Queen!"
Henry hit a nerve, more than one, and I snap at him without a second thought, "She's not evil, Henry! She is our real mom. She wanted us, that other woman didn't. Stop being such a brat!" I can feel every word come out like a knife before I turn around and storm out of his room, slamming the door behind me and sitting at the top of the stairs. I'm trying to focus on my breathing, Archie claims this will help with my temper but it doesn't seem to be helping now and I lose all focus on my breath as I hear mom talking in our entryway and two glasses clink together. I can tell someone is with my mom and a part of me almost feels like the voice is familiar but not familiar enough that I can place it before I hear Mom say, "I was told the birth mother didn't want any contact."
"You heard right." The voice replies and mom closes the study door before I make it down the stairs. I suddenly feel stuck there, feeling like gravity is worse than normal or like something is magically holding me in that spot. The door only stays closed for a few seconds longer and swings open before I can move.
She has blonde hair, it's slightly wavy at the ends. It looks exactly like mine. She's wearing skinny jeans, a tank top, and a red leather jacket, and I can't help but notice how she definitely does not look like a mom.
"Izzy?" She pauses looking at me with the same expression of awe and confusion, as if looking in a mirror that shows you at a different time in life, the same expression I have looking at her, "Izzy? You're so big now. You're so grown up."
Mom is staring at me, watching me carefully, and doesn't say anything as I turn and run up the staircase and away from my mother and this stranger, my face already streaked in hot heavy tears that hold too much emotion for me to simply blink away as I run into my bedroom. It feels like hours, but realistically only a few minutes have passed when I hear my mom come up the stairs and go into Henry's room first. It gives me just enough time to wipe my eyes and face with a nearby shirt and pull out my book to try and look like I'm unbothered and simply reading my book. I pull myself together or at least attempt to, just in time for Mom to gently knock on my door and come in and sit on the edge of my bed. I swallow hard hoping my voice doesn't shake and try not to look at my mom right away, "Is Henry okay? He said he went all the way to Boston?"
"He'll be fine. He didn't want to talk to me." Mom sighs and it sends pain through my chest hearing her defeat and I finally make eye contact as she slides off my bed and kneels in front of me, taking my book from my hands and placing it on the pillow on the side of me, "Do you want to talk to me?"
I know what she means and what she wants to hear from me but I don't think I can deal with it yet, "I'm sorry my brother is being so childish."
Mom laughs at me and it makes me want to latch onto her like a toddler, "You're a child too. You seem to forget, you're only thirteen Isabella." Mom pauses like she's not sure if she should push more, "But you are older, so you might remember things differently than your brother."
"What's her name?" I give in knowing my mom won't let me dance around the topic any longer.
"Emma Swan."
"And is she actually... was she mine and Henry's birth mother?" I can't help but study Regina's face and hair as I think about the woman's long blonde wavy hair that was so much like mine and so different from my mom's short and dark hairstyles, "And is she staying?"
Mom squeezes both of my hands gently and her hands holding mine feels so warm and comforting, "No. She's on her way back to Boston right now. You don't have to worry about her, Iz."
My whole body suddenly feels warm and like it's tingling and suddenly I can hear the blood rushing through my ears. I know I just ran away from her but some part of me is mad she's not even staying the night or bothering to say anything to my brother or me. My mom says something to me but I'm too focused on not exploding right then to hear what she's saying so I mindlessly nod as she kisses the top of my head and stands up to turn off my lights and leave my room for the night.
I wake up the next morning to Mom coming into my room, and my head hurts from crying most of last night to the point where I feel like I can't pick it up off my pillow. "Mom, I promise I will never ask again but can I please stay home from school just this once?"
"Henry ran away again. Do you have any ideas where he would have gone this time?" The panic in my mom's voice is enough to get me to sit straight up. I slowly shake my head no as I was my Mom hesitates in my doorway and it scares me because Regina Mills does not hesitate, "Ms. Swan has offered to help us find him. Will you be okay?"
"As long as we find Henry. How can I help?" I ask instantly feeling guilty for yelling at Henry yesterday. It's been Henry and I against the world, from the minute I met him and I can't help but feel like I betrayed him by getting angry yesterday. Mom is checking his computer and then trying the school so I promised to stay at the house in case he comes home but don't leave my room until I'm sure that everyone, including Emma Swan, is gone. I can only sit and wait for a few minutes before I feel like I have to do something to help so I text my mom that I'm leaving and write a note for Henry, just in case before taking off to his favorite hiding spot, his castle.
"Henry."
He doesn't turn around to look at me, "Are you still mad at me?"
"No," I lie, "But you keep scaring me by running off. You can't keep doing that to me, or mom."
"Sorry." Henry's still staring at the clock in town that hasn't moved since we moved here which is pretty much Henry's entire life but he's convinced it's a sign of the curse he believes in being real. He explained the whole theory that no one is aging here because time doesn't move in Storybrooke to me last week and I didn't have the heart to explain to him that it's just an old broken clock. "I thought Emma being here would change things."
"I know," I sit next to him, "I'm sorry I was a jerk last night. I got really angry when you said Regina was evil last night. I know what your book says but she wanted us and she loves us, buddy. I want to believe it's real too but Mom is our mom, she's not some villain."
Someone's footsteps are approaching behind us before he can respond to me, Emma is coming up and she's holding Henry's book. I manage to swallow my own fears, pretending it's for Henry's sake but knowing it's because I want another look at my birthmother before I run off, "Hi. I'll go tell my mom that he's okay and will be home soon."
Emma nods at me and tries to force a smile, "Hi Izzy. Thank you."
I take the slowest route I can home but the downside of living in a small town is that there are not a lot of ways to go home that take very long. I squeeze my eyes shut at the end of our drive trying to force the image of Emma out of my head, hating that I want her to stay and want to go back and talk with her and Henry even though every time I see her I want to cry. I open my eyes and notice my mom sitting on the front steps waiting and looking distraught and it brings back all of my anger toward Emma. "He's with her. He'll be back soon."
Mom nods at me slowly and stands to open the door to the house before following me in and silently sitting on the couch opening her arms to me. I crawl onto the couch next to her and can't help but stifle my cries into her shoulder unable to think of words to apologize for Emma being her, for Henry wanting to find her, for me wanting to know her. We sit in silence and Regina strokes my hair gently while staring silently out the window until we see Henry and Emma walking up the front path. Mom opens the door and Henry runs in, not looking at either of us as I watch him run by. I look back to Emma and my mom just in time to hear Emma talk about how she had wished yesterday that she didn't have to spend another birthday alone when Henry showed up. I stand frozen as my mom, aggressively, reminds Emma that she gave us up ten years ago and that Mom was the one taking care of us. She then continues
Mom turns to slam the door but I'm standing in the way when I finally get the courage to speak, "Mom, can I come inside in a minute?"
Regina pauses looking at me, she looks shocked but more angry than hurt and I take that as acceptance and move out of the doorway and watch as my mom closes it behind her. Emma stands in front of me, not moving from the yard as she watches me closely.
"I promise she's a lot nicer to us than… well everyone else." I admit trying to force a smile, "She's a really good mom."
Emma just continues to state at me like she's going to scare me but talking or moving which is fair given my reactions to her so far so I just continue nervously talking out loud, "I'm sorry. I don't really know what to say. I know Henry wants to know you, and that's between you and our mom, but I… I don't think I do. So, I'm sorry." I can't look up to look Emma in the eye so I turn away to the door hoping that Emma will leave it at that, but speak once more before heading inside, "Please don't hurt my baby brother."
"I won't, Izzy."
I close the front door behind me and lean against it as the heavy hot tears begin flowing again.
"She took it!" Henry runs right into me and grabs onto me, "The book! Iz, she knows we know about the curse!"
I hug Henry tightly, pulling him into me, "We'll figure it out, buddy. I promise, we'll get it back."
The next day, Henry makes me walk with him to Granny's Diner for breakfast and tries to convince me to stay for breakfast with Emma before school but I lie and claim I have to meet with a teacher about a paper so that he lets me leave with minimal whining.
"You know, I gave him that book because I thought the stories could help him not feel so lonely. I seem to remember his older sister trying to bury herself in books a few years ago too." Mary Margaret Blanchard, Henry's teacher approaches me where I'm sitting on the side of the building reading.
"I wasn't lonely. I just didn't want to talk to anyone." I try to come across cold in my response, like Regina often is with people but something about Ms. Blanchard feels so safe and familiar, I can't seem to get it to come across that way.
"You're his whole world. You must know that. Henry told me how you believed in his stories too. It's okay if you want your mom to be a hero too."
I finally look up from my book, "She's not my mom."
Ms. Blanchard looks so sad when she looks at me, "Isabella, sometimes hope is all we have, please try to share that with Henry. Wherever you may find it."
I nod and get up to walk off to class before she can say more, but force a smile and nod before I run off. I end up cutting class halfway through the day and thankfully Henry has been such a flight risk lately that no one thinks twice about me leaving early. As I approach Mom's office I can hear a chainsaw and two people screaming so I begin to run around the building to the back courtyard where Mom is yelling at Emma as Emma holds a chainsaw next to Mom's precious apple tree. Emma is screaming about how Regina framed her and then she storms away. Regina looks so full of anger and for a second, I think Henry's Evil Queen theory is getting to my head. Mom finally sees me across the yard and if looks could kill, I'd be dead, "Why aren't you in school!"
"I just… it's been a lot in the last few days." I mumble, "I came to see you."
Mom's face instantly softens, she even looks sad for just a moment, "Why?"
"Did you actually have her framed?"
"Of course not, Isabella." She looks so angry again. "You're not thinking Henry's book is real and I'm an Evil Queen too, are you?"
"No!" I feel terrible for even mentioning it, "I think Emma being here is just messing me up. I'm sorry."
"Maybe you should go get some rest." Mom mutters as the sheriff walks up and she turns her attention to him.
I nod and head home where I spend time in Henry's room, the book is back here so I assume Mom must have calmed down and put it back. I flick through the pages and it's the same fairy tales people have always known, but these ones feel different and the pictures look too real and even I have to admit that reading Snow White and Prince Charming's love story seems hopeful. I get why Henry is clinging to it, it makes things a little easier if you believe that everything is for a bigger purpose. For just a minute, I wonder if I pretend Emma gave us up for a good reason, would I want her to stay here too? Before I fully realize what I'm doing or where I'm going, I'm walking downtown, feeling compelled to continue moving forward. I knock and try to count to five before I knock again but I suddenly feel like I can't wait any longer and continuously knock until Mary Margaret opens the door and is clearly shocked to see me there, "Let me make another cup of cocoa."
"Izzy?" Emma is sitting at the kitchen table, clearly I interrupted something.
"Sorry, I…" Why was I here? "I… I want to… I want to get to know you too. If that's okay."
Emma and Mary Margaret look at each other and then both give me sad looks.
"Oh," I step back, suddenly embarrassed, "You're leaving again, aren't you?"
"Izzy, I…"
Something in me wants to run, and at the same time I suddenly feel hot and like I might explode again but also feel like something is pushing me forward, further into the apartment and towards Emma, "Look, Henry's book, it gives him hope. So can't we play along, just so we can get to know you?" I can't outwardly admit that I want Emma to stay for me, "But only if you can fix things with Henry. I heard about what happened, you need to tell him he's not crazy. I'm going home now… but I hope you stay."
I can't imagine how angry my mom would be if she knew where I was or that I was the one who begged Emma to stay and I'm still not convinced that I want Emma to but I quickly turn and walk out the door and downtown before I can say anything to change my mind. I don't know what suddenly made me go to Emma, but I know I just want Henry to be happy, and I'll do anything to get that.
