"Aunt Leslie?"

I place the dirty plates in the sink, maneuvering around the other maids to stand in front of my aunt who is helping prepare King Maurice's dinner.

She wipes the wet knife on a towel without looking up at me. "Yes, dear?"

I wait until her cooking accomplice leaves in search of the salt, and lean over the counter toward my aunt. "Can I ask you something?"

She nods, shoving the pale turkey into the fiery oven.

I glance around the kitchen, watching as most of the maids clear out to set the king's table. I proceed without hesitation. "Who is my father?"

Leslie jerks around, her dark eyes sparkling with despair.

I press on, ignoring the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. "I know he's still alive. Who is he?"

One of the newest maids trips over the folds of her dress, the plate she's carrying shattering as it smashes against the ground. Furious and startled responses are thrown at the poor maid. Neither my aunt or I flinch, our gazes locked.

Leslie shakily sets her dish towel on the counter, toying with the amethyst embedded necklace she never takes off. "I always knew this day was coming." She smiles slightly, tears dotting the corners of her eyes. "I just wasn't ready for it to happen so soon." She sways around the counter, reaching her hand out for mine. "Come."

I place my soft hand in her callused one, letting her steer me out of the bustling kitchen. I'm too anxious to worry about the king learning that we left out positions during work.

Leslie and I walk into the courtyard, which is flooding with pink and purple sun rays as the night sets in. Flowers blossom in the spring air, birds chirping sleepily in the distance. Leslie settles down on a concrete bench overlooking a bursting fountains. A couple of water sprites dances in the air around the spurting water.

Leslie smiles at them as I place myself down next to her. I patiently wait for her to begin.

"Your mother, Merriam, always dreamed of falling in love." She starts, folding her hands in her lap. "When she met your father, she thought for sure he was the one she was meant to be with forever." She pauses, gazing at the stars beginning to shimmer in the sky. "They got married almost instantly. But barely three year later, the ogres invaded, and you're father was sent off to war. You're mother was afraid to lose him in the battle, though she honored him for his bravery."

I stare at her, silently urging her to go on.

"But he wasn't as brave as she thought." Leslie's tone dropped. "He selfishly left the wars. He was known as the 'Man who Ran'. Merriam couldn't bare the sight of him. She left him, without..." She trails off, unable to push forward with the story.

I drop my gaze, a theory burning in my mind. "Without telling him she was pregnant with me?"

She nods solemnly, resting her hand on my shoulder sympathetically. "She was too weak from her pregnancy to get very far. By the time she found me, there was nothing more we could do for her." A single tear slides down her cheek, slipping into the fabric of her dress. She caresses the her necklace, unlatching it and letting it fall into her palm. "She gave me this right before she died. But I want you to have it."

I study the purple gems lining the silver chain, both sadness and happiness radiating from me at the little trinket of my mother's. Leslie shifts to secure it around my neck.

When the lock snaps into place, her body droops, exhaustion clearly shown on her fallen face.

I desperately want her to continue with the story, but I ask a simple question to raise the mood. "Was I an only child?"

Leslie smirks ever so slightly. "No. You had an older brother."

"I did?"

"Yeah. His name was Baelfire."

I smile at the name. "Do you know where he is?" The question is farfetched, but I am curious nonetheless.

My aunt's smile fades. "I do." She sighs, wringing her fingers again. "You're father loved him very, very much. When Baelfire's life was endangered, you're father did something very evil, thinking he could save his son." There is an eerie silence for a moment before her chilling words fill the twilight sky. "He became the Dark One."

I swallow, my blood running cold. It's true, then. Rumplestilskin is my father.

Leslie doesn't acknowledge me, lost in her own, gruesome world. "Bae knew there was a change in your father that could not be reversed with magic. He plotted with the Blue Fairy, hoping to get him to a land without magic, where he could harm no one. But it didn't work. Bae was lost into another world, while Rumplestilskin cowardly stayed behind." She spits with a sense of venom and hatred.

"How do you know all this?" I whisper.

"The Blue Fairy told me." Leslie responds, less deflated. "It's been our secret for years."

I shake my head, watching as the water sprites giddily dive in and out of the cascading fountain water. A new feeling is sprouting in me, one I have only ever felt for Leslie. Love... For my family. I feel love for the brave way my mother trekked to find her sister. I feel love for my lost and forgotten brother. And, surprisingly, I feel love for my father. Dark One or not, he is a parent and a husband who has lost the two people who matter most of him. Little does he knows, there is a third.

I bolt to my feet, facing Leslie with new determination. "I need to find him! He needs to know the truth!"

Leslie also rises to her feet, horror-stricken. "Evangeline, you can't! Rumplestilskin is not your father anymore! He is a dark, twisted man who is hurting your best friend!" She grabs my hands in hers. "Think of Ella!"

I groan, unwilling to accept defeat, but also unwilling to hurt my friend. "Maybe I can talk him out of it. I can get him to leave Ella and the baby alone!"

She raises her thin eyebrows. "Ev, you haven't heard?"

My heart drops. "Heard what?"

"The fairies and the dwarfs have devised a new plan! Ella is going to act out the part of having twins and try to strike a new deal with him. She is going to get him to sign a contract with an enchanted quill, which will hold him long enough for us to imprison him in the dwarf mines!"

My breath comes out as rapid and slow. I can't find the will to speak.

"We're finally going to end his treachery!" She finalizes.

I run.

I run past the maids, servants, guards, not caring who thinks its suspicious.

I run across the illuminated courtyard, flooded with dawn light from the rising sun.

Adrenaline pumps in my veins, urging me to run faster, faster than I ever have before.

As the sables come into view, the thought process in my mind increases dramatically. I don't know exactly what I'm doing... I am going to head over to Ella's kingdom; but for what? To tell Ella to leave my father alone? Or to tell Rumplestilskin not to take the quill pen from her?

I shake my head as I clamber onto a black and gray steed. The journey across the realm takes a least a day. I'm hoping to get to her castle before night falls. That should leave me enough time to think about who's side I'm taking on the issue.

But as I tear from the stables, my horse galloping across vast grasslands and whispering forests, my brain won't focus. I'm torn between the girl I trust with my life, and the twisted man who shows no knowledge of his missing daughter.

I know Ella doesn't deserve what he's charging her with. No one deserves to have their firstborn taken from them. He of all people should know. And yet, he also doesn't deserve to live his dark and tormented life. He lost his wife and son, and for what? It only seems fair to me that he learns the truth about his wife's second pregnancy.

Darkness folds on the kingdom by the time I reach Ella's castle. The guards usher me though without a word, already knowing me as the princess's best friend. I hand the reins of my horse over to the stables, trudging along the grand gardens stretching out before me. Leslie told me this is where Ella plans on meeting with Rumplestilskin to strike the new deal.

She isn't around when I arrive. In fact, no one is. The place is completely barren.

In spite of the spring season, the night is somewhat cold. I wrap my dark purple coat around my shoulders, shivering in the darkness. A bush beside me rustles as a crow flaps out, cawing into the night. It's almost an eerie sensation, being out here alone in the dark.

But nothing chills me to the bone more than the high, maniacal voice that speaks behind me.

"Looking for me, dearie?"