Regina was at her wit's end. She had nothing, nothing. Glass had spent weeks going through everything and anything that he could get his hands on and yet had found nothing she could use to strike against Gold. Professor Glass was no longer useful to her and so like with everything that held no value to her, she had thrown him back to the small, dark lecturer hall he had come from. To teach a load of students that thought he was as useless as she did. Good riddance she had thought, you want something done you have to do it yourself. Regina's mother had drilled that into her and in a way she was thankful for it, if she did things herself she knew that everything had been done right.
Regina leaned back in the leather chair, taking a deep breath she eased her tension. Her 'skimming' of the top of the college fund had slowed since she had learned of Gold's possible knowledge, but not ceased. Dean Mills enjoyed her lifestyle far too much for that. Nothing new had come up with young Miss French, although she had noticed the glow that Belle had taken on in the last few weeks that puzzled her, but she had more important things to worry about. Things like how to destroy him once and for all. All the years she had tried and Belle French was her only chance, with Glass finding fuck all she could use Regina was forced to create something. She let out a sigh, her creative juices were not flowing at full speed.
The raven haired woman stood and left her office in favour of walking the college halls, they were quiet with the odd student meandering through, moving slightly faster when they saw her. Golden sun streamed through the skylights like a mysterious beam from some alien craft, when she had taken over as Dean she had insisted that the halls were re-painted in a soft green destroying the hideous peach that Dean Leopold had favoured. She wanted nothing left of him, he had ruled the college with kindness and care, Regina ran it with fear and subtle threats. She rounded the hall to the left, the only sound being her heels clicking as she walked. At the end of the long hallway she found the black double doors that led down to Gold's lecture hall, she looked through the glass. He stood at the front by his desk with a sketch of what she assumed was supposed to be Frankenstein talking away like Belle wasn't sat in the front row. Gold was good, he had covered his tracks well when it came to his want for the young girl, but he could never fully hide it, not from Regina.
Dean Mills' hatred for Gold had gone far beyond his ability to expose her, she wanted him to suffer, to be in pain, to have nothing, to destroy everything that had even the chance to make him happy. I will destroy your happiness, if it the last thing I do. Regina would beat him down until she could squish him under her three hundred-dollar heels. Hear that satisfying crunch as bones broke.
Just as she was about to return to her office and indulge in one of the apples from her beloved childhood tree, she saw it, the bruise on Belle's eye. Pale only just beginning to show. Regina smiled.
"Oh, now I can use that."