5
Over the next several weeks, Regina's nights continued in this manner. Some nights the king would visit her and others she would lie awake in fear that the king would come for her. She spent her days entertaining Snow and she saw less and less of her father. She figured that he was spending more time in the tavern due to the death of his wife. The healer continued to visit her and hid all the abuse from the night before so she could appear in court.
One evening at dinner, when the majority of the guests were drunk or leaving, Snow asked, "Regina, where is your father, Lord Henry?" Regina replied, "I do not know. I…have not seen much of my father these past few weeks." Snow merely nodded and pursed her lips. "It seems odd that he should suddenly disappear after the death of his wife." At this King Leopold looked toward his daughter as an idea popped into his head.
The next day in court as the King and Regina sat on their thrones, the Kingsguard came in dragging her father in chains. Regina yelled, "Father!" and jumped from her throne and ran to her father.
The king sat back and smiled as one of the guards announced, "We have caught the murderer, Your Grace." Regina gasped in horror and softly uttered, "Murderer?" Her father looked at her with pleading eyes and said, "Regina, I didn't." Regina felt the air rush from her lungs as her heart sank. "I know you didn't, Father", she whispered softly.
The king rose from his throne and stepped off the dais. As the king made his way down the steps he said, "Lord Henry you have been found guilty of the murder of your wife, Lady Cora…How do you plead?"
Henry looked as his daughter then raised his head proudly and replied, "Not guilty."
The king looked at his bold defiance as said, "Of course that's how you plead." Then the king looked at his guards and commanded, "Take him away." Leopold watched as Regina sank to her knees in despair at the sight of her father being taken away to whatever cruel fate the king surely had waiting for him.
Daniel never saw his captor. He didn't know where he was. He wasn't aware of anything, save the torture that he witnessed in the mirror over the past few weeks. He watched as the king raped his beloved. And he watched as Regina lay awake in fear of the king's wrath every night. And finally he saw the king finally break the woman he loved by blaming the death of her mother on her father. His heart was cold and filled with rage for the things he had witnessed. The mirror was the only thing he had these past several weeks. It had provided the only piece of Regina that kept him surviving and it had given him a thirst for revenge.