Regina was sitting cross-legged on her bed at Granny's, holding the shoebox against her. She had told Mal that all she wanted was to be happy. And she holding that happiness in her hands. Or at least, the dream of a seventeen-year-old before she had been forced to marry a man three times her age.
Regina laid the box on the bed in front of her and opened it ceremoniously. She was greeted by a young girl smiling for the camera, holding on to the man that had taken her to his prom. The man she had dreamt of marrying one day. Her father had taken the picture of the two lovers on that special night. Her mother had been out of town on business and Henry Mills had done everything in his power to let his little girl have a fun night. It would be her last. Regina had been married to Leopold within a month after her mother's "business trip".
Regina ran her fingertips over Daniel's smiling face. She had done so many times over the past decade and a half that she had worn the picture out. She put it back in the box and carefully took her prom ticket out, the only evidence that once she had a semblance of a normal life. Daniel had been recognized for his charity work that night. After graduation, he had planned to spend a year with habitat for humanity before going to a community college where Regina could join him once she had finished high school. She never had. Regina didn't even possess a high school diploma. How was she supposed to find a job and support herself without one?
Shortly after her marriage, Regina had begged Leopold to let her finish high school in Storybrooke but the man had refused. She had then secretly enrolled in long-distance courses but once Leopold had discovered her deception, she had received one of the most severe beatings he had ever inflicted on his wife. He had yelled at her that a woman's place was in the kitchen and in her husband's bed and that she should learn that role instead of trigonometry. Regina had never opened a textbook again in her life after that night. Instead she had enrolled in cooking classes at the town's community college.
With a sob, Regina placed the yellowed ticket back in the box and grabbed the last item: a small golden chain with a tree of life pendant. Daniel had gifted it to her on their last night together as a promise of eternal love. This was the only item she had left of him, the only one that Leopold had not been able to destroy.
Regina jumped at the knock on her door. "May I come in?", David asked. Regina scrambled to put the content back in the box and hid it behind her.
"Come in!" She answered, while wiping her tears away.
David entered, carrying a lunch tray for Regina. "Granny made…" He stopped in his tracks when he saw Regina's red eyes and the dried tears on her face. "Are you ok?"
Regina nodded quickly, suppressing another sob. How could she ever be ok? David placed the tray on the desk and sat down on the edge of the bed near Regina. As soon as he was close to her, the brunette collapsed in his arms. She was tired of fighting. She had dreamt of getting away from Leopold during their marriage but her dreams never included being alone in a room with nowhere to go. No, in her imagination, Daniel would come for her and they would leave Storybrooke behind to live their happily ever after.
But even back then, she knew her happily ever after would never come. During her first year of marriage, she had managed to sneak out to send letters to Daniel to tell him where she was and to come rescue her. He never came. Instead, her mother had arrived for a surprise visit. Once Cora had been alone with her daughter, she had given the letters back to Regina. Apparently, Daniel's mother had never given them to him. Her son's heart had been sufficiently broken. He didn't need anything more from the girl who chose wealth over love.
Of course, her mother must have left out the part where she had forced her daughter into the marriage. After all, Regina had been only seventeen at the time, three months short of her eighteenth birthday. Her mother had married her without her consent.
Five years later, Regina had learned that Daniel had married a woman he had met during his year with habitat for humanity. They had gone to college together and had exchanged their vows after graduation. They ended up having three children together. Regina often wondered what had happened to them. Were they happy? Did Daniel still remember her fondly? Did he ever think about her at all?
Her tears were freely falling down her cheeks. She hadn't even noticed that she had started to cry. "Regina?" David called out softly. "What's wrong?"
What was wrong? Regina didn't even know where to start. Her entire life was wrong! So she chose to tell her story from the beginning. "Mother came back from a business trip to New York and told me to pack my bags, that I was going to Maine. I fought with her but I had no say in the matter. I tried to run away but she caught me and essentially locked me up in my room until my future husband arrived."
"As soon as I saw Leopold, I begged my mother not to make me marry him but she didn't listen. See, she and Leopold had a business deal. My father's company was going under and unless a hefty amount of money could be invested back into the business, my father would have to declare bankruptcy. We would have to sell our mansion in the center of Boston and move into a small apartment. We would lose everything and for my mother, it was unacceptable."
Regina sat up straight on the bed to face David. "She was born poor and her own father often chose the bottle over food for the family. My mother had to learn to fend for herself when she was very young and she swore then that she would never be a commoner again." Regina used the same disdain as her mother had when pronouncing the word.
"Leopold had just lost his wife and he needed a mother for his young girl." David's mouth dropped open in shock before Regina pronounced the last words. "My mother promised him my hand in exchange for a substantial investment into the family business."
David was at a loss for words. How could a mother be so cruel toward her own child? "Your father…" David started, his mind reeling with the implications of what Regina had just told him.
"Daddy loved me… but in the end, he always did as my mother ordered." Regina didn't want to talk about her father. She had never blamed him for her situation. She loved him too much for that.
"Regina… I..." David shrugged. "I don't even know what to say."
Regina snorted. "Mary-Margaret doesn't know." She reassured. "She was only ten at the time and had just lost her mother. She was a brat but I couldn't really blame her." At least not yet, the brunette added silently.
"But surely, she must have been surprised that her father brought back a complete stranger!"
"She had nannies. Actually, nannies were all she knew. Eva had been sick for most of Snow's life. She probably thought I was just the new nanny who would take care of her. When she grew older, she never questioned her father. She worshipped him and Leopold made sure that it would stay that way." Regina looked down at her hands. "I hate her, David. I know you love her and that she is your wife. I know she is also a victim in Leopold's game but I can't look at her and not hate her for existing. If she hadn't been in the picture, Leopold would not have needed a new wife. I know it makes me a bad person but I just can't…"
David slipped his hand in-between Regina's. "Regina, I can't begin to imagine what you went through. I know you hate Snow. That much has been cleared to me since the day I've met you. But you and I both know that she is the only person that you can blame and hate easily. Despite what your parents have done to you, you love them because they are your parents. You can't hate them so you directed that rage toward Snow. I don't blame you but you can't keep this bottled up inside. It will destroy you!" David rubbed the back of Regina's hand. "Don't get me wrong, Snow and I have a share of the blame here too. She knew what he did to you but said nothing. You were showing all the signs of domestic abuse but I didn't notice. I was too preoccupied to please my father-in-law to notice your cry for help. And for that, I'm truly sorry." He swallowed hard. "I'm not telling you to stop blaming me or Snow for what happened to you. But I'm asking you to consider talking to someone about it. Someone who can help you move on…"
"You want to send me to shrink." Regina pulled away from David.
"Regina…" He was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.
"Girl, David forgot the apple sauce." Granny's booming voice resonated through the deadly silent room. Regina was looking at David with contempt. How could she have been so naive? He wasn't here to help her; he was here to make sure his dear wife wouldn't suffer. David seized Regina up in turn. He had never seen so much unbridled anger before. Regina was about to explode. He didn't blame her but he also knew that Mary-Margaret wasn't safe.
When Granny walked into the room, she immediately felt the tension in the air. As she looked in-between Regina and David, she understood that a turning point in their relationship had been reached. Soon, there would be sides to pick and a battle to be raged. David would be in the middle of this conflict and the side he chose would shape the destiny of the woman on the bed.