The marriage breaks

Disclaimer: All characters are original to the Once Upon a Time Series. The physical characteristics of the characters in the story are the same as those in the series, but the stories and development of the characters are my own.

This is the edited re-release of this story. Hope you like.

Part One: The damage

It was 4 o'clock in the morning and Robin still had not come home. That behavior had become routine for him. He left the law firm, Mills & Locksley LLP, and he went to celebrate with his co-workers. Meanwhile, she was at home like a perfect mother and housewife.

Regina had met Robin six years ago. She had fallen in love with that important lawyer. He was a widower, and he had a small two-year-old son back then. The chemistry between Regina and Robin was strong, and she also managed to win the affection of the little boy too.

A year after they met, she was already Roland's mother, and it was evident that Robin and Regina loved each other enough to get married. They get married in the spring, in a beautiful ceremony on the shores of a lake, in the Mills family's fancy farmhouse.

Everyone knew that they were a wonderful couple. No one could doubt the love they had. Therefore, it was for two years, until Regina's fertility problems became evident. Robin was too excited to be a father again, but Regina was even more excited. She wanted to materialize the love they had, but that couldn't happen.

Regina had been very sensitive, both because of the impossibility of having children, and because of the treatments and hormones provided. She cried almost all the time in solitude. She tried not to neglect her work, in her father's company, or neglect Roland. Robin was aware of this situation, but there was little he could do.

Soon, Regina would stop working to dedicate herself to taking care of the home and Robin's son. The attempts to be a mother made their relationship monotonous and Robin was less concerned about being a father. Over time, Regina resigned and felt Robin's indifference about her pain.

The morning conversations were about Roland, some event in Robin's office, or some social meeting they should attend.

"Saturday is my parents' anniversary party". Regina commented something melancholy. "I don't know what I could give them, but I think that this trip to Bora Bora could be a good idea". She finished preparing Roland's lunch box.

"As you wish..." He was not paying much attention to her. Robin was putting his tie in front of the mirror in the living room, while he watched the news on TV.

"Well, I remind you that, if you go to any date, lunch, or golf, please be here by six at the latest, to prepare for the party. Also, you must remember that today is the meeting at Roland's school at night". Instinctively she went and finished arranging the tie. "I already made you coffee and French toast". She turned to the stairs and yelled at the little boy to come down. "Roland you're going to be late..."

"Again... He is going to be late again! ... But all this is your fault, Regina. If you hadn't let him watch TV until late". He reproached her while he sat at the kitchen counter for breakfast.

"We are not going to start arguing again Robin. He wanted to accompany me, and he just stayed in bed with me, because he fell asleep supposedly keeping me company". She was still doing her homework; she was serving breakfast to little Roland.

"You're spoiling him, Regina. He can't be under your skirt all the time". He was still in his know-it-all pose.

"He is not!" She turned and took a deep breath. "Roland is not under my skirt. He is a very sensitive child, and he wants to defend his mother. That's it!"

"Do you see it? That is the attitude that has it wrong. That's why he has problems at school and doesn't know how to defend himself". He finished eating his breakfast, while he leafed through the newspaper, talking without looking at his wife.

"Not that..." Again, she was breathing deeply. "That's not true, Robin. Maybe you would understand more about what happens with our son, if you were more at home and you behave like his father from time to time". She was upset. It could not be that Robin was behaving that way, talking to her like that.

"He knows that I have to work. Or… who is going to take care of you? Who is going to give you the life that you are used to?" He put on his suit jacket, and he took his briefcase.

"Don't put that as an excuse. You know that I have my money". She was annoyed because he was taking an irrational defensive attitude. "I take care of Roland every day, I listen to him, and I give him love. That is also important Robin".

"Don't take that attitude either Regina, that you are not her mother after all!". He opened the door, and he slammed the door leaving the apartment and leaving the brunette with the word in her mouth.

You are not her mother after all. Those were the last words of her husband, which were echoing in the brunette's head, making her feel bad. She returned to the kitchen automatically and while she was drowning her tears, she started washing the dishes. The eight-year-old Roland went down the stairs and hugged his mother. The boy had not realized the state of his mother. She returned the hug without stopping doing what she was doing.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I hope my dad didn't bother you with me, because of me. Is that yesterday I had many nightmares again". The boy was sad, and he played with his breakfast while he ate it.

"No baby. Your dad is not upset with you". She wiped away her tears quickly trying to hide. She dried her hands on the kitchen rag, and she went to hug her little one. "You are a very good boy. All mothers would like to have a son as good as mine". She took the child's cheeks with her hands, and she kissed him on the forehead. "Because you are my little…"

"Why are you sad, mom?" Roland had realized that something was happening to his mother. "Did my dad tell you ugly things again?"

"No, my love! Your dad never tells me ugly things... Where do you get that?". She adjusted the boy's hair, and she adjusted his uniform shirt. "It's just that mom has some allergies. That's all!"

"I'm sorry mom!" She could try to hide the truth from the child, but he had heard more than one fight between his parents. In these, his father always ended up offending his mother.

"Oh, come on! Remember that this afternoon we will have lunch outside, wherever you want my love. Until we see dad in the afternoon for the parents' meeting... He sure takes us to dinner in a beautiful place". She smiled at him and finished getting ready to tell Roland to go to school.

The little boy shrugged and smiled, and he said nothing more. He finished breakfast and took his backpack and his lunch box. He was really quiet all the way, while his mother tried to make jokes and she talked about the traffic and the mothers of his classmates.

The boy gave a strong hug to his mother and got out of the car with his stuff. Before the boy closed the car door, he said to his mother in a serene tone:

"He will not come!" And the boy closed the back door of his mother's truck.

Regina was paralyzed at the affirmation of her young son. It seemed that, like her, Roland was certain that his father did not love him, or at least he did not care about him. The car's horns in the row took her out of her thoughts.

She did not cry all the way home. She just could not. She was so hurt at that moment. To think that Roland was suffering made her fall apart. In fact, her life had become hell, but she did not understand at what point she had pulled her son into that hell. She does not forgive herself.

She crossed paths with her neighbor, the bachelor of the lower level. He greeted her kindly, but she barely responded with a half-smile and a nod of her head. She was in another world, a world of suffering in which it seemed that she had settled.

"Regina, are you okay?" David said, noticing that his neighbor was distracted.

"What? Ah... Yes, yes... Of course, I'm fine David, thank you". She smiled sweetly and got into the elevator.

She arrived at the luxurious three-level apartment and closed the door, leaned against this sighing. She placed her keys in the usual place, she took off her shoes and she climbed the stairs to her room. Regina She began to prepare what she was going to wear: An elegant black dress, semitransparent, with small flowers. Matching black heels. She would look beautiful and dedicated to her son.

Later in the shower, she collapsed. The brunette fell on the floor of the shower, crying with intensity. She could not believe that she was so unhappy loving Robin as much as she loved him. She was feeling that way for a while now. Hours passed and Regina was able to calm herself. She took a nap, straightened her hair, she put on makeup, and she got dressed. Regina looked amazing in those clothes. She turned to see the bedside table where there was a picture of Robin and her, where she had just the same dress.

"What happened to us?" She tried not to get sad again and she kept fixing her makeup. Regina remained looking at herself in the mirror sighing, and she continued with what she was doing. When she was ready, she went to look for Roland at school.

"Mom, you look very beautiful". Little Roland smiled at her, and his dimples made him look adorable.

"Aww... Thanks my little man!" She kissed her son and continued her way. "What do you think about going to that pizza place that has a big park? That place you like a lot..."

"Yes mom, yes!" The boy seemed very excited.

They went to that place, made especially for the children to have fun and the parents to relax. They ate and then Roland went to play. Meanwhile, she wrote to her husband to remind him of the meeting they had that Friday night, but she never got an answer from him.

Regina had written text messages to Robin, but Robin seemed not to have read them. She did not used to bother him, because she knew that her husband was a very busy man. In that instant, a familiar voice brought her to reality:

"Regina? What a surprise!" The man said smiling to the brunette.

"David!" She got up immediately adjusting her clothes. "Yes, what a surprise! Is that your daughter?" She observed the girl who seemed familiar to her. She bent down slightly to see the little blonde. "Hi little girl!"

"Yes Regina, she is my daughter Emma. Emma, this is Mrs. Regina, my new neighbor. Say hello to her" The gentleman said, pushing the little one lightly in the back, so that she would greet the woman.

"Hi Regina!" She held out her small hand and she smiled at her.

"Emma! Mrs. Regina it is said... And it is also said that it is a pleasure to meet you". He was a little sorry. "Excuse me Regina, my daughter Emma is not shy at all".

"Relax, David". She smiled relaxed. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Emma". She returned the gesture to the girl. "Don't worry. My son, on the other hand, is very shy. There he is, playing with the air guns". She pointed in the distance to her little son.

"You are Roland's mother?" The little girl said.

"Emma, manners please". David said warningly.

"Nothing happened, David. However, how is it that you know my son?" She smiled at the blonde and stroked her head. She was curious.

"We go to the same school. He and I are in the same course, and he is very kind to me... As I am the new girl". Emma said and then turned to see her father. "Can I go to play with him dad? Please, please, please!" She made a gesture of begging with her little hands.

"Of course, you can!" He laughed watching his daughter run to where her little neighbor was. "She is so dramatic". Now he was smiling when he saw Regina. "That she took it from her mother". He laughed sadly. "God, it is a surprise. I imagine that at night we are going to the same meeting at school..."

" In fact, that's how it is!" She also smiled at him. With a wave of her hand, she invited him to share the table. "I didn't know you were married". She cleared her throat. "Excuse me if I look a bit nosy, it's just that, I usually just talk with mothers or with my son…"

"It's okay!" He smiled at her charmingly. "I was married!"

"Oh!" She was intrigued. "And what happened?" She took a sip of her soda. "Excuse me... I'm curious, especially if it's the father of Roland's new best friend".

"Ha, ha, ha... I told you it is fine Regina. No problem... Well, she found a doctor who gave her the love that I did not... Or that's what I want to believe". He smiled and shrugged.

"Surely, you had found many women who fulfilled the same function before". She smiled at him with malice and disbelief. "Excuse me; it's not my intention to judge you..." Regina had lost faith in men and that was evident.

"Why don't you think that somebody can be unfaithful to a man without this one having struck the first blow?" He seemed funny answering Regina, not upset. He saw her shrug and drink from her glass. "Well, it wasn't like that. I just became obsessed with work and neglected her and Emma for a while. When I wanted to fix the situation, it was too late". He turned to see his daughter play. "Fortunately, it wasn't too late to be close to my daughter and receive her love." Now he saw the woman with sweetness.

"Wow! How sweet of you!" She felt that he was honest, but she was very hurt so she would not believe so easily in someone she barely knew. "At least you take care of your daughter, which is important!"

"And..." He hesitated a few seconds whether he should ask her or not. "I also have curiosity…"

She smiled wickedly, and she turning to see Roland briefly. "Shoot cowboy!"

" What has happened to you that has made you doubt everyone and everything?" Now he was serious. He really liked Regina from the first time he saw her in the supermarket near the building where they lived, or from the day, that he realized that beautiful dark-eyed brunette was his neighbor.

She wasn't bothered by David's question. It had been four years of loneliness and pretending happiness. Four years of silence. "Let's say I've been unlucky and have been lied to enough to know what's true and what's a lie". She looked at him intensely, smiled at him in a sarcastic way, and then returned to watch her son playing on the machines.

He watched her carefully. No doubt, there was pain in her words. It was a pity that such a woman, who looked like an excellent mother, as well as being a spectacularly beautiful lady, was maltreated and neglected by her husband.

"Your husband is lawyer Locksley, isn't he?" He had seen him in the common places of the building, and he looked like a bore.

"Yes, he is my husband…" She claimed, trying to look neutral.

"He is a lawyer. Then it's your fault. You should know that lawyers always lie". He said it without malice and in the most natural way.

"Do you know that I am also a lawyer?" Regina stared at him stunned. He was quite right, even if that was just a joke. She saw the man turn pale and blush at the same time. "That´s okay David! But let's soften the topics, we seem like two talkative old men. "She was joking with him now. "Do you have your daughter this weekend?"

They continued talking as if nothing. He told her how his ex-wife had moved to the city for his good luck. Now he could be with his daughter every other week. That is how Regina and David spent their afternoon until it was time to leave, and then they met again at the entrance of the school.

David's ex-wife was waiting for him, along with her new husband. She could not stop looking from time to time, while the parents of Roland's friends talked to her. Robin did not answer her calls. Parents and third grade children were formed, and Regina waited to be the last. Her husband did not show signs of life. She could only repeat in her mind the words of her little one: He would not come!

She went out for a moment to the main entrance, to leave a voice message for her husband. She asked her son to wait for her sitting quietly, keeping her father's empty space. She heard the answering machine again.

"Please Robin. Don't do this to me! Don't do this to your son! You promised him that you would come to his meeting, and he really wants to believe in you, he wants to believe in his father. Please... Robin, I beg you! Don't do this for me, or because I am in the middle. Do it for your son..." The sound of the end of time for the message interrupted her in her plea. "Shit!" She whispered, trying to hold back her tears. She put her hands on her waist and walked towards the garden.

"He will not come... Right?" He said approaching her.

The man's voice made her scared and turn suddenly. She saw him with surprise and then with something of shame. She looked away from the man and she nodded with regret.

"No. He will not come. But… it is about his son David, that he is going through a situation in which he needs a father figure..." She looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I know! Emma told me that a boy named Peter bullied him and he is always bothering him. Emma defended him yesterday. She thinks she's the savior!" He came closer to her smiling. He took her by the arms and spoke to her with total honesty. "Do you want me to attend the meeting with you? Just so Roland feels a little support".

"Would you do that for my son?" She was shocked by David's kindness. "I don't want to cause you problems". She had a couple of months greeting him in the hallways or talking about frivolous things in the gymnasium of the building.

"Please, Regina! It would be a pleasure for me". He offered her his handkerchief and saw her wipe away tears. "I'm not Roland's father, but I'm a father, and I know what's important. Let me help you!"

She looked at him for a couple of seconds, stunned. That man was lovely, really was. She couldn't stop getting lost in his blue eyes. Those eyes that told her the truth. Then she gave him a small and chaste kiss on the lips and answered him:

"Help me, David!" She took him by the hand, and she thanked him with a look in her eyes. Then she released him and walked inside the school.

He was in shock from the kiss. He smiled pleased as he turned to watch her walk away. Of course, he would help her and if it was in his hands, he would make her take a long vacation from her marriage. Maybe a forever one.

To be continue...