A/N: Thank you all, first off, for being so patient in waiting for this update. I was absent for a few days due to falling a little under the weather. But I'm much better now, and happy to be writing again. I plan to finish all I have to finish and plan on posting a new story once it is completed so that I won't have you all waiting for updates. Except for this story and the rest that I have. A big revelation becomes a part of this chapter that I think would have been an easy guess, but half of it will hopefully shock you. Let me know in the comment section down below what you think! :) Happy reading and stay tuned for more.

Chapter 31: A Long Kept Secret

Robin's eyes looked at his phone screen before looking up at the passenger door that was pulled open by Killian. Zelena came into view as she sat beside him, her make-up smeared from crying. "About time," he tucked his phone inside his jacket pocket. "Let's hurry this along, Jones. I have a busy day today."

Killian shut the passenger door and mounted the driver's seat, starting up the car.

Robin met with Zelena's puffy, blue eyes, showing no emotion what-so-ever. "Don't look at this as the end of the world, Zelena. It's for the best. You know that."

"How can you be so cruel? Toward your own child?" Zelena glared, protectively placing her two hands along her flat stomach.

Robin exhaled calmly, "If this is about you being a mother, relax. You can have more children in the near future."

"This is about you being so cold, Robin!" Zelena seethes. "It's just a baby for crying out loud!" She cries, tears running down her cheeks.

"Not yet." Robin shakes his head. "It's merely a little speck inside your stomach- trust me- it won't feel a thing." His eyes look out the window for a moment until they find Zelena's again. "You have to understand where I'm coming from, Zelena. Something like this could stain my reputation with my wife."

"But you've always wanted to be a father! That's what I don't get, Robin!" Zelena shouts. "Tell me, what is so different if it's me or Regina carrying it?"

"Don't shout," Robin warned in a calm but icy voice. "And there's a huge difference. It's simple. You want Regina's life, right? You want me, our home, a life with… a child," he motions to her stomach. "Only you aren't getting it. Because you're simply not worth all those things, Zelena. Do you understand that now?"

Zelena looked into Robin's eyes and saw nothing. No emotion. "I am worth it!" She muttered under her trembling breath after a minute's silence.

Robin's head tilts as he meets Zelena's eyes again. As if saying, no, you're really not worth it.

"If Regina was carrying your baby, you wouldn't be doing this to her." Zelena stated what she knew to be already true.

"Zelena," Robin sighs, leaning in until he was able to reach for Zelena's bare knee. He kept it there as she tried to jerk away. "Regina. Is the only one who will bear my children. No one else."

As soon as the vehicle came to a stop, Zelena tried pleading with him again and again. Begging him, crying for him not to do this. She begged Killian to turn the car around and drive her home, promising that she would care for this baby herself. But nothing seemed to get through to Robin or Killian as he stood by, holding the door open.

"Robin… Robin, please, I'm begging you," Zelena cried.

"I have a busy day, Zelena. You best get this over with." Robin looked down at his watch as if this were any other day.

"You're not even going to come with me?" Zelena's eyes grew wide.

"Killian will accompany you. He'll make sure this gets done discreetly."

Seeing as she had no choice or nowhere to run, Zelena hesitantly reached for Killian's hand and exited the car.

"You know what I was thinking?" Lily said, looking around Emma's office as she sat in the chair opposite her desk.

"What?" Emma's hand didn't stop writing along the document in front of her.

"This office could use some color. Don't you think so?" Lily looked at Emma. "The entire building could use some color."

Emma's eyes scanned the office in one quick motion. "It looks fine to me."

Lily chuckled, "Of course you would say that. You love anything my mother loves. But, seriously, Emma, some color would be nice. What do you think about repainting it?"

Emma shifts the pages in her hands, placing them in a neat pile. "I think that decision is entirely up to you, Lily. I'm fine with it the way it is, but if you would like it to have a different touch of color, go for it. It is your company after all."

"Ah-uh, it's our company." Lily lifts a finger. "Don't let my mother hear you speak those words in front of her."

"Fine, fine," Emma smiles, standing from her desk and placing her suit jacket on. "I gotta run. I have to drop these off to Mr. Locksley. You want me to drop you off at your apartment on the way?"

"No, no," Lily stands. "You go. I'll stay here and plan how we are going to repaint this place." She smiled.

"You sure?"

"Of course. Go. Go work. I'll see you later."

Emma gives one last smile before reaching for her briefcase and heading out the door.

"Alright, my little ones. Drink up! We have to get you prepared for the winter that's coming." Mary Margaret tilted her watering can, watching as the water cascaded into the dirt that settled around her pot of daisy's. She smiles so brightly at them as she takes in their white color. "It's a crazy month this time of year and you need to remain strong for me."

David approached cautiously, his eyes wide as his entire body came to a halt once Mary Margaret caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye.

"What are you doing here, David?" Mary Margaret hissed, quickly bending to reach for her plant of daisies which had dropped to the floor. "Now look at what you made me do!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just," David paused. "I heard you talking to your plants and I didn't want to just sneak up on you. Here, let me-"

"No!" Mary Margaret quickly held up a defensive palm, preventing David from helping her in any way. "No, thank you. I am perfectly capable of caring for my own plants." She carefully observed her batch of daisies, which had been unharmed from how quickly she had picked them up from their fall, but the attention she was giving them was more for her. She just didn't want to look at David.

"I'm sorry," he said, bowing his shoulders as he tucked his hands inside of his pants pockets. Mary Margaret had almost forgotten that he was here until he spoke again.

"What do you want, David? To bother me?" She looked at him pointedly. "You know, you aren't supposed to be here."

"I know."

"You can't come around just because we happen to live in the same building."

"I know." His head bowed. "I'm really sorry."

"And don't give me that look," Mary Margaret placed a fist along her hip. "I'm not ordering you around."

"I didn't mean to bother you, and I know that the last person you want to see around here is me," said David. "But… I was just… thinking about when Emma was little and the day she was born."

Mary Margaret stuck her chin out. "And?"

David shifts uncomfortably along his feet, his hands continued to be tucked inside of his pockets. "And you weren't there. When she took her first steps. When her first spoken word was mamma, you weren't there." His blue eyes glossed over as his voice croaked.

"David, I really don't have time for this now, so," Mary Margaret pauses. Her throat bobbing up and down as she swallows thickly. "Please, leave."

"No," David shook his head. "No, I- I have to say this. You need to listen to me."

It is then that Mary Margaret noticed his rugged appearance. The droopy eyes, the way his body would constantly shift as if his body language was trying to say what his dry lips couldn't. His hair was disheveled as if he had been running his hands along to and from it for too long. The way he always did when something was in the back of his mind, like it was behind his glossy eyes. Something that tormented him even after all these years.

"David-" Mary Margaret shook her head. She wasn't doing this. Not now. Not here. And not like this.

"No-" David held up a calloused hand. His eyes begging to be heard. "Mary Margaret, you- you weren't there." His jaw tightens so hard that Mary Margaret can study the fine detail of the man's jawline.

"We can't change the past, David." Said Mary Margaret, holding tears of her own back.

"We can't. But don't you think… that we can change the present? Our future?"

"That's what I did." Mary Margaret nods. "I changed. We both did. I took control of my life the day you decided to change our destiny, remember?"

David's eyes blinked tightly as he withdrew a puff of breath through his nostrils. Of course he remembered. He remembered that day so vividly that it haunted his dreams, even to this day.

"Look, you've obviously thought it would be a good idea to have a drink or two just because you were bored and lonely so," Mary Margaret motions toward the way she knew David would climb up to her roof garden. "See yourself back down."

"Emma, deserves to know." David blurts out as soon as Mary Margaret turns to leave. His eyes look at her pointedly with determination as she turns back around. "She deserves to know."

"Don't you even," Mary Margaret holds her index finger up as she marches three giant steps toward David. "Don't you dare. You aren't thinking straight, David."

"I'm thinking perfectly clear, Mary Margaret."

Mary Margaret sighs, rubbing the side of her temple with her index and middle fingers. "David, what is this? Is this your way to torment me?"

"No. Believe me, the last thing I want is to torment you more than I already did in the past. I've tormented myself over this, over and over."

"Well, good. Keep it that way." Mary Margaret turns back, blinking once David catches up to her, blocking her only way inside of her house. "Get out of my way." She demands.

"No," David shakes his head. This time tears coating his eyes. "Mary Margaret, you have to know how sorry I am. How sorry I've been all these years. But you hurt me, too."

Mary Margaret's brows shot up then, "I hurt you?" Her finger pointed straight to her chest.

"Yes."

"I hurt you? Really? You want to talk about hurt? When it was you," she points a finger directly at David. "Who decided that fighting for what we had wasn't enough. You gave up everything we had because you thought I betrayed you with your brother, when I never once-"

"You did, though!" David accused on a fit of rage. "You slept with him and got yourself pregnant, he told me the whole thing."

"Told you?" Mary Margaret's eyes grow.

"He told me how you showed up that night. How you started out looking for me, but then… you two had drinks and how you…" his eyes shut again.

"Go ahead. Finish what you were going to say." Mary Margaret dared him, suddenly wanting to get this conversation out of the way more than David apparently did. The bravery from the alcohol dying down a little. "You want to know what really happened that night, David? You want to know in vivid detail what your brother did to me that night? And how distraught I felt when you returned and you didn't believe a word of it!" Her voice trembled along with her bottom lip as she spoke.

David listened in horror. A story he already knew too little of, and too late, how his brother out of the kindness of his heart had invited a then younger Mary Margaret over to a party in his penthouse apartment while David had been gone for college. How it was all innocent at first. He had served a drink that unknowingly to her at the time had been drugged, weakening her body and her senses for a night Mary Margaret fought so hard to forget about all these years. And hearing about it all over again from the woman David swore to always love hurt so much more a second time.

"He told you I went there willingly, I got drunk, stupid and careless about my actions. And you believed him." Mary Margaret's eyes shed tears now as she looked accusingly into David's eyes. "You believed them that you left me to fend for myself, pregnant and alone! You-" she shoved him so hard with all of her anger that he jerked back. "You changed our lives! You- your brother- changed everything for me. You knew how your brother was and you still believed every lie that came out of his mouth that day, shutting me out of your life completely."

David's eyes irritated with tears as he continued to listen.

"He took advantage of me that night, again and again until he made sure it was enough." Her lip quivers as her voice finally breaks the silence. "As if that wasn't enough, he then fed lies to your parents- to you- that I had stolen from them. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for my parents to come to know that not only was I branded a thief in their eyes, but that I became pregnant with his child?"

"It was hard for me, too, Mary Margaret." David muttered.

"No, nothing- nothing- was harder on you than it was on me, David!" Mary Margaret shouted this time. "You weren't taken advantage of that night. You weren't the one placed in jail under false pretenses, and you weren't the one carrying a baby inside of you for nine months and then taken away by the state because they saw you as an unfit mother!" Her breath trembled as she drew it in. "I spent ten years of my life behind bars, with the only hope of seeing my little girl again. You know that."

"I did," David nods, his voice more docile than earlier. "And I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry for not believing in you when I should have." His jaw clenches with raw emotion. "I should have believed you, I should have killed my brother for what he did to you. And Emma-"

"Emma is better off." Mary Margaret wipes away at a fallen tear. "She's a grown, beautiful woman that thanks to you and your late wife, I had the pleasure of watching grow. You saved my daughter from being in foster care when you and your wife decided to adopt her as your own, and I will forever thank you for that. I've forgiven you, David, for a long time I forgave you. But that's all."

David is quiet for a moment, until he says, "Helen was a great mother to Emma. But she wasn't you, Mary Margaret."

"Exactly." Mary Margaret sniffs. "She wasn't me. She was kind, sweet and loving to Emma. She was her mother, and I want Emma to keep that with her."

"But you are all those things and more to Emma! And I think it's time-"

"No, David." Mary Margaret speaks an octave higher. "Emma can't know about my being in jail. Especially now. I have no right to torment her perfect life, to torment her mind with doubts about who her real mother is."

"It won't stay hidden forever, Mary Margaret. You know that as well as I do." David said.

And for the first time in years, Mary Margaret nodded in agreement. "But it's not up to you or me to reveal that to her. Not yet. Because the day that Emma knows that she's had her real mother beside her all this, she will come to know who her real father is. And that's a day I am not prepared for."

"Mary Margaret?" both turn to the sound and sight of Regina, surprised to see her standing by the door. Her wide brown eyes let Mary Margaret know that she had just heard everything, if not some of their conversation.

"We're here, sir." Killian announces from the front seat, watching him through the rear view mirror as his attention remained on his phone the entire ride back to Zelena's apartment.

Tucking his phone inside of his suit jacket, Robin gently shakes Zelena awake. "Zelena. Hey," he shakes her again, a little harder this time.

Zelena's eyes take a moment to adjust to her surroundings from inside the vehicle as she wakes. Her body slowly sitting up right.

"Come on, we're here." Said Robin. "You should get inside and get some rest." Zelena watches him in bewilderment as he digs inside of his jacket pocket and holds out a bottle of prescribed medication. "Take this. Don't forget to take it as the doctor indicated. The sooner you do that, the sooner you'll feel better."

"No, Robin. I will never feel better. Not after what forced me to do. But you don't even care, do you? You couldn't give a shit about murdering an innocent child that was your own." Zelena said grimly.

"Zelena," Robin sighed.

"You murdered your own son…" Zelena's voice trembled as her eyes turned red. "Do you realize that? You murdered a baby! Our baby!"

"Stop!" Robin caught both of Zelena's wrists, tightening his grip along her skin, the tip of his fingers biting hard, leaving a trail of bruises in their wake. "That is enough!" He shoves her hands back, straightening his jacket along the way. Zelena's crying is ignored. "I warned you from the very beginning that I did not want any loose ends. I don't like loose ends, Zelena. And that thing growing inside of you was nothing more than a loose end." His eyes pin on Zelena's darkly. "Now, get yourself inside and I remind you, what happened here today, stays between us. Is that clear?"

Zelena doesn't give an answer. Instead she just begins making her way out of the car, forcing Robin to pull her back in, slamming the door back in place. "Are we clear?" He asked again with a more authoritative voice this time.

"Yes." Zelena forced the word through her teeth. Slamming the door back as soon as she was out.

"Killian," Robin's eyes were trained on Zelena. "Go in. See that she takes her medication." At his command, Killian moves, three feet behind Zelena.

"Regina," Mary Margaret breathes, giving off a sudden smile. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to pay you a visit. I was knocking and when you didn't answer I got worried. Then I heard shouting," Regina's eyes shift to David and back to Mary Margaret. "And then…" She pauses. Her mind was still trying to process what she just heard.

"Uh, David was just leaving," Mary Margaret's eyes pin on David's. Her lips thinned into a grim line.

"Right," David muttered. He stopped as he reached Regina, and for the first time since Regina could remember, there was no anger behind his eyes directed at her. "Look, Regina-"

"David." Mary Margaret said firmly. "Please, just go. I think you've caused enough."

"Please, don't mention this to Emma. No matter what you heard." David begged in a low voice before walking past Regina.

Mary Margaret sighed once David left, letting out all of the air from her lungs until they burned. Her eyes trained on Regina's. "Look, Regina… What you heard-"

"So, it's true? Mary Margaret…" Regina walked up a few paces. "You're Emma's mother?"

Mary Margaret blinked, feeling the burn of tears. She didn't need to nod or give any type of response for Regina to know the truth behind the look in the older woman's eyes.

"How are you-? How does Emma not know that-?" Regina can't find the right words.

"That, Regina, is a rather long story." Said Mary Margaret. "One, which, maybe it will help explain as to why I have tried to push you so hard to be honest with Emma and fight for that love that I know is still there." She wipes at a fallen tear.

Two and half cups of tea later, Mary Margaret bared her soul with Regina that day like she hadn't with anyone in such a long time. She told her about her life as a young girl, all the way up to her teen years. How David and her met and fell in love. The future they planned with one another. And how despite the fact that they both once came from wealthy families, they too, were separated by his brother's greed.

"David's brother… He always craved what he couldn't have. And when I was introduced by David into the family, I wasn't any different to him than another one of his trophies that proudly adorned the wall of their library." Mary Margaret forcefully chuckled, shaking her head.

Regina stared at her horrifically, tears running down her eyes. "I'm so sorry, that happened to you, Mary Margaret. No one woman should be taken against her will."

"It is what it is. The only good thing that brought me was to feel the joy of Emma growing inside of me." She smiles. "Of course, after she was taken away, I was once again left devastated and locked up for ten years."

"Ten years?" Regina breathed. "For accusations of theft?"

"David's family was a lot more powerful than I'm letting on. They pulled some strings and made sure to buy the entire jury to convict me." Mary Margaret took a pause. "David's brother threatened to take Emma away, but I fought tooth and nail to prevent that."

"How did you do that?"

"I convinced Child Protective Services that I was guilty and that I wouldn't have my child placed in danger under my own care. To the state, I was as well an unfit mother. I thought so, too, at the time. And I wanted Emma to have her best chance at a good life, away from David's family." Mary Margaret's jaw clenches. "Had he kept her, God knows how she would have turned out. I couldn't let that happen to my daughter."

"And David?" Regina gulps, feeling her voice break due to a dry throat. "How does he fit back into all this?"

Mary Margaret sighed, "While in jail, I found out that David- believing the lies his family had fed him about me- he met Helen, fell in love, and married her. She was wonderful, of course." She chuckles. "But she couldn't conceive, so naturally they were looking into adoption."

"You two were friends," Regina voices the realization that is tearing up behind Mary Margaret's eyes. "Weren't you?"

More tears manifest as Mary Margaret gives another nod. "We were best friends." She sniffs. "Helen was always in love with David. That was no secret, even to me. But David loved me and I loved him. Once upon a time ago." She dabs at the corner of her eye with a tissue. "David always dreamed of becoming a father. That was his biggest, most ambitious dream in life. To be a father." She flashes a painful smile, one that Regina is quick to return. "After Helen came to visit me in jail to face me for marrying David, that's when I asked her to fight for my daughter and care for her as if she were her very own. There was no one I trusted better than Helen to ensure Emma's safety."

"And Emma's father? With all the money his family had, I'm surprised he didn't take her. Why didn't he?" Regina asks.

Mary Margaret shakes her head, "His family wasn't going to allow that. Not with their reputation. David was always the black sheep in the family. They couldn't give a damn if he screwed up his life anyway he saw fit. No matter what David did to please his family, it was just never… Never enough. They always held their dreams high for his brother, though. His parents weren't about to allow the press to find out that he raped a young girl, got away with it and much less get her pregnant with a bastard child."

Regina's insides burned with rage. Rage for Mary Margaret and the injustice she suffered all for falling in love. Rage for Emma and for being deprived of the choice of being with her mother.

"I know what you're thinking," said Mary Margaret as if reading Regina's mind. "Why have I kept Emma in the dark for so long." She takes a pause, her back up and straight, as if an imaginary string willed her to perform the motion.

"The thought did cross my mind." Regina admitted.

She received a gentler smile from Mary Margaret. One that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Emma was only ten years old when I saw her again. David, believing the lies his family fed to him, turned his back on me for a long time. And he's forever tried to apologize for that for years."

"How did you get out?"

Mary Margaret sighed. "That was the last good deed my parents had toward me. My father, bless his heart, left me with enough to survive. I, of course, used that money to buy myself this place, run it and my string of bakery's."

"Wait. You own this complex?" Regina's eyes widened.

"And then some," Mary Margaret smiles genuinely this time. "Shocking. I know. Emma doesn't even know I'm the owner. I'll give him that; David never wanted the life of luxury his family were so forceful on. They wanted to control him in everything. Including who he married. Samuel was always easier to settle, although once he became successful under his own will, things changed drastically."

"Samuel?" Regina's head tilts.

"That's his brother's name." Mary Margaret nods. "Emma's real father."

Suddenly her heart stopped. Regina didn't understand why, but she didn't want to imagine her thoughts to be true. There was just no way they could be true. But with the way Mary Margaret's eyes were intensely trained on Regina, quite like Emma's own gaze when she was being serious about something, it made Regina realize that it could very well be true.

"Mary Margaret…" Regina drew in a breath as if to prepare herself. "What are you saying?"

"I think you know, Regina." Mary Margaret's eyes were dead-on laser beams. "The reason why Emma can never find out who her real father is; is because without even realizing it. She's already met him. And he's had the daughter he threatened to take away from me this entire time."

"Hold on," Regina's breath hitches as she breathes. "A-are you saying that Emma and… Samuel-"

"Yes." Mary Margaret nods. And for the first time in years, she holds her head up high toward such a long kept secret. "Samuel Locksley is Emma's biological father. And he is the cause of everything that ever went wrong in my life. If it weren't for Helen, helping me stay near Emma, I would have lost my daughter forever."

Tears willingly stream down Regina's cheeks. "David is Samuel's brother. Emma's father," she murmured. "Which means… Robin is… her half-brother."

"Yes." Mary Margaret's throat bobs. "Regina," she jerks forward, cupping Regina's hands in her own. "Please. You have to promise me that you won't reveal any of this to Emma. Not even that I'm her biological mother."

"But, Mary Margaret, Emma will be thrilled to know that you're her mother. She's already thinks of you as-"

"Better for her to think than to actually know it." Mary Margaret said sharply. "Please, Regina. For the love that you have for Emma, I need you to promise me that you won't say a word. Not until I'm ready. Because if Samuel ever finds out that Emma is his daughter, I'd hate to think of what could happen. He would dare to feed her lies just like his family did with David and I couldn't bear it if Emma ever looked at me with the same ounce of hate David once did."

The same ounce of hate. Regina could perfectly relate to that. She knew that fear very well.

"Please, Regina." Mary Margaret's hands squeezed a little too hard. "Promise me. That you won't tell Emma any of this. Please."

"I promise." What more could Regina say but that?