Broken: The Second Book of the A Tale of Two Sisters Series

Selfless, Brave, and True

"Breakfast in bed?" Serenity asked as David came back to the kitchen with a tray of denied food by his wife. "Seriously?"

"What happened has been really hard on Mary Margaret. The least we can do is make sure she's eating."

"I think it's time to give the hot cocoa and the foot massages a rest. It's time to haul her ass out of bed and get her to move past this."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think? She took Cora's life."

"Is everything okay?" Henry asked as he came down from the loft.

"Everything's fine, kid. Get your coat, we're gonna be late," Emma said as her and Serenity grabbed their jackets. 

*  *  *  *  *

"Hey, guys. How are you?" Neal asked as Emma, the girls, and Henry came into his hotel room.

"I'm good," his son replied as he took out the storybook. "I brought this. I thought you could tell me what it was really like over there."

"Sounds great. I tell you, why don't you run into the diner, get us five hot cocoas and we'll dive in."

"I'm gonna have to take a rain check on that," Emma said as her son ran down to the diner. "I need to get down to the station to take care of some things."

"Can it wait? There's a couple of things I wanna talk to you about. Tamara went to my place to get some of her stuff."

"Okay . . ."

"Well, her bags were in the storage room, but Hook wasn't."

"Lucky."

"Yeah, but now he's out there."

"I'm not sure how much more trouble he can cause anyway."

"The second thing I wanna talk to you about is, the reason Tamara was getting her stuff is that she's on her way here."

"Storybrooke?" Reagan asked.

"Yeah. She should be here at Granny's any minute," Neal replied.

"What were you thinking?" Serenity asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What are you gonna tell her when she sees a giant or a werewolf run past her down Main Street?" the thirteen year old asked. "Between Greg Mendell, our food-obsessed tourist, and now your fiancée, this town is turning into a theme park."

"Maybe I didn't think it all the way through. I'm sorry. I just . . . I need her. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to—"

"You don't need to apologize to us," Emma said. "I'm not the one you're lying to."

"Who's lying?" Neal asked.

"Does she know who you really are and where you're really from? Take my advice, don't let her find out on her own. Tell her the truth. Tell her everything," Emma said as h is phone beeped.He picked it up, "That's her. She's ten minutes away. Why don't you stay and get to know her?"

"We really should be going."

"I know, but we're all connected. Now, it might be nice for you two to talk. Just stay and say hello. She's bringing bagels."

" . . . You have me at bagels," Reagan said.

*  *  *  *  *

"So, how did you guys meet?" Henry asked Neal and Tamara.