Broken

Hopeless

Regina

Two Weeks Later

My son still seemed cross from his fight with Violet, breaking my heart as he tried to move on with life without her.

I quietly fed Evelyn while rocking on the recliner in the nursery, the soft white paint of the room illuminating with the lamp that was providing light for me since the sun hadn't risen quite yet. I sighed and felt my mind drift to Emma's secret that I was keeping, wincing at Evelyn's painful latch, sighing as Robin entered, dressed in his new sheriff uniform.

"Morning my two princesses." He said kissing me sweetly, I immediately smiled and kissed him back, pulling Evelyn away and fixing my pajama shirt.

"I'm your queen thank you." I said trying to mask my pain, gently burping Evelyn until a hearty one came out and she stared up at us silently.

"Say goodbye to daddy." I whispered, handing her over to him, watching him gently take her and rock back and forth while humming softly.

"Little girl, my baby girl, I love you more than the moon, I promise I'll see you soon." He quietly hummed, kissing her cheek before handing her back to me.

"I'll see you later, I love you babe." He said kissing me before walking out of the room, the sound of his truck starting and pulling me away, eventually turning into silence.

I sighed and placed Evelyn back in her crib, glancing at her quickly before stepping away and jumping at the sound of someone.

"Morning mom." Alena whispered, quietly shutting the door behind her as she sunk onto the padded footrest. "Morning." I replied, kissing her head before sinking on the recliner.

"Am I a bad person?" She asked abruptly, catching me off guard, I tilted my head in confusion and waited for her to explain.

"I knew about Violet and promised to keep it a secret so she could tell Henry herself, but when I forced her to tell him, he was so angry, and I feel like I'm responsible for what happened. Is sparing the truth from the ones you love worth it just to make the one telling it easier?" She asked sadly, causing me to freeze and think, because I was asking myself that same question.

"Honey you are not a bad person, what you need to learn is that relationships are hard, and by forcing her to tell the truth was noble of you, because now they have everything on the table to discuss without any secrets." I answered, watching her exhale, admiring her bravery, the bravery that I didn't possess to tell my family about Emma.

"Well you and Robin make it look incredibly easy." She whispered, making me chuckle at the remark, recalling everything we had faced leading up to this family.

"Oh believe me it's been everything but that. When he met you he had come back from the dead." I joked, the lightness clearing some of the heavy air, making her chuckle. "You know my sister's baby, I haven't told you the whole truth about her." I said, feeling like this would be a good time to reveal the truth about my niece's identity.

"She is over an awful lot." Alena noted, I nodded and folded my hands, looking down at them. "Robin wasn't a sperm donor for my sister." I said slowly, watching her scrunch her nose in confusion. "Wait- what?" She began, silencing herself for me to continue talking.

"Remember how he didn't know who you were when he came back and tried to get into the house? He's been a victim of identity theft before, about a year and a half ago, my sister disguised herself as Robin's dead wife, and made herself sick so he would have to leave with her to New York forever, well while they were gone I looked for ways to get him back, but he wanted to try and make things work with his 'wife' and he slept with her to try for a baby, inevitably succeeding." I said with a pained expression, reliving that upsetting time in our lives that had nearly broken me.