Let down your dark hair

13.

Storybrooke:

When Leopold Mills-Blanchard came home that day he found his wife sitting in the kitchen drinking a glass of scotch. He could see on her face that she was angry. The way her eyebrows where knitted and how her lips were curled into a sneer said it all.

He sat down beside her and took her hand. "Hey, what's wrong? You seem upset." he said after kissing her forehead. It happened often that he found her like that but this time seemed worse.

"Regina" was the only thing that escaped her thin lips and he just nodded. Of course it had to do with their youngest daughter. The old man sighed and went upstairs to see what was wrong with Regina.

What he found there scared him. Regina's head was hidden under one of her pillows and he heard the faint sound of sobbing. His little girl was hurting and he had to find out why.

"Regina? Sweetheart, what's wrong?" he whispered and started to rub her back in comfort.

"Go away, dad! I don't want you to see me like this." she sobbed and pushed his hand away. Leopold was confused. What had happened that their were both so upset? And why would Regina hide her face from him? It didn't make sense to him at all.

"Sweetheart, come on. What's wrong? You know you can tell me everything." he tried again and slowly Regina sat up and pushed the soft pillow away from her head. What he saw was terrible.

Her left cheek had a big bruise and she was completely bald. He sensed that Cora had done it for some reason and it made him angry. Oh so terribly angry but he didn't let it show in front of his little girl. She certainly deserved better than Cora. He deserved better. He couldn't leave, however, because it would mean leaving Regina behind.

She wasn't his daughter by blood but he loved her just as much as he loved Mary Magaret.

"Oh Regina, I'm so sorry! Why did she do this to you? Oh, sweatheart, I'm so terribly sorry. I know how much your hair meant to you." the blonde whiped her tears away with his tumb and kissed her bald head. It felt so different without her beautiful thick hair covering her head. He couldn't believe that Cora had really gone that far.

It was his fault. He shouldn't have let Regina leave without Cora's permission.

Regina threw her thin arms around him and hugged him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. Leopold rubbed over her back to give her some kind of comfort but the old man knew there was nothing he could do to help her.

Oh how he hated his wife in that very moment.

"Shh, sweetheart! It will be alright. Your hair will grow back." he whispered softly and kissed her head before he left the room. "I'll talk to your mother now." Leopold added and walked downstairs to find his wife sitting in the living room.

"How could you?" he shouted and Cora just smirked.

"I had to, Leopold. She was disobeing me. She left the house without my knowledge and met a man! She is a liar and a homewrecker and I won't tolerate such behaviour!" the mayor defended herself and poured herself a new glass of scotch.

Leopold was left speechless. He really didn't recognize the woman sitting in front of him. She was certainly not the woman he married. How could she be so cruel to her own child?

"A homewrecker? She fell in love, Cora! She didn't intend for that to happen and you know that."

Regina heard her parents arguing and felt even worse. If only her siblings where there or even Robin. She already missed him even if their weren't officially together yet. She just hoped her mother wouldn't do anything to him. He didn't deserve it.