The one she thought was lost

Prologue

The moment Regina held the little girl in her arms, she fell in love. She looked down. She and Daniel had created this. She was perfect. Dark, curly hair and chocolate brown eyes like Regina's. The girl opened her eyes and looked up to her mother. Regina's heart skipped a beat when her daughter looked at her. She felt herself smile for the first time since Daniel died.
"Hello my little princess", she whispered at the baby, "I'm your mother."
The girl smiled at her in return. Regina felt tears building in her eyes. The girl had Daniel's smile. God, she missed him. Daniel. Her stable boy. She missed his arms around her, his smile, his eyes. She missed him so much.
"Daniella."
Regina couldn't think of any other name for their baby girl. It was the perfect way to honor him.
Daniella started fussing and Regina started to rock the girl in her arms. The baby calmed down almost immediately. Regina smiled at her. She was so perfect, Regina still couldn't believe it was her daughter.
After a while, Regina looked back down and saw that Daniella had fallen asleep. She smiled again as she walked to the girl's crib and lay her inside. She tucked Daniella in and looked one last time to see that she was comfortable before kissing the girl's forehead.
"I love you, my little princess. Sweet dreams", she whispered. She went to get the bracelet she had made before Daniella was born. It was a simple one with Daniella's name on it. She put it on the girl's wrist before getting ready for bed. Her eyes never leaving Daniella, she changed and got under the covers. Regina started thinking. She was happy that she had gotten such a beautiful gift, but Daniel would never be able to see his daughter grow up. Just because Snow White couldn't keep a damn secret. But she was also very worried about her little princess because of her mother. What if she didn't let her keep Daniella? She was already engaged to the king and she doubted he would still marry her if he saw that she had a daughter that was not his. Her mother would do something about it. She was sure about that, she just didn't know what her mother was going to do. Regina sighed. "Maybe I'll know what to do after a night of sleep", she thought as she closed her eyes. A little while later both her and Daniella were sound asleep.

An hour later, Cora sneaked into Regina's room. Seeing that her daughter and granddaughter were sleeping, she smirked. She would never let Regina keep the girl. It would ruin her plan to get what she deserved. Power. So no, she wasn't going to let one little thing get in the way of what she wanted. Cora scoffed, she still couldn't believe her daughter had a child with a peasant. A damn stable boy. Well, that was about to change. She walked to the crib where the little girl was sleeping and picket her up. She scoffed as she saw the bracelet with the girl's name on it. "Of course, my darling daughter would call her after the stable boy", she thought while rolling her eyes. She walked out of the room bringing the little girl with her.

When Regina woke up the next morning, she knew something was wrong. She should've been woken up multiple times last night because of her daughter. But she didn't.
Regina hurried out of her bed and walked to the crib her daughter was supposed to lay in. She felt a cold feeling running through her when she reached the crib. Nothing. The crib was completely empty. Her daughter was gone.
"No", Regina yelled while tears were gathering in her eyes.
"No, please, no, no", Regina whispered," Daniella."
She ran to her father's room, maybe he had taken Daniella out of her crib to take care of her. Maybe he'd know where her precious daughter was.
"Daddy", Regina yelled, knocking on his door. Her father opened the door a few seconds later.
"Daddy, do you know where Daniella is?"
"No, dear. I haven't seen her since last night. What's going on?"
"She's gone, daddy! When I woke up this morning her crib was empty. She's gone!"
Regina started crying. Henry took his daughter in his arms, hugging her tightly. That moment Cora barged into the room.
"Mother, do you know where my daughter is", Regina asked.
"She's gone", her mother said.
"What do you mean she's gone?" Regina really started to panic now, what had her mother done?
"I came to check on you earlier this morning. When I came into the room, she wasn't breathing. I took her out of her crib and burried her", Cora said, not even bothering to try and look like she cared.
"And you couldn't even wake me? She was my daughter!" Regina was starting to get really angry. Her baby died and her mother didn't even bother to wake her up!?
"Oh calm down, Regina. These things happen all the time. Get over it", Cora said coldly. With that she walked out of the room, a smirk on her face.
After her mother left the room, Regina completely broke down. All her anger changed into incredible sadness and grief. Her baby was gone. Her beautiful daughter. Her and Daniel's daughter was gone, and she couldn't do anything about it.
"Daniella, no! Daddy, she's gone! It hurts, daddy, make it stop! Please!" Her knees gave up on her and she fell into her father arms, sobbing and crying until she didn't have any tears left.

Regina was inconsolable for days. She didn't come out of her room, didn't eat, didn't speak no matter how hard her father tried, and didn't bother to sleep. She knew she would only get nightmares.
Eventually Cora dragged her out of her room to get her wedding dress fitted.
Henry saw the change in his daughter. The eyes that had once been full of life, had gone dull. She didn't smile, didn't laugh. She didn't have any reason too. The once happy girl grew up. She didn't hope that things would get better, that she would be happy one day. She was done hoping, done losing the things she loved. She would never love again and no one would ever love her.
Things went downhill from there. She married the king and had to raise the 'ooh so innocent' Snow White.
And well, you all know the rest of the story...

*A/N: I had this idea a while back and I just wanted to see what I could make of it 😁 I hope you enjoyed the first part of this story! Please comment! I'd love to have some feedback! English is not my first language since I live in Belgium, so if there are any mistakes in this I apologize. The next part will be up when I have time, because you know there's a thing called school that I can't get rid of so... 🙄😄