Keeping A Secret (COMPLETE)

Four

    “How was your journey?” Regina asked awkwardly after Graham and his parents arrived home.
    He kissed her temple, “It was fine. My grandfather is… well, you’ll see after we get married. I don’t want anyone scaring you away before we say I do.”  She knew that it was supposed to be a joke but something was tugging at her heart. This man was falling in love with her but she was sneaking behind his back to sleep with his sister.
“I’m sure he’s lovely.” Regina tried to hold back the tears but one slipped out and she wiped it immediately.
Graham caught it, “What’s wrong? Did I say something?” He was in a hurry to hold her in his arms but she was reluctant and pulled away.
“I don’t love you.” She shut her eyes tightly and tears streamed down her face.
“What do you mean?” he asked, rubbing her jaw. “You don’t have to love me now, you’ll learn to love me. I won’t force it so soon.”
He was so sweet and that’s what Regina hated. If he was terrible then it would be easy. “I’m in love with someone else,” she said simply, wiping away a tear.
He looked hurt and upset. “Who.” He wasn’t used to being hurt this much.
She didn’t want to say. She knew it would be too much too soon. But she had to. She didn’t like being lied to so what would the difference be if she lied to someone else? She opened her eyes and peered over at Emma and her parents who were talking in the foyer. Emma glanced at her and saw the tears streaming down her face. Her smile immediately disappeared and she abruptly stood up from where she was sitting. No, Regina mouthed at her and shook her head. Emma nodded her head once and mouthed the word, later.
Regina nodded. Graham caught on to the interaction between them that was happening. He shut his eyes tightly, “It’s Emma. Isn’t it?”
“Yes.” she nodded and another tear streamed down her face. He began to tear up and she reached for his face but he moved back. “I’m so sorry Graham. I really am.”
Graham looked at her coldly, “ You should be. How long has this been going on?” He spat out the words as if it were poison.
She turned away from him. “The day I got here.” She looked over at Emma, who had been watching them, locking eyes with the blonde.
Graham let go of his control and the next thing Regina knew, Graham had caused a large sting in her face from his hand. She gasped and looked him in the eye as she grabbed her cheek.  “I was falling in love with you! Why did you lead me on? To toy with me?” He was spitting in her face as he said the words.
“We haven’t known each other for that long! You shouldn’t have fallen in love with me.”
“We haven’t known each other for that long? Well then how did you fall in love with my sister when you knew her for a shorter time than me?” He grabbed her shoulders, “Answer that for me.” 
“I never meant to hurt you Graham. I just wanted to fall in love, have adventures. It wasn’t my intention for you to propose to me!” She grabbed her cheek and began to rub at the sore area.
“Then why did you say yes?” He backed away and threw his hands in the air.
She couldn’t hold it in any more, “For my entire life, I wanted nothing more than to find a prince charming and go off into the sunset. But I always feared waking up, wondering what sorcery my mother would throw at me next! You have no idea what it’s like to fear your parents the way I do mine!” She had never said these words out loud. They were always bottled up inside her, waiting for the cap to come undone. And just now, it finally did.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hit you. I didn’t know about your parents. Your mother seemed so kind when I visited.” He sounded sincere but there was a pang of misunderstanding in his voice.
“ My mother is the worst at it. The only thing I fear my father for is not being able to stand up and fight against her.” I rolled my eyes at the thought of her vile face sitting in the front of the church with a fake smile on, making me marry Graham for his wealth.
    “Am I the first person you’ve told about this? We could get her exiled or banished, or-” he trailed off but I held my hand up, meaning for him to shut up.
    “Actually, no. You aren’t the first. The very first person I’ve ever told, is Emma. And I love her with all my heart. It won’t matter if you tear us apart or kill me, because you know how that will end. She is my world and I am her’s. The reason I love her even though I’ve known her for less time than you, is because with love, it doesn’t matter if you look at them for a split second, or never have to see their face. You just know. And with her,” Regina looks over to Emma who is now smiling and looking at her, “I know.”
    “Wow. That was very moving. But, there’s one thing I have to tell you,” he stepped forward and smiled, as if he were about to give her his blessing for his sister. But just then, Regina felt a piercing type of feeling enter into the pit of her stomach. She looked down to see his royal sword in her chest and blood, oozing out, staining her cream colored dress. She turned to look at Emma and heard her muffled voice, screaming. Graham leaned down to Regina who was slowly sinking to the floor, “If I can’t have you, no one can.”
    Her body fell to the floor and Emma rushed out of the foyer and towards her limp body but before she could, a pair of guards came to her and grabbed her from behind, not letting her get closer to the body. “No! No! No! Let me go!” She screamed at them but they wouldn’t budge. Graham took the sword -which was now covered in blood- out of Regina’s abdomen and looked at Emma as he did it. She couldn’t even look at him, the feeling of hate, betrayal, and disgust building in her gut.
    “I’m sorry sis.” He said it coldly and with no sincerity at all.
    “You bastard.” she said, finally looking deeply in his eyes as tears streamed down her face. Her blonde hair was unravelling and knotted up. “Why?” is all she managed to say.
    He walked over to her, grabbing the back of her head full of hair. “Because she was supposed to love me! Not some younger sister who doesn’t even know the difference between a fling and love. Because that was what she saw you as: a fling. You were never important, and you never will be.” He let go of her hair and she fell to the floor once the guards released her.
    She held Regina’s cold, dead, lifeless body in her arms. Her true love was gone forever, and she wasn’t coming back.