Chapter 2

• Knock, knock, knock. Another three knocks that startled her train of endless thoughts, forcing Regina to look over her shoulder, toward the door this time in pure annoyance.
• Why couldn't she be left the hell alone?
• "Ms. Regina?" Sidney calls out again and waits patiently.
• She had to answer.
• "Everything is fine, Sidney. I'm just getting dressed." She pauses, looking back at her horrendous reflection in the mirror with a burning hate in her eyes. Regina could clearly see the bones in her jaw clench before she spoke again. "I'll be down in a minute. Thank you."
• Through the mirror, she could see the man's shadow from his feet finally disappear beneath the crack of the bathroom door. She could hear his footsteps become lighter as they echoed farther and farther.
• Regina had become really good at identifying and recognizing shadows if she had a really long hard look at them. She knew Leopold's like she knew the back of her hand.
• Her hand.
• Her hand wouldn't stop fucking shaking.
• The brunette closed her hand into a tight fist until she saw her knuckles turn white, before looking at herself in the mirror once more. Get it together, Regina, she told herself. Just get it together. Audrey is coming home. It'll be alright. Everything. Will be. Alright.
• If only she believed that.
• Shaking her head at herself and her stupid thoughts, Regina was quick to gather up a pair of dress pants (even in this summer heat), and one of her best white dress up shirts. That would do it. No bruises visible, no consequences to pay for later by an enraged husband.
• After blow drying her hair, and applying just a touch of her make-up on, she looked at herself in the mirror one last time for the remainder of the day.
• 'That's too much blush. And too much lipstick for my liking. Who are you trying to impress besides me? Do you think this will make me want to fuck you?'
• God, she hated nights like those. It made her want to puke every single time she thought of them.
• As if on cue, Regina couldn't help rushing over to the toilet seat of her bathroom and bend over. It didn't take long for their dinner to come up and expose themselves into chunks, swimming along toilet water right before her very eyes.
• Her hand grabbed onto her bruised shoulder after feeling the throbbing pain remind her of the beating she was forced to endure last night.
• Fucking bastard. She hissed with every hitched and painful breath toward the man so called husband.
• Her shoulder wasn't broken. Regina had suffered enough beatings in her lifetime to know and recognize when something was broken.
• Sad, right?
• Well. That was her life. And she accepted it at the age of sixteen.
• That's how old she was when she was forced to marry the monster she was linked to today.
• That's right. Regina married Leopold White on the day of her birthday. Three tortuous months of nothing but rough, cold sexual intercourse- fucking rape- is what it took for her to finally give the monster a child. Regina found out she was pregnant three months later, and happily had Audrey within nine months. Which meant, they were days away from sharing the same birthday.
• Regina drew in a deep breath before making her way toward the sink and opening the faucet to drink in some water that would rinse her mouth of the bitter taste of throw up before making her way out of the bathroom, bedroom and continuing downstairs.
• Of course Leopold was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.
• That was nothing new.
• He had a habit of waiting for her everywhere she went, and when he wasn't around, he had Sidney wait for her.
• He preferred to always be by her side when he 'allowed' her to go out. But, there were times (times Regina was thankful for) where he had to go away on a business trip for work purposes that Regina was forced to spend the day with Sidney.
• Sidney was a comfort to Regina compared to her dear husband.
• Regina craved and enjoyed the times Leopold had to go away on a business trip.
• You know that feeling when you fall utterly in love with someone and hope and pray that the person you fall head over heels for remains undeniably faithful to you?
• Yeah- Regina didn't wish that on her marriage.
• If anything, she prayed and implored every single God up above that he would find someone better than her. Someone who would know how to satisfy all of his needs to the point of wanting to leave her alone.
• She didn't even care if he tossed her out in the street right now with only the four sets of clothing she had on her back.
• Regina just wanted a life of her own.
• She wanted to be free.
• Happy.
• That was too much of a big word to fit into her vocabulary.
• Happy. That's what she needed to act as right at this moment. She needed to smile and pretend like everything was a fairy tale ending.
• What a crock of shit. She chuckled to herself as she made her way down the first set of steps.
• The sad reality to it all was… There were no happy endings. No life of her own. No knight in shining armor to come and rescue her. No future to look forward to, expect what she was forced to live in now.
• Funny. The pits of blazing hell would feel more comfortable to her right now compared to this.
• How sad was that?