All the neglect and sadness his mother had caused him as a child rushed through her.
"All my life I only wanted one thing," Hans said. "Your love. When I was a boy, I used to
spend hours hiding in the palace just hoping you would notice I was missing, but you never did. You spent your days in your chambers with your mirrors and your skin creams and this stone. You spent more time with strangers with anti-ageing methods than you did with your own son. But why?"
The Queen did not answer.
"You tried to kill me four times, three of which you attempted yourself," Hans said, shaking
his head in disbelief. "When you dressed as an old woman and came to me at the cottage, I
knew it was you. I knew you were dangerous, but I kept letting you in. I kept hoping that you would change. I let you harm me."
Hans had never confessed this to anyone, and she couldn't help but bury her face in the
palms of her hands and cry after saying it.
"You think you know heartbreak?" the Queen said so sharply that it startled her son.
"You know nothing of pain. You never received affection from me, but from the moment you were born, the whole kingdom loved you. Others, however, are not so fortunate. Others, Hans, sometimes have nothing for them."
Hans didn't know what to say.
"Believe it or not, Hans, I had my own life before I came into yours."
His mother had always been such a private person, Hans never had reason to.
"There's so much you're not telling me," Hans said. "There are so many things you've kept
from me all these years."
The Queen lowered her head and stared at the ground. She remained silent.
"I may be the only person in the world with any compassion for you. Please tell me it isn't going to waste," Hans pleaded. "If there were events in your past that influenced your recent
decisions, please explain them to me."
still, there was no response.
"I'm not leaving here until you tell me!" Hans yelled, raising her voice for the first time in her life."Fine," the Queen said.
Hans took a seat on another stool in the cell. The Evil Queen waited a moment before
beginning, and Hans's anticipation grew.
"Your story will forever be romanticized," she told Hans. "No one will ever think twice
about mine. I will continue to be degraded into nothing but a grotesque villain until the end of time.
But what the world fails to realize is that a villain is just a victim whose story hasn't been told.
Everything I have done, my life's work and my crimes against you, has all been for you."
Hans felt her own heart grow heavy. His head was spinning, and curiosity had taken over
his entire body.
"Who?" he asked so quickly that he forgot to hold back the desperation in his voice.
The Queen closed her eyes and let her memories surface. Images of places and people from
her past flew out from the back of her mind like fireflies in a cave. There was so much she had seen in her younger years, so many things she wished she remembered, and so many things she wished to forget.
"I will tell you about my past, or at least the past of someone I once was," the Queen said.
"But consider yourself warned. My story does not end with a happily-ever-after."