Sighing, Regina brought her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose and pinched it against the pressure building there. This wasn't the conversation she wanted to be having and the one she needed to have scared her so badly she wanted to vomit.

Without quite looking at him, she began it, "You know my story," so that she could cut to the heart of it. Heart. Of course. "The Huntsman was famed for his ruthlessness, but Snow White suborned him. He gave me a stag's heart in place of hers. For his failure, I took... I took his heart." Now she looked beyond him, not daring to meet his gaze. "I held it, and him in service, until he regained it by chance. When I captured my stepdaughter and her friend, he offered me his heart again in exchange for their lives."

She rolled her tongue behind her teeth, exhaled heavily, and forced herself to continue. If he was going to hate her, he might as well have all of the reasons to hate her. "For decades, he served by his choice and shared my bed. I came to believe that he cared and he used that to temper some of my worst impulses. Then he met someone who challenged his loyalty again. Snow White's daughter. He betrayed me with her, and I killed him for it."

There. That was done. Her heart beat frantically in her chest, ironically like a caged bird desperate to escape. Much like Graham would've felt if he could feel.

"I have very few regrets, but Graham... Graham is the largest of them."