Anonymous asked: Gold regrets cheating on belle with ruby ...

It had been going on for months - the late night phonecalls, the meetings in his shop, sex and cigarettes in the alley behind the diner - by the time that Belle found out about it. Gold had been careless, kept a trophy - a pair of scarlet lace panties, tarty and flimsy as the slut who wore them - and his wife had found them: she was gone, all her belongings taken with her, and all that was left was a short, heartbroken letter left on the dining table to tell him it was over.

Belle was always too good for him, he knew that, and he’d finally managed to prove it: a part of him felt viciously pleased that she’d finally found out, because now she knew he’d been right, and there was no good man under his bastard’s skin.