Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-24.128.131.119-20130218041312/@comment-5521796-20130305051747

Fractuared Fairytales wrote: Bear in mind, though - we don't know how legally binding the adoption was. If Mr. Gold was the one who ran it, there's a slight, but not impossible, chance that he didn't exactly proceed legally to procure Henry, which means essentially, Regina has no rights to him anymore than anyone else does.

That was one of my theories too. I feel like August is going to have something to do with it too.