Dear Klaus,

I want you to know that I love you. Before you read anything else I've written here, know that my heart belongs to you and only you. I doubt that there will ever come a day that I do not love you. Even so, my love for you has eclipsed my ability to see myself clearly. I wish things were different, that we could pause the world and then fall together when we're ready, but alas time keeps moving forward.

Not meeting you after your fight with your father was a decision I never wanted to make. In a perfect world we would have stayed in that village—posing as man and wife until we grew old and gray. A week ago I would have loved nothing more than to pretend with you, but now I know I deserve better.

I want to be more than the girl you bring with you to see the world. I want to carve out a life for myself and I need to know that I can do so alone. In all of my life, I've never done anything on my own. I can't love you fairly when I don't know myself and, as awful as it sounds, I'd rather live without you and be happy with who I am than live with you and grow to resent you.

Though I am unsure of exactly what I want, I know I wouldn't be able to stand by your side for long. You're a Viking, it's who you are. I know you well enough to know that, given the chance, you wouldn't be able to resist reconnecting with your men and that's not the life I want. I could not bear it if, once Mikael is out of the picture, I was the reason you couldn't go back to some form of your old life. The way I see it, either you would give up what you love and come to resent me, or I would compromise who I think I might become and grow to resent you. I do not think I could live with either of these options.

Our love, though it will stand the test of time, didn't have the right timing. If we had the world at our disposal along with endless time, perhaps then we could reconnect. But I will not live my life in a hypothetical—I will not dwell on what could have been.

I know that once I leave the chances of you ever finding me again are slim. I'm nearly certain that I don't want you to look. Instead I want you to move on, embrace your life as I intend to embrace mine. I have lost so much, that I will not allow myself to cling to you when I know I could lose the one thing I cannot allow myself to let go of—me.

I love you, Nikalus Mikaelson. I will always love you.

Sincerely,

Caroline Forbes

Author's Note:

This is the letter that Caroline left Klaus. I wrote it because so many of you, even those of you who were disappointed, left such lovely reviews that I wanted to give you something more without changing the ending I envisioned.

I appreciate all of your reviews. The good ones made be smile and the rude ones made me laugh. Thank you for spending time on me.

It's been a long time since I felt inspired to write fan-fiction. I'm starting to feel excited yet again. So thank you, because without you I am sure I wouldn't have started or continued writing, which has grown to be something I enjoy.

-ShakespearianNerd