June 1st, 1855
"Love does that, it changes us."
After that one night of pleasure with Kenna, in that simple brothel bedroom, Damon Salvatore found himself addicted to everything about her: her eyes, her hair, her voice, and specially, her body. It was intoxicating. Addicting. Due to that, their meetings had become a frequent item on their daily schedules. Every night they would sneak out of their houses to that same room, in that small place, where they would share loud moans of pleasure, sweat and rough touches.
That routine went on for almost two months before Kenna started to act strange around him, practically hiding from him every time he was around. And he got mad. He got mad because he couldn't find a reason why she started to act so cold towards him so suddenly. Eventually their meetings stopped and she always made sure to be busy enough not to talk with him when he was in the mansion at the same time as her. Damon tried. He really tried to understand but after countless tries he gave up on her and kept himself busy with his own tasks.
Eventually everything came back to what was considered normal until one day his mother decided to storm into his room with a very serious expression on her beautiful features. Her state of spirit resembled the furious wind that punished the windows of the house in that cold october afternoon, and her eyes looked cold like the raindrops that were falling non stop on the outside.
"Mother? Is everything alright?" He asked, completely lost, not having an idea of what could be the cause of his mother's unusual behavior in that moment. Lillian Salvatore never had a serious expression on her face before. Never. She was always calm and collected, very sweet to those around her. With no exceptions. She was warm like the sun rays that came after a storm. And that's why Damon was so confused. In that moment, his mother looked like the storm and not what came after.
"No, Damon. Nothing is alright!" She let out an exasperated sigh and started to walk around his bedroom, trying to put what she wanted to say into the right words.
"Enlighten me then. What have I done this time?" It was usual for Damon to have long talks with his mother about his uncountable flaws that his father always complained about, so he thought he was ready to listen to the next one. But, once his mother opened her mouth to spill the words, he realized how unprepared he was for that.
"You got a maid pregnant, Damon! That's what you've done!" Lillian turned around and faced her oldest son with disappointment in her eyes. For the first time, in fifteen years, his mother showed that cruel feeling towards him.
And, for the first time in his life, Damon Salvatore found himself completely speechless and with a bad feeling on his chest. For a brief moment he thought that he was going to have a heart attack and pass out. But then he realized that that painful feeling was panic. Pure panic. The words of his mother runned around his mind, confusing his senses momentarily. His brain stopped functioning for a few seconds and his blue eyes were focused on nothing in specific as the panic consumed every inch of his frozen body.
Fortunately for him his mother waited some minutes for him to get over that catatonic state he had put himself into before starting to talk again.
"Look, Damon, I know that it's normal for a young man in your age to try some new… things. I completely understand that. But this situation got out of control and now we have to think of what's coming and how to deal with it." Lillian sat down in a chair in front of him, looking a little more calm than how she looked when she first entered the room.
And, just like that, everything about Kenna's recent behavior made sense to Damon. She was hiding from him because she had a secret. A dangerous secret that could get her in trouble. She knew that.
Kenna was pregnant. Pregnant with his child. A child consumed out of wedlock. A bastard. Lillian couldn't help to feel bad for the child already.
"How… How do you know that, mother?" Damon found the words to speak after another moment of contemplation. A million thoughts were running on his mind at the moment and he couldn't put everything out. He didn't knew how. He felt… lost.
"A mother always knows, my son. And you two were not very discreet, by the way. It was not that hard to make the girl talk either." She answered her son's question slowly, knowing him well enough to know that her son was only half listening to what was being said to him, still lost in his own world of doubts and worries.
"What am I going to do now, mother?" Even if he considered himself a man for some things he knew, deep down, that he was still a boy that needed his mother's counsel for other things. And on this specific situation he was going to need all the help he could get from her.
"You are going to have a child, Damon. And there's nothing we can do besides trying to hide it the best as we can. Your father cannot know about this, you know how he is and what he's capable of doing to keep the family's good reputation in front of the council." Mrs. Salvatore sighed, mentally tired.
"So… what do you suggest?" He inquired, worried. He was thinking about the child. His child. If the baby was born with life and healthy, he was going to have someone with his blood in the world and he didn't knew how to feel about that yet.
"The girl will start to show soon and she won't be able to work while being heavily pregnant. However, we can't just let her sink into poverty knowing that she's carrying a Salvatore. So, this is what I suggest. She will go away for a while, saying that she has to take care of a sick relative or something like that. But, in reality, she will be kept hidden in one of our less used properties until she gives birth. And then we'll see what to do next." Lillian took a deep breath after spilling out the plan she had in mind since she had discovered about her future grandchild.
Without even thinking properly about the matter, Damon agreed, not knowing what else to do. He was just grateful for the mother he had. She was his guardian angel, always helping him in times of need.
After that talk they didn't spoke about Kenna or the child again inside the Salvatore mansion. The maid had said that her only cousin had fallen ill and, because of that, she would need to be gone for awhile in order to take care of him. Nevertheless, she was sent to one of the Salvatore's almost abandoned houses, only a few kilometers away from Mystic Falls. Mrs. Salvatore had put a nurse of her trust in the house to make sure Kenna was being good taken care off during the pregnancy and also to make sure that she wouldn't tell anyone who the father of her child was.
If she did, it would be dangerous. For all of them.
And so the months passed by too fast. And, as much as Mrs. Salvatore didn't liked to admit it out loud, she had grown rather close to the maid Kenna, and specially, her unborn grandchild. In fact, she was anxious for the birth. It was her first grandchild after all. It was an important moment for her and she often wished that her son would have accompanied her in the monthly visits she paid Kenna. However, her son acted as if nothing was happening, as if he was not about to become a father.
She didn't demanded much of Damon, knowing that this was an unfamiliar and hard situation for him. Specially for him. Nonetheless, Lillian forced her son to be present on the day of the delivery. She wouldn't let him run away from that moment in specific.
It was a warm sunny day when Kenna felt the first signs. Her baby was ready to be born and she found herself feeling a whirlwind of sensations. She was anxious to see the child that had been growing inside of her for the past nine months. But she was mostly scared. Not for her, but for her baby. This world was cruel and she didn't want her child to suffer the same things she had suffered once.
The contractions had started around the beginning of the afternoon and lasted for the rest of the day. Not even on her first pregnancy Kenna remembered to feel so much pain before the actual moment of giving birth to the child. She was alone in a bedroom with the nurse, a midwife and Mrs. Salvatore. The last two had arrived only a few minutes before the present moment, accompanied by Damon.
They had left the mansion as soon as they got the news and, for Lillian's happiness, the child was not outside yet when she stormed into the room. It was a moment that she was really looking forward to. The birth of her first grandchild. Despite of the situation and the fact that the baby had been conceived out of wedlock, it was still a Salvatore, the first of a new generation. She would never forget that.
The three women inside the bedroom were being guarded by the night, the dark sky covered by shining stars and a bright full moon that was peeking through the window, casting it's pure light across the room. No candles were necessary since the moon was helping with their task to bring the child into this world.
A little far from there, in the living room, stood Damon Salvatore alone with a cup of bourbon in one shaking hand. That's something he had found himself doing more often: drinking. However, contradicting what others thought of the action, he didn't drink to forget. No. He drink because he was scared. Well, not exactly scared. He was terrified. And he found the need to have alcohol in his system in order to numb those kind of feelings. He, Damon Salvatore, couldn't, in any circumstances, feel scared. Never.
Hours passed by in slow motion, giving enough time for Damon to think of everything that happened in his life until that moment and what was going to happen after. He could feel it in his bones, in his soul even. It was an unfamiliar sensation. He just… knew. He knew that a lot of things were about to change after that moment. And now, nine months after he had discovered about the child, he still had no idea of what to do exactly.
And then his thoughts were interrupted by a new noise that cut into the silent night. The cries of a newborn. And that was it. The child was alive. He was a father.
Back on the bedroom, lying on the large wooden bed, was Kenna. She was feeling exhausted but above all she was happy. Sweat and blood covered her weak body, alongside the feeling of relief once she heard the baby cry for the first time. Tears welled up in her green eyes and all she could do was ask if she could see her baby's face. The nurse was helping the midwife clean the infant while checking to see if everything was alright. And fortunately everything seemed to be okay with the little one.
At Kenna's side, Mrs. Salvatore also had some tears in her eyes and, just like the young mother, she too wanted to see the face of her first grandchild properly. Once the two women covered the baby with some cotton fabrics to keep the baby warn, they passed the child to her mother's desperate and anxious arms.
"Congratulations. You have a beautiful and healthy baby girl." The old midwife announced with a warm smile on her face.
Both Kenna and Lillian felt overwhelmed with the news. The baby had been born healthy and now they had a little princess in their lives. Kenna started to cry again once she felt the warm little body of her daughter against hers. And then she felt momentarily surprised once she sensed Mrs. Salvatores' arms wrapped around her shoulders carefully, while also admiring the little girl.
Lillian always wanted to have a daughter but God had blessed her with two handsome sons instead. Now, one of those sons had given her a granddaughter. She felt happy. All the concerns about her husband and her duties vanished in a blink of an eye once she touched one of the baby's small hands. That and the disappoint she had felt towards her son a few months ago. All of that was gone with the birth of the baby.
"You did a wonderful job, my dear." The oldest mother congratulated the other sincerely.
Kenna only nodded. Her body was aching and begging for rest. But she was trying to fight it in order to spend more time with the baby. She was afraid that her daughter would be taken away from her arms as soon as she closed her eyes. Of course that Mrs. Salvatore had noticed that. She too had felt that fear after giving birth to both of her sons. It was a feeling every young mother experienced.
"You should rest. In a few hours your daughter will need you. Don't worry, I'll watch over her while you sleep. It's ok." Lillian offered with no second intentions. She knew how much the delivery demands of a woman's body and mind.
Once again Kenna only nodded, passing the baby to her grandmother's arms before falling asleep almost immediately. The nurse and the midwife stood in the bedroom with her to finish things there while Mrs. Salvatore walked out of the space with the baby comfortable in her arms. She then started to look for her son.
It didn't took long before the spotted him standing nervously at the end of the staircase with a terrified look in those beautiful blue eyes. He saw his mother with a bunch of white fabric in her arms and he had to put down the cup of bourbon, afraid that he would let it fall on the ground. His hands were shaking too much now, even sweating, due to the anxiety that he wa feeling for the very first time in almost sixteen years. This was it. The moment.
"Damon, meet your daughter." His mother said, warmly and softly, once she stopped right in front of him, at the bottom of the staircase.
He slowly took a few unsure steps forward until he spotted her for the first time. He was paralyzed. His eyes were glued on her delicate features. Her skin was white like the moonlight, her nose was small and her lips were painted in a delicate shade of pink. A few dark strands of hair covered her delicate head and her closed eyes were still a secret.
Damon was mesmerized by the little one in his mother's arms. It was an hypnotizing sight. He didn't even realized that he had opened his mouth to make an unexpected request.
"Can I hold her?" If someone entered the living room in that moment, it would be impossible for that person to tell which one was more surprised by those words: Damon or his mother. But Lillian only smiled after the initial shock. She felt happy and relieved. Her son was finally showing some emotion towards the life he helped to create after months of pure indifference.
"Of course you can." She emotionally said while passing the baby girl to her father's arms gently, giving him some instructions in how to do that safely, without hurting her.
And that was the most strange feeling of them all. After nine months of chaos and headaches, caused by the number of hours of intensive thinking, Damon felt different. It was strange for him to see her in his arms, but it was not bad. It felt… right. In some way. He didn't knew how to describe what he was thinking, what he was actually feeling. It was kind of a mix between happiness, proud and realization, all at once.
"Does she have a name yet?" He asked another surprising question. His wet eyes never leaving the girls face.
"No, Kenna still hasn't named her." His mother replied, not looking away from her son's face. She was studying his reactions closely and carefully, wondering what he would do next.
However, she was not prepared for what came out of Damon's mouth after.
"Then I will. Her name will be Selene."
In that moment, as if recognizing her own name, the baby girl slowly opened her eyes for the first time, making direct eye contact with her father for the very first time as well. And Damon allowed himself to cry for the first time in a long time, while blue eyes stared deeply into another pair of beautiful blue eyes.
His daughter's eyes.
. a.n: Hello! I hope you're enjoying it so far. Thank you so much to those who are reading :) Again, I'm sorry for possible mistakes.
See ya :D