Dear Friends- thank you for taking the time to read this labor of love. I've truly enjoyed every second I've spent writing this fic and have a clear direction I want it to go. Thank you for being so supportive throughout all my writing breaks. Writing has always been a release for me- I'm so glad that I get to share my hobby with you all. Thank you.

Chapter 18

Elena

"I like this Logan kid," Santi comments from the armchair beside my bed. Mal sits next to me, his hands behind his head.

"Nah, Veronica can't stand Logan, she likes Duncan," Mal adds.

They both look at me expectantly. "Veronica cares more about her dad than either Duncan or Logan."

"Cop-out," Santi remarks.

"I know how this ends!" I yell. "I've seen this before, I'm just trying to not spoil anything,"

"Veronica likes the bad-boy because he's the only one that can understand that part of her," someone says.

I look up and see Damon standing in the doorway, wearing a v-neck white shirt and low slung jeans, covered in soot, but wearing the confident smirk I know and love. However, I'm not about to let him know what I'm thinking. "Logan should've been more upfront with her. Explained where he was and why he couldn't be there when she was going through hell."

"I doubt Logan thought through the ramifications of his actions."

"Clearly," I remark.

Santi and Mal have smartly slipped out of the room, leaving me, lying on the California King bed, and Damon, standing in the doorway. Damon strides into the room and reaches my bed within a couple of paces. He plops on the bed, getting soot everywhere and tugs me on top of his chest. I wriggle free and move away from him, standing beside the bed. "Where were you?"

"School."

I point to the obvious soot marks on his clothes. "Unless MFHS is actually built on a Hellmouth, I doubt that's the only place you've been."

Damon mocks being deep in thought by placing an index finger over his lips and tilting his chin up. After a dramatic pause, he says. "I'll make you a deal."

"You left me alone all day with no explanation and no way of leaving. I don't want to make a deal with you."

Damon ignores my words, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a phone, new by the looks of it. He waves it around and pats the spot on the bed I just left. "Don't you want a new phone?"

"You can't buy me, Damon."

He continues to ignore me. "You tell me where you went on Saturday, and I'll give you this phone and tell you what's going on."

I fold my arms and remain resolute.

Damon sighs dramatically and unlocks the phone. "You have an email from your coach about a meet on Saturday," Damon scrolls through. "You need to turn in your college application essays," he looks up. "You still haven't done that?" He looks back at the phone. "Rafe emailed you several times. He's sorry he kissed you," anger clouds Damon's face. "That tool."

"Damon!" I yell.

He holds up his finger, telling me to wait a minute. "I'm reading Rafe's love letter to you, and let me tell you, a poet, he is not."

"Damon!"

"Elena, I haven't been able to row for days I'm so troubled by what I did," Damon reads. "I wanted you by my side when I went to California, but I blew it. I feel like half my heart is in Mystic Falls."

Damon pauses and looks at me. "You really did a number on this kid, Elena."

I'm so angry, I pounce on the bed and try to grab the phone from his hands. "Stop reading my emails, Damon!"

Damon easily holds it out of reach and continues to read. "I know what I did was wrong, but I think I love you, Elena and love makes people do stupid things."

I'm on top of him, grabbing his forearm so I can snatch the phone from his grasp. "Damon!"

"I'm liking you in this position, Elena," he casually comments. "Please keep it up."

My boobs are in his face. I use it to my advantage and lean closer. Damon takes his attention away from the phone for a split second and I grab it. I roll off of him, hop off the bed, and do a touchdown dance. "I got it! I got it!"

He places his hands behind his head and chuckles. Damon's shirt rides up a bit revealing his abs. His countable abs. He smirks, "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

I roll my eyes and open up the camera app on the phone and do just that. Damon laughs and I remember how much I used to like that sound. He doesn't look younger, but less stressed- less like the world is plotting against him. "How did you get my email and everything on this fancy new phone?"

He wiggles his eyebrows. "I have my ways."

"And millions at your disposal."
Damon gives me an innocent one-shouldered shrug. "That too."

"Are you really going to tell me what you were up to while two hired goons were left to watch me?"

"Are you going to tell me about where you went on Saturday?"

He's not pushing me to talk about what happened later. The benefit of Damon knowing me since I was a kid— he knows when to push and where. He knew how to distract me, just as he always has.

Oddly enough, I'm not mad at him for leaving me here, locked in a room in his pool house. In retrospect, I think I welcomed the excuse to not do anything. I didn't have to go to work or worry about Dom or worry about school and the people there. Which is probably why I find myself nodding. "Yeah, I'll tell you."

I put my phone on the nightstand and sit next to Damon.

"So where did you run off to?"

"You can probably guess the first part. I took a bus to visit my dad…Grayson," I correct. "…in jail to ask him questions."

"And how is Grayson holding up?"

"He's dead," I state. "The warden met with me and told me that he died in a prison riot."

"Elena…" Damon's voice cracks but I interrupt him.

"No, Damon," I plead, I can't handle pity right now, otherwise the dam will burst open and I won't be able to stop. "Don't, or I won't be able to finish."

He closes his eyes like he's trying to restrain himself and takes a deep breath. "Okay, what happened next?"

"The warden said his lawyer had information for me," I explain.

"Mark Fell?"

I shake my head. "Dad got a new lawyer in jail, Diego Romano."

"Diego is a mob lawyer," Damon explains. "Please tell me you didn't go see him alone."

I shrug. "I didn't know! If I knew, I wouldn't have gone."

Actually, I probably still would've gone.

"You still would've met with him," Damon comments, effectively reading my thoughts. "You're fearless, it's one of the things that I'm starting to hate about you."

I ignore his comment. "So I took a bus to Falls City and went to the lawyer's office, but he wasn't there- Domenico Moretti was. My dad or Grayson or whoever he has left information for me- letters. Domenico is convinced that I'll be good at selling for him, so he told me that I have to sell enough to pay back my parents' debt and he'll give me information Grayson left."

"Why you?"

"I don't know," I reply, honestly. "He says I'm resourceful. He told me a package would be delivered on Monday, at 8:00, during my shift at Patty's."

"It's Wednesday."

I roll my eyes. "I'm well aware of that."

Damon leans his head back on the pillow, looking at the ceiling while lost in thought. "You're not leaving this pool house," he mutters. "I'll get all your school books and homework. Hell, I'll film classes for you. You aren't leaving the property until I figure this out."

I think he's joking, but I'm not entirely sure. "I'm feeling better. I have to go back to school at some point, Damon."

He takes my hand and clasps his fingers through mine like I'm a lifeline. "What happened next?"

"I didn't want anyone following me to your place, so I went back to my home on the south side and that's when I was jumped." I didn't intend to tell him this, but it starts spilling out of me. He squeezes my hand, giving me the strength to continue.

"I was knocked out and woke up tied to a bed," I close my eyes, trying to remember. "I woke up blindfolded. Chase was there, I'm not positive, but I recognized his voice. I heard another, a voice I didn't recognize- he's an underclassman. I remember Chase yelling at him. His dad owns the cabin- I was in a cabin. Chase took my mask off and gave me water and a peanut butter sandwich. I tried to convince him to let me go, and I thought he would for a moment— but then he gave me hot chocolate laced with something." I close my eyes. "They were wearing masks with skulls on them. There was a picture of a deer in the woods on the wall…and that's all I remember except flashes like I remember Teardrop by Massive Attack playing and jumping on the bed saying I loved the song." Tears spring to my eyes, that feeling of not being in control- just aching to feel good. I look at Damon and wipe my tears with the palm of my hand. "They didn't force me, Damon. I wanted it. I remember wanting it."

Damon sits up and takes my hands. He looks me in the eyes and mine search his pale blue irises- searching, for what, I don't know. "You were drugged. Doctor Klein told you what was in your bloodstream, right? You had no control over what you were doing."

I look away, closing my eyes.

"Look at me, Elena."

Immediately, my eyes go back to his. "We are going to make them pay and we'll figure out how to deal with Moretti together."

He wipes tears from my face, he's so gentle. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," I reply, almost surprised how easily the word falls from my lips.

"Is that all you remember?"

"Chase was pissed because the video from the trial showed him giving me the Rohypnol and his college acceptance was rescinded- same with Noah. He lost his football scholarship," I add. "That's all I remember."

"What I don't get, is if Moretti was watching you, why didn't he stop Noah and Chase from taking you?"

In retrospect, losing Moretti's men was a bad move on my part. "I might have ditched the guy he had watching me, stolen a car, drove to Costco, and hitched a ride with a family going back to Mystic Falls."

Damon tugs me to him, so I'm lying on his chest and his arms are wrapped around me. He kisses my forehead. "That's my girl," he mutters. "Smart and fearless."

"Except if Jasper had taken me home, I doubt Chase and Noah would've been able to jump me."

"You need to stop blaming yourself," Damon says, pressing his lips to my forehead. "You didn't know what would happen. You did everything I would've done- your Uncle John would be proud."

"I don't even know if he's my uncle."

Damon hums, pulling me closer to him. "There's one person who has to know and we've both been avoiding using his considerable resources."

I turn to look at Damon- it'd kill him to contact this person. "We don't have to call your dad. You hate him."

"True, but he knows Grayson and Miranda and I've had a feeling that for a while, he's known more about you than he'll admit to me."

I lean into him and get a whiff of smoke. "Are you going to tell me what you've been up to?"

"Yes."

I move away from his embrace so I can look at him, but he just ends up tugging me toward him so I'm forced to straddle him, but at least this way I can look him in the eyes. "Well…."

"You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you, but I think you need to know."

"Just tell me, Damon."

It can't be any worse than what I'm thinking.

"I was sent a letter with your blood on it…"

My brows knit in confusion. There aren't any cuts on my body. "My blood?"

Damon gives me a minute to figure it out and when I do, I'm disgusted. "Oh, God."

I may vomit. I lean over Damon and take a drink of water from the bottle on the nightstand. When I look like I've regained composure, Damon continues. "I was given coordinates and drove there. I found you passed out in a cage, on the side of the road. A picture was taken of you from earlier and taped on the cage. I wrapped you in a blanket and carried you to my car. I had Doctor Klein meet me at the mansion and take care of you. You were vomiting a lot that first night and then you passed out until this morning."

"What were you doing while I was locked away?"

"I went to school and acted like everything was normal," he explains. "At that point, I didn't know much, but I knew a note was sent to me by a courier paid in cash with your location on it. Noah was the one that pain in cash, though that's no surprise. I was the one that arranged for my security footage to show what happened that night at the trial. I knew that me acting like everything was fine would throw them off, so I continued to eat with Noah and Chase and when people asked where you were, I said I didn't know. Meanwhile, I searched county records for properties within a five-mile radius of where I found you and found a cabin, deep in the woods."

I perk up. "Did you break-in?"

"One of these days, I'm going to have to take Uncle John for a drink to thank him for everything he taught me."

"Same," I add.

"I broke into the cabin. It belongs to Lucas Brown, the father of Frederick Brown, an underclassman at MFHS," Damon explains. "I searched the cabin and didn't find much until I reached a room with a picture of a deer in the forest."

My eyes widen. "Oh, God."

"Yup," Damon says. I can only imagine what he saw. "And then I burned the place down."

I can't help but feel satisfied by that. "Well, that explains the soot."

"We can stay here or in the main house," Damon says. "But either way, I need a shower."

"Are Santi and Mal a permanent fixture in my life?"

"I think you need to stay here for one more day before you go back to school, is that okay with you?"

"Stay with me?"

"The moment you leave this property, Dom's men will be after you, I'm not leaving you," Damon affirms

"Let's just stay here, then," I mutter. "You need a shower."

He chuckles. "Yes, but I need to call my dad first. He'll be able to give you answers you thought only Moretti could give you."

I know how much he hates calling his dad, it's why I've avoided it for this long. The phone rings and Damon put it on speaker. "Son," his father answers. "What did you do this time? Do you need to go to rehab again?"

I lean into Damon and hug his waist.

"No, Dad," he replies. "Elena is here, and she was wondering if you could answer some of her questions."

"Elena?" Giuseppe proclaims. "How's she holding up?"

Damon gives me an encouraging nod, so I speak up. "Not well, sir."

"What happened, Elena? Tell me and I'll kill whoever hurt you."

I smile at Damon. So much like his father. "I actually need information, Giuseppe. My dad died in jail and Miranda admitted to not being my biological mom. I was wondering if you knew anything about my biological parents."

There's a long pause, in which Damon and I both look at each other, worried Giuseppe hung up. "I'm sorry that you had to find out this way, but your mom was just sixteen when she had you. She came to me because she knew I could protect you…" Giuseppe clears his throat like he's embarrassed. "She and I had a brief affair a couple of years ago and you two look so much alike, it's uncanny."

I look at Damon, who grimaces. That explains Lucinda's statement about seeing me with Giuseppe.

"When you were born, Elena, Isabella was worried about bringing you into the life she was raised in. Isabella's last name is, Russo. Grayson and I were best friends, and I knew if you were part of a Founding Family of Mystic Falls, you'd be protected. Miranda was having problems conceiving and wanted a baby so badly. I told Grayson about Isabella and he agreed to take you in and protect you. I think he told Miranda that you were the product of an affair."

I gasp. No wonder Miranda always hated me.

"You have to understand," Giuseppe explains. "That Grayson was trying to protect you. If anyone knew you were a member of the Russo family, you would've been a target. You would've been taken."

"Who's my dad?" I ask, still stunned by the revelations.

"Isabella fell in love with the son of another crime boss, Antonio Giovanni. You're a Principia, Elena. You come from two of the most powerful families in the states. If anyone found out who you were, you'd be in danger. Isabella was so worried about what would happen to you if anyone realized who you were. Hiding you in Mystic Falls was her greatest sacrifice."

I'm breathless. It explains what Lucinda saw. She didn't see me with a towel on, visiting Giuseppe, she saw my mom. My real mom. "Is she alive?"

A pause.

"She died five months ago- B cell lymphoma."

Cancer.

"Where's my dad?"

"In New York, but Elena, don't look for him. He's incredibly powerful and already has a couple of sons ready to take over his business."

I have half brothers. I have a family I didn't know about.

Finally, I ask the question that's been plaguing me for years. "Why did my dad sell drugs? The man that let me hand out lollypops when I was seven wouldn't have gotten in this life."

A heavy sigh. "A few of the original families in New York figured out you existed. Grayson set up a prescription drug ring to distract them and got involved with the wrong people here, in Virginia. No one would've guessed that Grayson would develop an addiction- I tried to help him but he's so proud. He was embarrassed."

"Thank you for answering my questions, Giuseppe."

"Are you in any danger, Elena?"

I lean back into the pillows while Damon answers his dad. "I've got people watching her, dad."

Damon lifts the earpiece to his ear and I can hear some of the conversations, but it's better than listening and knowing Giuseppe knows I'm listening. "I'm protecting her, Dad. Yes, I'm using all our resources."

"I don't know who knows! You never told me about this," Damon yells into the phone. "Yeah, Dad. It would've been nice if at some point you told me that the girl I love is a mob princess."

Girl he loves?

This has to be Damon in the heat of passion, trying to figure things out. Apparently, I'm the only one slightly weirded out by the fact that his dad and my mom had an affair.

Damon and his dad reach some sort of agreement before he ends the call.

"My dad just gave me full access to his bank account in order to protect you, so that's a positive," Damon explains, though he's not meeting my eyes.

"If I fucked Giuseppe, would that make this less weird?" I joke.

Damon grabs my hips and throws me on my back. I have no choice but to look at him. "Don't joke about fucking my dad," he admonishes. "There was a second there…"

"I know," I reply. "But it's not true, so let's focus on that."

"This explains Moretti's fascination with you. Elena, I'm sorry, I know you're strong and can figure a way out of any situation, but Santi and Mal will always be with you unless I'm with you."

I nod in agreement. "I don't know how he's going to react to me missing the deadline on Monday," I say. "Damon, I think he knows about my biological parents. He kept talking about how I'm perfect for phase two."

Damon leans over and kisses my forehead. "I know you'll hate this, but I'm asking you to please not leave my side. You've been through so much already, let me take care of things within our control."

"As long as you don't treat me as a useless porcelain doll and you agree that we work together, I'm okay with you being by my side at all times."

"So you're not mad that I burned down the cabin you were kept in," he remarks.

"Hell no," I state. "As long as you weren't caught, I'm fine."

"Are you going to be able to pretend that nothing is wrong if you go back to school on Friday?"

"You might've forgotten because you were the main instigator, but I've put up with a lot. I'll be fine, on Friday and if I'm not, I'll have no trouble retaliating."

Damon chuckles and lets me go while he takes a shower. I change into a tank top and shorts that I find in the dresser. I turn out the lights and pull the crisp white duvet over myself before nodding off. While I'm drifting between awake and asleep, I feel myself being tugged against a hard, warm body. A sigh escapes my lips before I fall into a deeper sleep