Every little girl had a hero, someone they looked up to. To little girls, their dad was everything to them. Her father was Elena Gilbert's everything. Her hero, her role model, and her best friend.
Elena was eleven years old when her world shattered—came to a crashing halt. Laughing and living a carefree life was easy when she was oblivious to the world's cruelty. That was when she had her first real life lesson. The world was a cruel place.
Her little brother, Jeremy was outside with her jumping in and out of the sprinklers on a hot summer day in Mystic Falls. It was their favourite thing to do together, something they couldn't fight about. Their father, Grayson Gilbert was sitting at the patio table reading his newspaper and drinking his coffee like he did every Saturday morning. From the outside, they were the perfect suburban family.
On the inside—lies, hatred, and secrets.
Elena had witnessed something that day that would always be imbedded into her mind. She also had the evidence to prove it...on her very own skin.
After ten years, the memory was still seared into her mind. Everything about that day. That moment.
Elena rubbed her shoulder as she always did when she thought about her father. That was where she had the scar—the memory—of what that day entailed.
Elena had engrossed herself into every crime and detective show possible. She was fascinated with everything relative to murder or criminal cases. She knew it was an odd fascination, but it was all she knew. It was all she had wanted to know.
She was not a "typical" college student. She didn't wave pom-poms around, wear short skirts to get boys to notice her, or even bury her head in a book studying. She didn't have to work to get a guy's attention or care about popularity. She was one that was so damn distracted. The one distracted by her past, and it wouldn't every go away until she knew the truth of that day.
Today Elena was wearing a navy blue pencil skirt, white silk blouse, and nude pumps. She looked like a librarian, but she needed to look the part.
Her hair was up in a tight bun with a few loose curls. She wrapped her late grandmother's pearls around her neck for added effect. She did add a touch of makeup—nothing extreme. Her body was slender—a gymnast's body—but she hadn't trained in years. Not since she was eleven and could no longer deal with the memories each practice brought.
It used to be a passion of her, but now it was only a reminder of her father and the times they spent together every Sunday afternoon at the gym. She loved it before her father died and now it was only a painful memory—a painful passion.
Elena walked into the building marked Salvatore Enterprises and then took the elevator to the third floor. Confidently, she stepped off and walked straight to the secretary's desk.
"Hello, may I help you?" The secretary looked up at Elena bored.
"Hi, I'm Elena Gilbert. I'm here for an intern interview."
"Welcome, Miss Gilbert. Mr Salvatore and his colleagues are a few minutes behind. Please take a seat, and they will be with you shortly."
Elena nodded. "Thank you."
She held the manila envelope in her lap as she took a seat. It contained her college transcripts along with a lengthy essay on why she deserved this unpaid internship.
Elena made sure to do extensive research on this company. It was one of the largest investigative criminal reporting companies in Richmond. They did a little of everything, but the part she was interested in was the criminal cases. They held files to every unsolved murder in the state of Virginia, which was exactly her reason for being here in the first place.
"Miss Gilbert? They are ready for you now."
Elena stood up and smoothed her skirt. She thanked the receptionist as she walked down the short hall to a boardroom.
The internship process was extensive due to all the private information held here. She had to go through an extensive questionnaire online as well as a phone pre-interview, but she was prepared. She was going to nail this interview head on.
One thing her father had always said about her was that she was a real charmer. She had had the ability to manipulate and deceive people for as long as she could remember, and she fully intended to use that to her advantage. Using charm and seduction—her two secret weapons—she confidently walked in.
"Welcome, please take a seat."
Three men sat in a row behind a long cherry table. They all had files lying on the table and shuffled through them as Elena made her way to the chair.
"Hello, gentlemen." Elena leaned over and urged her hand in front of them, quickly shaking the first two men's hands. She shifted her body, so she was angled towards the last one whom she assumed was Mr Damon Salvatore from the pictures she found.
She nearly stopped breathing. He was intimidatingly stunning. She tried not to stare, but it was impossible not to when she was trying to put on a show of confidence.
He hesitated, but grabbed her hand anyway and shook it. It sent a chill down her body, and she immediately jerked back.
What was wrong with her?
Elena smiled as she slowly sat down and set her folder on top of the table.
"You are Miss Elena Gilbert, correct?" The one in the middle asked.
"Yes, sir." Elena reminded herself to keep eye contact while controlling her facial expressions.
"Excellent. Well, welcome. I'm Klaus Mikaelson, and this is my colleague, Richard Lockwood, and this here is Mr Damon Salvatore."
Elena glanced at each of them, but her eyes halted on Mr Salvatore. As she got a better look at him, she swallowed as she took in his face, mouth, and biceps. Little butterflies appeared in her stomach as his eyes made contact with hers.
Klaus and Richard looked like typical businessmen. They were the most engaged, whereas Damon looked bored and irritated that he had been called into these interviews in the first place. He shifted uneasily as their eyes made contact.
Where Klaus and Richard wore the clean-cut look—short slicked hair and clean-shaven face—Damon looked straight out of a motorcycle ad. He had dark brown almost black hair which hung just over his ears, styled in casual disarray. It actually looked good on him, but it definitely was not what Elena expected a future CEO to look like.
"It is a pleasure," she said as she made sure to keep her smile seductive. It was a talent she nailed down years ago.
"Can you tell us what you know about Salvatore Enterprises? And why you think you would benefit from the intern program here?" Richard asked right away with a pen ready to start taking notes.
Elena cleared her throat and sat up taller. "I know all the basic information that is on your website, and honestly, it is just the tip of what this company is really about." She noticed all three men were now staring intently at her. "What is not on your website is that Salvatore Enterprises is one of the largest charitable contributors in Richmond. You give the most to foundations that support Amber Alerts, Missing Children Programs, and unresolved cold cases to name just a few. You truly believe in the justice of finding missing persons, and giving justice to the families of the victims. Besides your charitable contributions, you also hold the highest record in the country for reporting the most open cases from over ten years ago. And I think I can benefit from all of that."
Klaus and Richard's jaws dropped as Damon's expression remained unchanged. Elena was unsure if he was impressed or pissed off, but she continued smiling as she made eye contact with each of them.
"That's very impressive," Klaus finally said.
"Thank you. I did an extensive background search, but I'm very fascinated with this line of work."
"What do you see yourself doing in the future?" Richard asked.
"I would like to be a journalist. Perhaps a news reporter. I want to dig into open or even seemingly impossible cold cases. I want to make a difference to someone's family, even if it's years later. I want to do the unthinkable."
This earned an eyebrow raise from Damon. Well, it was a start. She would get him to warm up to her before she walked out that door.
"Excellent choice," Richard nodded as he wrote his notes down.
"What do you think you can offer Salvatore Enterprises during your internship?"
"I hope to offer my skills, but mainly, I hope to make your lives easier. I want to be the middleman that helps get you whatever is needed to help you do your job better." Elena knew she wouldn't be working on any cases, so she wouldn't even pretend that was an option, but she could definitely use the advantage to get her foot in the door. Once she was in, she could do her own digging.
"Sounds very ambitious." Her head jerked to Damon, who finally spoke. His voice was low and stern. It took her by surprise.
Elena smirked and crossed her legs. "I guess you could say that." She liked the attention he was finally giving her. It made her feel like she was cracking him.
"What can you tell us about your college experience thus far? What major are you?" Richard asked as she tore her eyes away from Damon.
"I'm a double major in journalism and criminal justice. My plan is to find a career where I can merge both of those since they both fascinate me," she answered honestly.
"You sound very busy," Damon interrupted. "How do you plan to juggle it all?"
Elena pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth just before releasing it and answering. "I'm very skilled at juggling."
This is my latest Delena story. Hopefully my readers will enjoy this story as well. There will be more drama in this story but of course it is still a love story of our favourite couple:) However, will their love endure secrets, lies and betrayal? Watch the space...