I don't know what I was afraid of. Of course Caroline could've easily moved on without me, broken my heart as I feared she would have. The fear of the unknown haunts me every moment of the day. The fear of not knowing whether she would show up at my door or be the one to kill me and dance over my ashes, kept me up at night when other nights were used walking about the city and trying to keep her from my mind in resentment. But if Stefan loved her, that would ensure her safety. If the ripper could be trusted to protect the strong, brave and fierce woman that is Caroline Forbes. My future killer or not, Caroline was a treasured secret of mine I could not let come to light. Hope was only safe because she was always by her family, who would die to see her live. Stefan needed to be the man Caroline had if I was not permitted to protect her.
Stefan looked over at me and simply asked if I still had feelings for her. I would've noticed the dodging if I weren't about to dodge his own question myself. I didn't want anything to happen to her. If Stefan believed I still loved her, it was possible he'd turn her out much like he'd done with his fated doppelganger. My remembrance of the final moments, before she and I parted last from the forest; the last tender kisses we shared that even now lingered on my lips, the look of her when her guard was truly down; the sweetest way she'd ever looked upon me had become a memory for my mind, and only my mind. And even as I explained my life was too complicated to attend to another complicated woman, whether I believed those words or not, I could not bear the thought of bringing her pain.
I guessed at why it was Rayna Cruz's blade ended up in Stefan's flesh: Caroline. Something happened and the huntress was after her. When Stefan shot my suspicions down again, anger rolled inside me. Elijah had spent far too long sacrificing his eternal love life to keep me safe, to make me happy. Who knew what had happened to those women he held affection for. The ones I did not kill, anyway. If there was one thing Aurora De Martel had taught me, was the wrath of a scorned woman who was so by my hand. Caroline did not deserve to become another one of the women cast aside for the sake of love between brothers. She deserved far better than Stefan appeared capable of giving her. Damon coveting Elena had turned Stefan's sights on Caroline. And despite my annoyance and jealousy at that fact, I had to accept it. She loved another man at present. If Stefan did not love her, he would learn it was better for him to do so, than to break her heart. The thought of it brought me much more pain than the past months of torturing myself, wondering if Caroline had ever truly shown me how she felt. Her pain, Hope's pain, I could not endure being the one who inflicted it upon them. Just as I would do right by my little girl, I will do right by the woman I love.
