Hey guys, I'm back! Thanks for your amazing reviews. This is my first story to ever hit over 100 reviews. I thank you all so much. Every single one means so much to me! Thank you guys for taking the time to read and send in reviews.
Sorry if you read it earlier, or got an alert and the chapter wasn't there. I had to fix a few things, but now it's all ready for y'all!
August 2006:
"Do I really have to go in there?" Damon whined as they stood out on the sidewalk in front of the Plaza Hotel.
"Damon, this is part of your job. Besides, I didn't wear a ball gown and heels for nothing," Elena chastised him with a small smile. She couldn't blame him for wanting to ditch. His father had been nothing but cold and unwelcoming to her and now they were facing an entire night centered around him and his company.
"Did I mention that I love you for it?" Damon said with a smirk that stopped her heart for a few seconds. That never got old.
"No, but you showed me plenty of times," she said with a wicked wink and tugged a very speechless Damon into the ballroom.
The place was huge and beautiful and swimming with uptight snobs fighting for a chance to be represented by the Salvatore Print Media Company.
Elena took a deep breath to steady herself and by that time Damon had pulled himself together enough to get his business face on. She smiled up at him and she knew as long as he was by her side, the night wouldn't be that bad.
Damon expertly moved from client to client, impressing them with his knowledge and charming them with one smirk. She smiled and introduced herself when she could, but she was content to stand back and watch him work. He truly shined with what he did. As much as he held resentment toward his father for forcing him into the business, she could tell he liked it.
They moved through the crowds and his hand never left the small of her back. She felt much more comfortable in a room of strangers knowing he was holding onto her. Guiding her.
"Damon!" A sugary sweet voice rang out from behind them. She felt his hand tense on her back and she turned to see a brunette woman coming up to them. She was the definition of perfect. Her dress hugged her in all the right ways, her body was perfect and toned, her hair was styled without a hair out of place. Elena immediately felt inferior to the woman.
"Shit," Damon grumbled when he saw her coming.
The woman walked right up to them and pressed herself up against Damon. That instant Elena hated her.
"Wow, it has been way too long, Damon!" She said, her smile threatening to crack her face.
"It really has, Kat," Damon said sarcastically.
"I've missed you," she lowered her voice and looked up at him from under her eyelashes. It made Elena's blood boil. She could just picture herself launching herself at the woman. She'd take her straight to the ground and lay a few good punches right into that plastic face.
"Let me introduce you to my girlfriend, Elena," Damon sidestepped her advance. She almost beamed at him for his clever maneuver.
"Elena, this is Katherine. Katherine, this is Elena, my girlfriend," he introduced. Elena was secretly pleased he'd mentioned the girlfriend part twice already.
"Pleasure, I'm sure," Katherine said, giving her one look and turning back to Damon.
"So how have you been?" She asked him, her voice too sweet. It was starting to make Elena sick.
"I'm going to get a refill," Elena said awkwardly. She didn't wait for their responses because if she stayed a moment more, she'd have Katherine in a headlock.
She walked as fast as possible in her heels.
"I see you met the ex-girlfriend," Giuseppe's voice came from beside her. She turned and used all her might not to glare at him.
"She's a Pierce. Her family owns one of the largest magazine companies in the world," Giuseppe boasted.
"Well good for her," she muttered.
"I can't ever get away from that woman," Damon complained from behind her. She realized Giuseppe had moved on from her and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"You ok?" Damon asked as he looked at her. She shook her head and pulled herself together.
"I'm fine," she smiled at him and tried to make it genuine.
"Can we leave yet?" Damon asked, his voice verging on whining.
"Actually, I'd love to," Elena said, taking a deep breath. "I'd do anything to get out of this dress."
"I'd do anything to help you out of it," Damon said with a wink that sent shivers down her spine. Without another word she took his hand and they went laughing all the way to his loft, trying to make up for the time they'd spent in the sea of business associates and potential clients.
Present Day:
"Hey baby," Katherine greeted him as he sat down to coffee. She had a quick break in the day and they agreed to spend it together.
"Hi, how's your day going?" He asked, smiling at her annoyed expression. "That bad, huh?"
"They are just hammering me with things to do since I'm taking time off for the wedding," Katherine explained before they ordered their usual coffees.
"You'll never guess who I saw today," Katherine said as the waitress left.
"Who?" Damon asked.
"That girl you dated a few years ago... Elisha?" Katherine said, trying to remember her name. Damon's heart stopped.
"Elena?" He barely managed to keep his voice nonchalant.
"Yeah her. She's still as boring as ever, she said she's in town visiting your sister-in-law," she explained with a shrug. Damon hardly heard anything she said after that. All he heard was Elena. All he saw was Elena. He thought he put her behind him when he shattered her in Mystic Falls. Why would she be in New York?
He wasted no time getting to Caroline and Stefan's apartment. He was livid and all he could see was red. How could they not tell him? Why would they keep this from him?
He pounded down on their door, not really caring if he broke it off the hinges or not. A few moments later the door swung open revealing a very angry Caroline.
"What Damon?" She half way yelled at him.
"Why did Katherine see Elena today?" Damon practically shouted at her.
"Damon, calm down," Caroline said softly, holding her hands up defensively.
"Why did Katherine see her with you?" Damon asked, his voice still dripping with anger.
When Caroline didn't respond immediately, his eyes widened in understanding.
"She's in there with you, isn't she?" He said. It wasn't a question. He didn't wait for an answer either, he just pushed past her like a mad man. And then he found her, just standing off from the entryway and by the look in her big, shining, brown eyes, she'd heard every word.
"You can't be here, Elena," he said, running a hand through his hair. He looked so desperate, and his voice sounded every bit the same. He was almost begging her to leave. She didn't understand what her presence did to him.
"I'm getting married," he said after she opened and closed her mouth a few times trying to find the words to speak.
"I know," she said once she finally found her voice.
"You shouldn't have come," he said, before he turned on his heel and headed back to the door.
"Don't marry her," Elena called after him once he reached the door. She saw his back go tense as he froze with his hand on the door handle. "That's what I came all this way for. Don't marry her. I don't want you to."
He slowly turned around to face her, his face was stoic, but his eyes held the battle waging in him.
"Well that's just too damn bad," he said coldly.
"Why are you punishing me, Damon?" She asked abruptly. She saw surprise flash briefly across his face before disappearing behind his cold mask.
"I understand why you left, I get it. But that doesn't mean it suddenly didn't happen. It doesn't change the fact that I have spent the past five year thinking you abandoned me," he half-yelled.
"I know," she said, her voice quieter than before.
"Then come to find out, you had a child. MY child, Elena," he continued on, his voice increasing in volume with every word, "She is gone now and I didn't even know she existed. How do you think that makes me feel?" She felt like she was hit in the gut hearing him claim Clara as his own. It set off longing so intense it threatened to bring her to her knees. She could see it all, the life she dreamt about for the past five years. Her and Damon getting married, raising their baby girl. She could see the white picket fence and everything. She wanted that life so badly it nearly knocked her flat on the floor.
"Are you trying to hurt me? Is this what I get for leaving?" Elena asked quietly, tears filling her eyes.
"I'm going to marry her no matter what you do," he went on as if she never spoke. His voice dropping low and deadly, "You can cry, scream, yell, I don't care. It won't change my mind. I love her. Not. You."
"This is because of your father isn't it?" Elena said with a sad smile on her face. "You were never good enough for him and you think marrying the one person he approved of will some how rectify that. Well news flash, Damon. He's dead."
Her voice was cold and unfamiliar even to her own ears. They stared each other down for several tension filled moments, the only sound was that of their own breathing.
"I don't love you anymore," he said simply, breaking the silence, before turning and disappearing out the door.
Elena stared at the closed door that he had just left through. Then all at once it hit her. She made herself vulnerable, something she hadn't done since she left New York the first time.
Her knees suddenly felt like jello, and her chest felt as though there was a gaping hole in it. She leant back against the wall behind her and allowed herself to sink to the floor, her tears finally breaking free and running down her face. The sound of wretched sobs filled her ears and it took her a few moments to realize she was the one making them. Her whole frame shook from the force of her sobs, the force of the pain.
Caroline came to her side immediately. Elena had completely forgotten Caroline was even in the room. She pulled Elena into her arms and let her cry.
"He doesn't love me," Elena said brokenly and Caroline felt her heart clench for her friend. She had no words to say, nothing that would relieve Elena's pain, so instead she did the only thing she knew and pulled Elena closer into the safety of her arms.
He was pacing so furiously that he could feel the reverberations of each foot striking the floor in his whole body. Each time he pictured the heartbreak in her eyes, his foot struck the floor harder. He was going to wear a hole in his ten thousand dollar floor.
He hoped after he hurt her in Mystic Falls that he'd never have to do it again. He thought she'd steer clear of him and move on with her life. He never expected her to chase him here and ask him to call off his wedding.
How dare her? Storm back into his life, kicking up all those feelings he'd happily buried years ago, and ask him to break every promise he'd made. How could she just call him out like that? Saying that everything he was doing was because of his father? She didn't know him anymore, he wasn't the same person he had been five year ago.
He walked straight to the liquor cart knowing he couldn't deal with this on his own. He downed two glasses of his favorite whiskey before he ventured back into Elena territory in his mind.
He loved Katherine. He was going to marry Katherine. He was finally moving into a good place in his life when they reconnected. She'd been everything he needed to give him that final push out of the darkness he'd been living in. She was sexy, vibrant, and feisty. She could be a handful, but he always felt like it would keep him on his toes. Not to mention, the sudden change in his father when they started dating was also a plus. It was like he finally started to get to know his father for the first time. He actually laughed in front of Damon when Katherine came to her first dinner with them.
Giuseppe became responsive to the things Damon was doing for the company and he was thriving under his fathers attention. As he and Katherine grew closer, he and his father grew closer as well. For the first time since Elena had left, he felt alive, everything felt right. He fell in love with Katherine, then he proposed and he thought his father would burst with pride.
Then his father passed and Elena happened. She exploded back into his life and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to go on as if nothing happened. He felt guilty because he cheated on Katherine. He'd done the one thing he always told her he never would. He couldn't believe he lost control like that. It frightened him how easy it was to fall back into her. She sucked him right in as soon as his eyes met her doe-eyed gaze.
He threw his glass against the wall out of frustration. He was momentarily satisfied when he heard it shatter. He tried to calm his breathing, but there was nothing he could do to get her out of his head.
If he was honest, she scared him. He lost himself in her without a second thought. She'd hurt him so easily last time that he was afraid of what she could do to him again. He wouldn't survive if that happened again. He didn't trust her not to hurt him.
What scared him most is that he didn't trust himself not to love her.
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