Elena made it home around four-thirty that afternoon. She'd stopped by the Grill to pick up some food for them all to have dinner, as no one in the house could cook much. When she got into the kitchen, she found her aunt and her brother waiting. "Hey, I got the food.
"Great. I should've cooked though, shouldn't I have?" Jenna asked.
"I don't know. If you want to make a good impression, I don't think giving the guy food poisoning would be the best way to go about it," Jeremy joked.
"Jeremy, go upstairs and put on the nicest thing you own," Jenna said.
Jeremy sighed. "Aren't we taking this a little far?"
Jenna only gave her nephew a pointed look in response until he did what she asked.
"Jenna, I think you can relax a little. Elijah's not expecting a fancy dinner," Elena said.
Jenna took a breath. "This man holds all the cards, Elena. I called a lawyer. If what you said about him not signing away his rights is true, he can do almost anything he wants here."
"I thought you said you didn't want to jump to conclusions," Elena said.
"I don't, but I also wanted to be prepared for the worst possible outcome if necessary. Aren't you concerned about what Elijah might do?" Jenna asked.
"Yes, but, truthfully, this has all been happening so fast that I've barely had time to think about it all. It's been really overwhelming," Elena said honestly.
"Of course, it is. I'm sorry if I'm making it worse, Elena. I don't want to scare you, but I also feel like you should at least know what is possible," Jenna said.
"I know. I do realize that what you're saying is possible," Elena said. She also knew it was probable. If that were the scenario, she would fight Elijah on it, but realistically, she knew that she would lose.
"But you're right too. We need to stay positive. It's entirely possible that this man just wants to make sure you're in a safe place," Jenna said.
Soon, they both heard a knock at the door.
"Oh, God! He's early, isn't he?" Jenna asked.
"It's okay, Jenna. Just get dinner on the table. I'll let him in," Elena said before heading out to the front door. When she opened it, she was surprised to find that it wasn't Elijah waiting for her. It was Stefan. "Stefan, what are you doing here? I told you I couldn't see you tonight."
Stefan let himself in and closed the door. "Elena, I'm worried about you. You've been acting weird, especially today."
"I have a lot on my mind. I have some family things I'm dealing with," Elena said.
"What is it? Tell me what's going on," Stefan said.
"Look, I will talk to you about it later. I don't have time right now. We have a guest coming for dinner, and you can't be here for that," Elena said.
Just then, Jenna entered the room. "Oh, no, no. This is not a good idea. Please tell me you didn't invite him to dinner. I mean no offense, Stefan, but you need to go."
"What's going on?" Stefan asked. Jenna had never reacted to him this way, and he could tell she was very nervous. What was going on, and why was Elena hiding it from him?
Jenna pulled Elena aside. "Elena, It is a very bad idea for your teenaged boyfriend to be here the first time I meet your biological father."
Elena sighed. She hadn't wanted Stefan to know that yet. It wasn't Jenna's fault, of course. She had no way of knowing that Stefan was a vampire with super hearing. It was just inconvenient for Elena. "I know. He's not staying.
Stefan looked shocked. Elena's biological father was John Gilbert. Why would Jenna say she was meeting him for the first time? She knew who he was. "Elena?"
There was another knock at the door at that moment.
"Crap," Elena said before going to answer the door.
Stefan watched as his girlfriend opened the door to reveal a dark-haired man in an expensive suit. Stefan knew right away that he was a vampire.
"Hi, Elijah. Come in," Elena said.
"Elena!" Stefan exclaimed.
Elijah smiled at his daughter and stepped inside. "Hi, Elena. How are you doing?"
"I'm okay. This is my Aunt Jenna," Elena said as she pointed to her aunt.
Elijah smiled and held his hand out to her. "Hello, Jenna. It's wonderful to meet you. I'm Elijah Mikaelson."
Jenna took his hand almost in shock. When she envisioned Elena's biological father, she didn't expect him to look like this. She supposed she was expecting a middle-aged man, or at least someone the same age as her brother-in-law. She didn't know why. Elena's biological mother had been young. She supposed it was reasonable that her father would be too. "Hello, Elijah. It's good to meet you."
Elijah gave her another quick smile before turning towards Stefan. "And who is this young man?"
"This is my boyfriend, Stefan. Stefan, this is Elijah. He's my father," Elena said. There was no point in hiding it now. Stefan had already heard Jenna say that they were meeting her father tonight.
"Boyfriend. Well, it's a pleasure, Stefan," Elijah said as he held his hand out. When the boy took his hand, Elijah purposely squeezed a bit harder than necessary for affect.
Stefan grunted a bit at the man's grip before his hand was released.
"Uh, Stefan is leaving. I'll walk him out," Elena said.
"Of course. Stefan, you and I will have to get acquainted soon," Elijah said with an almost dangerous look.
Elena took Stefan by the arm and pulled him outside.
"Elena, what the hell is going on? That guy is a vampire!" Stefan said.
"I'm aware of that, Stefan," Elena said.
"You let him in, and you called him your father. He's not your father," Stefan said.
"Yes, he is," Elena said.
"No, John…"
"Is not my father. Look, it's a long story, and I can't tell it right now, but my father is Elijah. Now, I need you to go. I'll talk to you about this tomorrow," Elena promised.
"You can't expect me to leave you here with him," Stefan said in an incredulous tone.
"Yes, I can. Elijah is no threat to me or anyone I care about," Elena said.
"He's dangerous," Stefan said. He knew that moments after meeting him, and it wasn't just because he was a vampire. He had a dangerous vibe to him, and he was very strong.
"Yes, but not to me," she said.
"You don't know that. You can't have known this man for long," Stefan said.
"Look, I don't have time to explain all of this to you. Elijah is my father. He wouldn't hurt me or my family. Now, I have to get back inside, and you need to get out of here," Elena said. She didn't let Stefan say even another word before heading back inside. She made it just in time for Jeremy to come down, who was now dressed in blue button-down and a pair of dress pants.
"Elijah, this is my nephew, Jeremy," Jenna said.
"Hello, Jeremy," Elijah said as he held his hand out to the young man. "I'm Elijah."
Jeremy reluctantly shook his hand. "Hi."
"Shall we go into the dining room. Dinner is waiting," Jenna said.
"Of course, Jenna. And please forgive my intrusion. I know it was a bit presumptuous for me to invite myself over today, but I felt that a meeting between us should happen as soon as possible. I would've preferred to even do it last night, but it was late, and I didn't think Elena could handle much more," Elijah explained.
"Well, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, Elijah, but I honestly wish you had approached me before Elena. I don't like how she found out," Jenna said as respectfully as possible.
"Nor do I. Shall we go sit down. I would like to explain how all of this came out," Elijah said.
Jenna nodded before leading the way to the dining room. The table was set for four, and the food was laid out on serving platters. The four of them quickly sat down. "Please help yourself. I hope you like it. Elena wasn't sure what you might like."
"That's alright. I'm not picky," Elijah said before serving himself some food. The others did the same. "Shall we all eat first, or would you prefer an explanation as we eat."
"Uh, I think we can talk while we eat," Jenna said. She doubted she'd be doing much eating though. She didn't have much of an appetite.
"As I said, I don't care much for the way Elena found out about me either. I would've preferred any other way. Unfortunately, it couldn't be helped, as we found out at the same time," Elijah said before taking a bite of his food.
"Oh. I thought that you approached her," Jenna said.
"In a sense, yes. Elena and I met through a mutual acquaintance. At that time, neither of us knew we were related. We spoke, and it became we had another acquaintance in common, a woman named Katerina Petrova," Elijah said.
Jenna turned to Elena. "You've never mentioned a friend named Katerina."
"That's because she's not a friend," Elena said in an almost sick tone as she relived the things Katherine had said to her last night. She pushed her plate away, having already lost her appetite.
"Think nothing of her, Elena. She is irrelevant to your life. She will never cause you pain again," Elijah said softly to his daughter before turning back to Jenna. "Katerina was Elena's biological mother."
"What? Her mother was a woman named Isobel," Jenna said.
Elena shook her head. "Isobel wasn't my mother. I guess her child died."
"Yes. According to Katerina, the child died shortly before Elena's birth. Katerina gave our child to Isobel, who was a family member of hers. Isobel passed the child off as her own and gave her to your family," Elijah explained.
"You have proof of this?" Jenna asked.
"I have seen the birth certificate for my child. I can get it to you. I can produce other evidence as well," Elijah said. Obviously, there was no birth certificate, but he could have one fabricated.
Jenna pinched the bridge of her nose. If this was true, it was worse than she thought. Elena's entire adoption was illegal. All the parties who signed the paperwork had committed fraud, maybe even her sister and brother-in-law. Grayson at least had to have known. He delivered the child. If they were alive, they'd be facing serious charges.
Elena shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like the way this story portrayed her parents, but she couldn't really fault Elijah for it. A lot of what he was saying was true. and while her parents had meant well, what they did was technically not legal.
"If this is all true, please know that I don't condone what was done, but my sister and her husband would not have done it if they thought Elena had a parent who wanted her. They wouldn't steal someone else's child," Jenna said.
"Jenna, I'm not looking to assign blame to your family. I'm grateful to all of you. The only person I hold responsible is Katerina. She should've come to me. Had I known about Elena, I would've taken care of her myself. Instead, she was careless with her life, and I can only be grateful that my daughter was lucky enough to end up with a loving family," Elijah said.
"I'm sorry. It isn't right that that woman prevented you from being able to raise your own daughter, but I can't be sorry that she ended up with us. We love her very much. And now I have to ask what you plan to do next," Jenna said. She had wanted to hate this man since she found out about him, but if what he was saying was true, and she would need to see proof before she fully believed it, she couldn't hate him. He was a victim. He was prevented from even knowing about a child he would've opted to raise. He never even had a chance of finding out about Elena because of how illegal the adoption was. However, now Jenna was even more terrified that he was going to take Elena away from her.
"If you wouldn't mind, I would like to continue this conversation privately," Elijah said. None of them were going to like what he had to say, and he didn't want a bunch of arguments from everyone all at once. He would speak to Jenna and then Elena. That was the way it should be, as Jenna was currently acting as her guardian.
"What? No freaking way! We're not going anywhere!" Jeremy said irritably.
"No, I have every right to hear this. It's my life," Elena protested.
"I agree, and you will hear it. You will hear it from me in private. However, I want to speak to Jenna first," Elijah said. The tone in his voice made it clear that it was not a request.
"Both of you, go. Take your plates and eat upstairs," Jenna said. She knew already that this was going to go badly, and Elijah was right that it should be done privately.
Elena and Jeremy both looked as though they wanted to argue, but with both adults on the same page, they reluctantly got up and left the room with their food.