Elena made her way to the front door of the Salvator Boarding House. It was time for her to end things with Stefan. She'd promised Elijah she'd do it today, and she didn't want to draw it out anyway. It was best for everyone to do it right away. Stefan would be hurt, but there was, unfortunately, no way to prevent that. He would only be hurt worse if she delayed it.

Elena rang the doorbell, and it was answered moments later by Stefan. "Hey."

"Hi. I tried to call you yesterday. You didn't pick up," Stefan said before stepping aside to let her in.

Elena nodded before walking inside. She'd seen that he called shortly before coming over. "Sorry. Yesterday was really crazy. I had a lot going on. I still do."

"I was about to come over when Damon came home and said that he'd seen you and that you were okay."

"He's not here now, is he?" Elena asked. She really couldn't deal with Damon right now. She'd be tempted to kill him, and while that was eventually the plan, it shouldn't be when she was there to break up with his brother. There would be a time and a place for her or Elijah to murder Damon.

"No. He went out for a while," Stefan said.

"Good," Elena said before heading towards the living room.

Stefan fallowed her. "Listen, he told me what happened. For what it's worth, I think he was trying to help."

"He was trying to score points. He thought by bringing Jeremy home, he could get me to forget that he broke his neck right in front of me," Elena said in disgust as they entered the living room.

"I'm not defending what Damon did that night. It was horribly wrong, and you have every right to be angry about it. But last night, Jeremy was high. Should Damon have just left him in the woods?" Stefan asked.

"Yes," Elena said matter-of-factly. She would trust Jeremy to his own devises before she'd ever trust Damon Salvatore with him. "Or if he truly wanted to help, he could've made a phone call. He could've called me, Jenna, or even the Sheriff. He handled it the way he did because he wanted to manipulate me. Look, I don't want to talk about this anymore. I don't want to waste another moment on Damon. There are things that you and I need to discuss," Elena said.

"Is everything okay? Did something happen yesterday?" Stefan asked concerned.

Elena nodded. "A lot of things happened yesterday. We should sit down."

Stefan nodded before leading her to the couch, where they both sat down. "Does this have anything to do with Klaus?"

"Not exactly. It's not about his desire to end the curse. It recently came to my attention that my memory had been tampered with by Sheila Bennett," Elena said.

"Bonnie's grandmother? Why would she mess with your memory?" Stefan asked.

"Because my father asked her to. Jeremy and I were talking to Jenna one day. She mentioned that he and I were much closer than we have been when we were very young children. My parents were unnerved by it. My father took us to see Sheila Bennett. She altered both our memories," Elena explained.

"Because you were close with your brother?" Stefan asked confused.

"Well, it turns out it wasn't that simple. Elijah brought a witch to come see me and he restored my memory. It was much more complicated than I knew, or I should say that I remembered," Elena said.

"You asked Elijah for help? Elena, you can't trust him," Stefan said.

Elena felt the urge to defend her husband, but she fought it for the time being. She would never get through this if they started fighting about Elijah. "Stefan, everything changed when my memory returned, and I'm sorry."

"For what? It's not your fault that your memory was altered," Stefan said.

"I'm sorry for how I'm going to hurt you. When my memories returned, I remembered an entirely different life. I've lived before, Stefan. I was a completely different person. I mean that literally," she said.

"I don't understand. Do you mean like reincarnation or something like that?" he asked.

"Sort of. It played a part, but so did a magical ability I have," Elena told him.

"Magical ability? You're a witch?" Stefan asked in disbelief. He hadn't even known witchcraft ran in her family. Katherine never mentioned any kind of magical ability. He supposed she wouldn't though. She was a vampire when they met. That ability would've been gone.

"Yes, but it's a different type of witchcraft. Anyway, it allowed me to navigate where I'd end up once I'd died. I was able to inhabit the body of one of my descendants once I died," she said.

"So, you're not Elena?" Stefan asked in shock. He couldn't believe this was actually happening. He didn't even know something like this was possible.

"I am. I'm just someone else too. Before I was Elena Gilbert, my name was Tatia Petrova Mikaelson," Elena said.

"Mikaelson? Is that a married name?" Stefan asked. It sounded like it. It seemed to be the only reason she'd have two last names.

Elena nodded. "I was married twice. My first husband died a couple of years after we were married. I found love again a year or so later. Back then, it was frowned upon to marry a second time, but I loved him. I had never loved anyone the way I loved him."

Stefan was more than a little uncomfortable. He thought he was the first person Elena loved. She had been with Matt before him, but she told him she hadn't loved him. Being married was entirely different. But he had to remember that this was a lifetime ago, when Elena was someone else entirely. "Okay, that's alright. It was a lifetime ago, right? It doesn't have to mean anything for us now."

Elena sighed. "It's more complicated than that, Stefan. There were reasons for the actions I took. I was facing the possibility of losing my son, so I took extreme actions to keep him safe," Elena said.

"Your son? You had a son?" Stefan asked in disbelief. This was becoming very surreal. A day ago, his girlfriend was a seventeen-year-old high school student. Now, she was someone else too, who was married with kids.

"Yes, I had two children. I loved them and my husband more than anything in the world, but my son was a very powerful witch, and there was someone who wanted to use his power for her own purposes. To protect him, I had another witch place him into the body of another more than a thousand years into the future, and then I joined him after my death," Elena explained.

"Your son is here too? J…Jeremy?" Stefan asked. He remembered her saying that Jeremy's memories were altered as well, and this would all make sense with Elena saying it all started because she and Jeremy were closer than siblings should be.

"Yes, Jeremy is my son. My husband never knew what I was planning to do. I was afraid he'd try to stop me and take on our enemy himself. I would've lost them both if that happened, so with the help of a family member, I faked his death. After I died, I never expected to see my husband again. I didn't take into consideration vampirism," Elena said.

"You… Your husband is a vampire?" Stefan asked.

Elena nodded. "He's one of the first."

Stefan's eyes widened. Her husband was an Original. The only person he could think about was Klaus. That couldn't be right though, could it? Elena could never love such a monster. "It isn't Klaus, is it?"

"No, but I did know him. We were good friends," Elena said. She decided to omit the fact that he was her brother-in-law for now. That wasn't' for her to divulge. Elijah obviously didn't want anyone knowing that he and Klaus were brothers right now.

Stefan merely gaped at her in disbelief. Her words didn't even make sense in his world. Klaus couldn't be her friend. He was a monster. He was looking to murder her to end a curse. Stefan had heard horror stories about Klaus even before they knew he was real, and the reason they weren't sure he was real before was because most people who met Klaus ended up dead. How could someone like that be Elena's friend?

"The person I'm talking about is Elijah," Elena continued.

Stefan didn't think he could be any more shocked, but Elena managed to prove him wrong. "Elijah? Elijah was your husband?!"

"Elijah is my husband," Elena corrected.

Stefan got up and started pacing. He didn't even know how to respond to this. How was he supposed to deal with the fact that his girlfriend was married to someone else? It was different when he thought this man was a part of an old life that no longer existed, but he wasn't anymore. Stefan had met this man.

"I'm sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you," Elena said.

Stefan stopped pacing after a couple of minutes and looked at Elena. "Are you sure any of this is even true? You said that the witch was in Elijah's pocket. Maybe he set this whole thing up to manipulate you.

Elena wasn't too surprised at Stefan's reaction. He was struggling to find some way to make this all go away. It wasn't going to go away though, and Elena didn't want it to. Being reunited with Elijah and getting her memories back had filled holes inside her that she didn't know were there. "Stefan, I know my own life, my own memories. Elijah is my husband. Jeremy is our son. We built a life together."

"What are you saying?" Stefan asked with dread in his voice.

Elena stood up and approached him. "You know what I'm saying. I'm always going to care about you, Stefan."

"No. Elena don't do this," Stefan pleaded.

"I'm sorry. This was never my intention. It was never my intention to come here and get into a relationship with someone. My only goal was to protect my son. I left the love of my life a thousand years in the past. I'd accepted that," Elena said.

Stefan shook his head. "No, you love me. You can't tell me you don't after all of this."

"Yes, I do love you Stefan, but to put it bluntly, it doesn't hold a candle to what I feel for Elijah. What we had was a teenaged love that couldn't last, at least on my part. When I regained my memories, I realized what real love was because I've lived it. I'm not saying this to hurt you, but you need to understand how I feel. I will always love you, but my heart belongs to Elijah," Elena said.

"No, you don't mean that. You said yourself that you didn't expect him to come back into your life."

"But I'm ecstatic that he did. I'm happy he's here. I'm happy that he's chosen to forgive me for hurting him. We have a family," Elena said.

"You're doing it for Jeremy," Stefan said.

"No, Stefan. This is not an obligation because we share a son. This is how feel. I was incomplete without Elijah, just as he was without me and Jermey. I'm sorry, but what we had pales in comparison," Elena said.

"Elena, Elijah's dangerous. You can't trust him. He probably wants to hand you over to Klaus," Stefan said.

Elena shook her head. Stefan didn't know how wrong he was. Elijah wouldn't let anyone hurt her. As it was, he was going to put up a major fight when she told him she wanted to break Nik's curse. She didn't intend to die during the sacrifice. There were ways around that, like vampirism if necessary, but he would still hate it. "Elijah would die before he let anyone hurt me. I think I should go now. I'm sorry you're hurting, but I'm not going to listen to you trash my husband."

"No, don't go, Elena. We can figure this out," Stefan said.

"Goodbye, Stefan. I really hope you find happiness someday," Elena said before walking away. There was nothing more to be said. They were going around in circles. The best thing she could do for Stefan was to just go, so that's what she did.