Rebekah was sitting in the kitchen with Marcel the next morning. She hadn't slept the night before. For one, she'd been daggered long enough that she should be good on sleep for a while, and two, she couldn't sleep if she wanted to. She was terrified that if she so much as closed her eyes, she'd wake up and last night would've been a dream.
Rebekah could not imagine the things her niece had been though. She did know bad things happened to her. Sadie had woken up last night screaming for Nik, and according to Marcel, it was a nightly occurrence. Rebekah had wanted to go to her, but Marcel stopped her. He said it would only make matters worse.
"Are you okay?" Marcel asked Rebekah.
"I don't know. A part of me is overjoyed that Sadie is home, but another part of me is terrified of what she must have gone through," Rebekah said.
"I know what you mean. I don't know much. She doesn't remember much, and she hasn't told me much of what she does remember. I can tell there are things she's hiding from me. I'm trying to be patient and let her tell me when she's ready. What I do know is that she's been compelled a lot, probably the whole time. She was compelled to believe she was someone else," Marcel explained.
"Sadie mentioned that Katerina had an accomplice last night. Do you know who that is?" Rebekah asked.
"Yeah, a vampire named Stefan Salvator. I've had some guys looking into him. Katerina turned him and his brother in the eighteen hundreds. Apparently he's a ripper. That's all I've managed to learn so far," Marcel told her.
Rebekah had stopped listening after hearing the name. Her blood began to boil as soon as it registered in her mind. Stefan Salvatore. The man she'd fallen for in Chicago and stolen her niece from her bed in the middle of the night. "What?! Stefan Salvatore? You're certain."
"Yeah, Sadie told me his name. She remembers him compelling her. Did you know him?" Marcel asked.
"Yeah. So did Nik. We met him several months before I was daggered in Chicago. In fact, I was daggered because I wanted to go with him instead of going back on the run with Nik! I loved him! Nik even liked him. Bastard! He played us for fools! He knew the entire time. He had to have. He got off on it!" Rebekah said in a furious tone.
Just then, Elena came in with Bonnie and Caroline. She saw the look on her aunt's face. She looked furious and hurt. "Is everything okay?"
Rebekah took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. "Yes, it's fine, dear. We were just discussing the people who did this to you and I got angry.
Elena nodded and sat down. Bonnie and Caroline took seats too. "Auntie, 'Bekah, these are my friends, Caroline and Bonnie. They've stayed by my side since all of this happened."
Rebekah smiled at the too girls. "It's nice to meet both of you. Thank you for helping her."
"We'd do anything for Elena," Caroline said while returning the smile.
"Elena?" Rebekah asked confused.
"That's who I thought I was until a few months ago," Elena told her aunt. "Elena Gilbert. She was the newest doppelganger. She was murdered two years ago, so that I could take her place. I was compelled to be her in every way. I replaced that poor girl."
Bonnie reached over and grabbed her hand. "It's not your fault."
"I know, but sometimes I still feel bad about it," Elena said.
Soon, Bonnie's phone started ringing. She took it out and looked at the front. "It's Jeremy. I'll go talk to him in the living room."
"I'll come with you," Caroline said before they both got up and heading out of the room. She figured this would give Elena and her family a few minutes alone.
Rebekah reached out and stroked her niece's necklace. "I thought I'd lost this. That was devastating. It was all I had left of you."
Elena smiled sadly. "Stefan, the man that was involved with taking me, got his hands on it somehow. He gave it to me with vervain in it so that he could keep his brother from compelling me. At least that's what he told me. What a sick joke that was. He'd later remove it himself over and over again so that he could compel me himself. Damon did too."
"That man is sicker than you can ever understand! We met him, your father and I. He struck up a friendship with us. It was more than friendship with me. The whole time, I wonder just how far away you were," Rebekah said with pain in her voice.
Elena was disgusted. She thought she'd realized the depth of Stefan's depravity, but she was apparently wrong. Stealing her from her life wasn't enough. He'd had to play games with family as well. "He's a freaking psychopath. He clearly likes to play games with people. He probably got off on the fact that he knew what he'd done to you, but you didn't."
"I am going to make him pay in ways that he can't even comprehend!" Rebekah snarled.
"So will I," Elena vowed.
Caroline and Bonnie came back in at that moment and retook their seats. "Uh, Elena, Jeremy called because he wanted to know where we were," Bonnie said.
"Is he okay?" Elena asked. Jeremy hadn't gotten in touch since they left Mystic Falls, which Elena couldn't blame him for. He needed time to grieve his sister without Elena around to disrupt it. That was half the reason she'd left. So, it worried her that he'd suddenly be inquiring about their whereabouts.
"Yeah, he's fine. Apparently last night, Elijah and Klaus returned to Mystic Falls. Jenna told them everything," Bonnie said.
"He knows," Elena whispered. Her father knew the truth now. There was no coming back from that.
"He does," Bonnie said.
Marcel was actually relieved to hear that. Now at least there would be no disbelief on Klaus' part when he saw Sadie again. She wouldn't have to deal with his denial. He was already past that stage. He could just be reunited with his daughter without unintentionally causing her more pain.
"Did you tell Jeremy where we were?" Elena asked.
"Yeah," Bonnie said. She'd thought about waiting until she got the okay from Elena, but she'd quickly decided to take the decision out of Elena's hands so that she didn't have to think about it.
Elena shuddered. He was coming. Her father was coming. She didn't know how to handle that. She wasn't prepared for it. She knew it was going to happen, but now she was terrified.
Rebekah grabbed her niece's hand. "It's going to be okay, darling. Your dad is going to make everything okay for you."
"What if he hates me?" Elena asked quietly.
"No, love. Never," Rebekah said firmly. Her brother left a lot of things to be desired, but his best quality was his love for his daughter. There was no chance of him ever hating her.
"Elena, you said yourself that you know he loves you," Caroline said.
"He loved me when I was a kid, but now I look just like Katherine. Sometimes I look in the mirror and hate myself for that. What if he feels the same way?" Elena asked.
"No, Sadie. Listen to me. I hated that wench long before I ever knew what she did to you. I hate her even more now, but when I look at you, I do not see her. You may look like her, but you're nothing like her. Don't ever think anything like that," Rebekah said before standing up and pulling her niece to her feet before putting her arms around her. "Your father loves you very much. Don't ever doubt that."
Elena nodded as she let her aunt comfort her.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Elijah went looking for his brother as soon as he heard from Jenna. Other than slaughtering half the town, which thankfully, Niklaus hadn't done, Elijah could only think of one place he might have gone. The Salvatore house. He found himself proven right as soon as he stepped inside and saw the place trashed. The second indication was hearing his brother screaming at someone. He immediately followed the screams to the living room, where he found his brother screaming into his phone.
"If you do not retrieve what is mine, I will have your head on my mantle!" Klaus snarled at the person he was talking to before hanging up.
"Niklaus?" Elijah called out questioningly.
Klaus turned and looked at his brother in disbelief. "Why do people keep thinking they can steal from me?! Someone absconded with my coffins!"
Elijah narrowed his eyes. "Coffins? Are you referring to our siblings?"
"I'll find them. I have people looking. My daughter comes first," Klaus said before holding up a picture he'd been holding when his phone had rung. It was his little girl in the arms of her abductor. "Look at this, Elijah. This is my little girl."
Elijah looked at the photo sadly. He couldn't believe how close he was to her. He'd had several meetings with his own niece, and he'd never known it. "I know, Niklaus."
"And this piece of filth with his hands on her is the man who hurt her. Tell me it's consensual, Elijah. Look at this picture and try to tell me that this little bastard didn't force any kind of touch he inflicted on my child!" Klaus snared angrily. He'd been looking at that picture for a while, and the more he did, the angrier he'd gotten. His daughter had been compelled her entire life, and that had to include being with this piece of filth. He'd violated his baby girl. There weren't even words to express what Klaus was going to do to him for that. Katerina would suffer as well, obviously, but it was nothing compared to what he was going to do to the man he'd once called his friend.
Elijah closed his eyes sadly. He'd actually been thinking about that most of the night. Sadie was in a relationship with Stefan Salvator, and no matter how he looked at it, he concluded that it couldn't be consensual. She would've had to have known the truth about him for it to be any kind of a consensual relationship, that was if he didn't just compel her outright. Either way, that boy had raped his little niece, and Elijah was going to demolish him for that. "I can't."
Klaus slammed his hand into a wall in danger, cracking it instantly. He then broke open the picture frame. He took out the picture of his daughter before ripping it in half, holding onto the part of it that contained his child. "I'm going to rip him apart Elijah. Then I'm going to put him back together so that I can do it again and again and again! The oceans will be flooded with his blood for centuries!"
"So be it," Elijah said. Normally, he was the voice of reason for his brother, but there was no reason to be found here. Stefan and Katerina had hurt his niece. He wanted nothing more than to see them beg for the mercy they'd never receive.
"Did you know he was my friend? Rebekah and I met him in Chicago. I liked him. Rebekah fell for him. Where was my little girl during that time? Did he have her there? Was she right under my nose? She would've been fourteen at the time. She was a little girl waiting for her daddy to come save her. I failed," Klaus said with mountains of pain laced in his voice.
"We all failed, Niklaus. We will all carry that with us for eternity. The people who did this will suffer, but as you said, Sadie has to come first. You need to pull yourself together, brother, because I know where she is," Elijah said.
Klaus looked at his brother in surprise. "Where?"
"New Orleans. It seems she went home. It's time for us to do the same," Elijah said.
Klaus nodded before pocketing the picture of his daughter. He then led the way out of the room. There was no time to waste. He needed to get to his little girl. No matter what it took, he would be with her by the end of the night.