Until This Lie Do Us Part

Chapter 25

"Bonnie, Jeremy, let's get you a drink and I'll show you around before dinner" she said, leading them along with her.

"What's with her?" Stefan asked Damon. "What did you have to buy her this time to get her to behave? Another car?" he smirked.

Elena resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Stefan's childish behavior. "I'm going to go find Lily" she said, brushing past Stefan.

He watched her, trying to decide if he had pissed her off or not. Then he shrugged. Damon deserved it. "Well, always good to see you too, little brother" Damon said, slapping Stefan's shoulder before leaving the room.

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When Elena got up to Lily's room, she found the little girl sitting on the floor with a pile of clothes around her and a suitcase open. She was strategically folding and placing articles of clothing to make sure she was not forgetting anything. Elena smiled before joining her. "Is this enough clothes?" Lily asked, turning to look at Elena.

Elena nodded. "I think that is more than enough" she told her. "But, you aren't going right now. So you have plenty of time to pack" she added.

"But I want to go right now" Lily told her.

Elena realized that this could get ugly very fast if someone told her no. "You don't want to go right now" Elena told her, picking up a shirt and examining it.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Because it is Thanksgiving vacation, which means lots of people are there" Elena explained. "The lines to go on the rides would be so long, you probably would never get to go on them"

Lily stared at her for a moment before nodding. "Okay" she said, pushing her suitcase aside.

"How about we go back downstairs and see if we can help out with dinner?" Elena suggested, standing up.

But Lily grabbed the bottom of Elena's dress to stop her. "Are you gonna leave?" she asked, looking up at Elena through her long eyelashes.

Elena bent back down next to her. "What are you talking about?" Elena asked softly.

Lily looked down at her hands now as she spoke. "I heard Daddy say that you don't love Uncle Stefan and that you're gonna leave in a few months" she said sadly.

Elena felt her cheeks burn at the mention of Damon still discussing her marriage to Stefan. To make things worse, now Lily was hearing these things.

Despite her anger, Elena smiled and grabbed Lily's hand. "I love your uncle, Lily" Elena assured her. It was the truth. But telling Lily that she was not going to leave might just turn out to be a lie. Elena still was unsure if Stefan would want to be with her in the near future. And if that was the case, she would have to leave and move on. "No one knows what will happen in the future, Lily. But that's not something you should worry about, okay?" Elena told her.

"Okay" Lily said sadly. She got up and went to her desk to color. Elena watched her for a few minutes before leaving. Her anger had boiled down to irritancy. She had warned Damon to stay out of her marriage. Damon obviously was choosing to not listen which was a problem for her.

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Damon wandered into six different rooms before finding Caroline sitting at a window in the storage room. Her attention was fixated on the squirrels running around outside, trying to find bits of food to store for the winter. "Who are you hiding from?" Damon asked casually as he entered the room.

Caroline turned to acknowledge him and then turned back to the window. "I'm not hiding. I'm just cooling down. I'd hate to murder someone in your new home" Caroline told him. Although Damon was not Caroline's favorite person, she had known him since she was little, having spent a lot of time with Stefan. Therefore, she tolerated him.