Promise You Won't Fall In Love With Me

Chapter 32

EPILOGUE

5 years later..

"Where's Stefan?" - Caroline asks while taking delicious, cinnamon Christmas cookies out of the oven. Somehow, she manages to burn herself, even though she's wearing oven mitts, and drops the plate full of cookies on the kitchen counter. "Damn" - she says silently, through her teeth, while removing the oven mitts from her hands and pushing her wrist under the cold stream of water. There's relief on her face as she does so. It's weird seeing Caroline in the kitchen, since she was never much of a cook. Now she's baking, cooking, mixing, everything that is required for a good meal, and she's actually good at it. Elena has no idea how to work in the kitchen. She's too slow and too clumsy, but fortunately, somehow, Stefan developed amazing culinary skills. Probably because Rebekah is worse in the kitchen than Elena, so he had to feed both of them during the time they were living together. While Caroline was busy with washing her wrist in cold water, Elena reached towards the plate of cookies, but it's like Caroline knew she's about to do such a thing, so she turned her head in Elena's direction and gave her one of those don't-you-dare looks.

"He should be back soon. He said there's one more present he needs to take care of" - Elena said, wondering for who is this present meant to, since Stefan would not tell her a thing.

"Mommy!" - Elena heard a loud voice from the living room, voice that was coming closer to her with every passing second, repeating the same word - mommy. A little boy ran into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Elena's leg, looking up at her with a scared look in his eyes. "Mommy, Tessa keeps saying I'm her boyfriend" - he pouts, his little bushy brows furrowing, a small triangle appearing in the middle of them.

Grayson maybe had her father's name, but he was a spitted image of Stefan. He inherited his father's green eyes, but most importantly, he also inherited the warmth behind them. Every time he would look at you, you would get that feeling like you're thankful he loves you, because he loves in a very special way. His hair was light brown, and in most cases messy, just like Stefan's, and he would hate when anyone touched it. His face was also blessed by Stefan's mile. He had nothing of Elena's, except her little perky nose, and if she did not carry him for 9 months, she would have doubts about him being hers. But Stefan says that's nonsense, because Grayson has something that makes him more of Elena's son than his. He has her heart. Elena would always smile upon hearing that, responding their son has a little bit of both of their hearts in him, a little sad Stefan still doesn't understand how amazing he truly is. But in the end, Elena was glad their son has more of Stefan in him, because this world needs more Stefan's in it.

Elena looked down at her son, smiling, when he tightened his grip around her leg harder when Tessa appeared on the kitchen entrance with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Tesssssssssssssssa" - Caroline said her daughter's name, prolonging the letter s in it, like she's annoyed with her. Unfortunately for Caroline, Tessa was a flirt, something Caroline never was. At the age of 4, which was only one year older than Grayson, Tessa was a perfect mixture of Nik and Caroline. She was open and snarky like her father, had a posture of her mother, alongside her blonde, bouncy curls and deep sea blue eyes.

It's like Nik heard his wife's annoying tone regarding their daughter, so he hurried into the kitchen and took Tessa in his arms, carrying her out of the room.

"She's so hard to handle" - Caroline said, looking into the direction her husband and daughter went - "For me. Nik seems to know exactly what to do and say to her. He's golden daddy and I'm the wicked witch of the west" - Elena could see the hurt in Caroline's eyes as she kept speaking with a husky voice. Caroline loved her daughter so much, but Tessa was always asking for her father, and she allowed Caroline to do only basic stuff. She listened her because she was scared of her, or she was scared of the power Caroline had over Nik, and she hated when her father told her she did something wrong.