No Going Back

xxii

Luke let out a tearful laugh before pulling me into a hug. 

My hand however, was still in Elijah's much larger one making it hard to attempt to hug him back.

"Valerie, is it really you? Oh my god. Are you okay?" He pulled away examining my face for any sign of harm. "Did anyone hurt you? Ar- Who's this?" Abruptly he stopped and was now looking behind me.

Luke tried to pull me towards him protectively but Elijah was still holding my hand so in the end, I only ended up next to Elijah who was now glaring at Luke.

It was then that I saw someone standing in the other rooms door frame with a shocked expression on their face. "Diego?" 

Diego was a detective, but he was also Luke's cousin.

"Valerie? You're literally no where in our database at all when I tried looking for you." He explained looking at me confused.

I couldn't help but mentally face palm, Luke asked Diego to look for me and now he has no idea what he's done.

"Valerie, we can't be here with a cop. This changes the circumstances." I sighed, knowing Elijah was right.

I turned towards Elijah, "Go and get Reina then wait in the car for me okay?" He seemed hesitate so I hesitantly pecked him but it was enough to make him go.

"You know you're going to have to come in right and answer questions?" Diego spoke up once Elijah was gone.

I froze, not able to think of something on the spot. "No, because there could probably be just an error with the system thus being the reason you cannot find me. So no, I don't have to go to the station with you."

Reina appeared next to me and I just signaled her towards the stairs which she understood because she pushed past Luke and jogged up the stairs.

"Valerie can you at least explain why you left?" Luke pleaded after watching Reina go upstairs as well.

I looked away from his gaze knowing full well that, I couldn't just spill and tell them what really happened. I've already agreed to sign my contract with them.

"I found out the truth. Something I deserved to learn sooner." I partially lied to him, seeing as I did learn something while I was away.

I heard Reina coming down the stairs or well at least I thought it was her.

"Valerie?" I froze upon hearing their voice. Slowly I looked over Luke's shoulder to see Issac, he was looking at me as if he was afraid he was only dreaming.

I wasn't ready to see him, and most definitely wasn't prepared.

"Are you really here? Is it really you?" I nodded a small smile appearing on my face as he ran and tackled me into a hug.

I let out a sad laugh as he rambled on about how we were going to catch up and spend as much time together as possible.

"What's wrong?" He asked upon realizing that I wasn't saying anything at all. He had a frown on his face, only making me feel even worse for what I'm about to say.

"I can't stay Issac, I love you guys so much but I just can't stay." He looked mortified at what I had just told him.

"Wait what? So you basically came to say goodbye? No, please tell me this is some joke Val!" He then had tears in his eyes and I stiffened.

I've never seen Issac cry, he's always been in control of his feelings. So seeing him cry was new to me.

"Issac, don't cry I-" Luke then cut me off before I could even finish, "I think you should leave Valerie."

My mouth literally fell open at what he had just said to me. Was he being serious? "Excuse me? But this is MY house and I'll be damned if I let you tell me what to do."

Luke was going to say something but I stopped him. "But you're right, I shouldn't have come. I just needed to know that I said goodbye ..."

I gave Issac a sad smile, before yelling for Reina. Hurrying, she came downstairs jumping from the second to last step with my bags in her hand. "I'll be in the car."

Issac frowned looking at the ground. "Reina's going too?" I could only nod afraid to see his reaction.

"Oh." His voice sort of cracked and I couldn't help it. I started crying softly before pulling him into a hug. "I'm going to miss you more than anything."

I slipped a piece of paper in his pocket and I know he felt me put something in his pocket but he didn't say anything.

"Goodbye." I pulled away wiping my eyes and giving him a small smile.

I gave one last look at Luke and Diego before running outside ignoring Issac's yelling and pleas. I opened the car door jumping in quickly and buckling in.

"Go." Nathan nodded and thankfully there were no cars around because that gave us the advantage to speed off.

Not literally but yeah.

I looked behind us and saw Diego's car attempting to follow us but we were already pretty far away.

Looking at the time, I sighed in relief seeing we had at least 15 minutes to get back.

"What did you give him?" Reina suddenly spoke up making me jump as she turned to look at me. "What?"

She gave me a flat look, "Oh come on Val. You were practically clenching that piece of paper in your hand."

I shrugged getting comfortable in the back seat. "Just a goodbye for them all."

She nodded and went back to talking with Nathan, causing me to make a face as I watched them interact with one another. They probably didn't realize it but they were highkey flirting with each other.

Elijah chuckled making me look away from them and towards him, "What?" I asked raising my eyebrow as if challenging him to say something.

Instead he just shook his head, "You just had this look as if you were planing something."

"That's exactly what it looked like." I attempted to say in a creepy voice which probably failed.

Pulling into the drive way of the house, I couldn't help but cringe when I saw an angry looking Daniel with a concerned looking Carter.

"We're so dead." I got out and tried to begin explaining but Daniel stopped me before I could even get a sentence out.

"We don't have time. Right now, we have to catch our flight to LA and then we have a meeting." He told us while pushing us back into his car while everyone got into two other ones.

Clara, Jeremy, Veronica, and Katherine were together in one car. Damien, Stefan, and Nat were in another one. Lastly, Daniel and Carter got into the last car with us.

As we drove towards the airport, Elijah again took my hand into his own making me sigh in content.

All I knew was that, I was right.

This was only the beginning.