Chapter Text
Caroline Forbes.
The name still sounded weird on her lips, however the new name came with her new found freedom.
Caroline spent her whole life as Carolina Salvatore and with that, came with the price of being in one of the most notorious mafia families in New York.
Giuseppe Salvatore, the leader of the Salvatore family was the father of Caroline and a fierce, strict man who always finished business. After his wife passed away, Giuseppe raised his three children, making sure he groomed his sons, Damon and Stefan, in order for one day take over the family business.
Caroline’s brothers loved their family and kept the mentality that blood is thicker than water. Everyone, in fact, that is involved with the Salvatore family swore an oath to die for the family.
And Caroline hated it.
She hated the violence associated with her family. Caroline could definitely live without the death and destruction that surrounded her life. Her whole childhood, Caroline had to follow the rules and be a good little girl always following her father’s rules.
Which is exactly why, six months ago Caroline made the decision to change her name and begin her life in one of her favourite cities in the world with her best friend, Bonnie. Sure it was hard, she was never left alone before, but it was defiantly worth it.
Much to her family’s displeasure, Caroline and Bonnie found a lovely 2 bedroom apartment in a very industrial style building in an up and coming neighbourhood, and fully moved into it a few weeks later.
Caroline couldn’t be happier, she found a job at a local art gallery and even had a few dates. She separated herself from her awful family and even better, she never felt safer.
That was, until, she received a knock on the door.
It couldn’t be at a worst time, she just put on her favourite movie, eating her favourite junk food and best of all, wearing her comfiest pajamas. And even better, Caroline had the whole place to herself since Bonnie left to visit her boyfriend for the weekend. And Caroline loved her new home, she made it as homey as possible, and the best part of it was that nothing reminded her of death. Her apartment was decorated with light calming tones and made you feel relaxed as soon as you walk through the door.
Caroline opened her door to a very anxious brother with light eyes and dirty blonde hair.
“Stefan! What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Stefan was the middle child in the family, he was Caroline’s favourite brother just because Damon always had his own agenda. Not that he didn’t mean well, it was just that he was ruthless and it was hard to be around someone like him.
Stefan laughed at his baby sister, “Please Care, did you really think that we wouldn’t find you?”
Stefan walked past her, right into the kitchen to grab himself a drink.
“You can’t just walk in here, this is my home! This is exactly why I left and changed-“
“Caroline, stop for a second. Sit down, please.” Stefan led his sister into the family room and sat her down.
Caroline instantly knew something was wrong, he only says please if something is wrong. God, what could it be this time? Not even a year and she is brought back into the violence.
Caroline sighed and raised her eyebrow, “So? Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
Stefan took a deep breath, “It’s father, he is um, and well he wants you to marry…”
“What? Marry? Absolutely not! This is exactly why I left that family. I was constantly being told what to do, what to say, who to talk to and how my life is supposed to be. Well if you didn’t notice, I’m a Forbes now, not a Salvatore. So you can tell father to do something else with his free time.”
Caroline got up and stormed in to the kitchen, “Caroline, don’t you think I told father that you don’t want anything to do with this family? He told me to say to you that you need to stop playing games and acting like a child and come home.”
If Caroline wasn’t enraged before, she was furious now. “A child?! I don’t want anything to do with violence and I’m sorry to say this, but our family bathes in violence.”
“Caroline, just come to dinner tonight and explain everything to dad.”
She scoffed at her brother, “no, why-“
“-I’ll wait for you to change, dear sister.” As he gave his award winning smile that made people bend to his will.
Caroline gave up with trying to argue, at this point she needed to save her energy for her father. She quickly put on her plum coloured dress that accented her figure and her nude coloured heals, simple yet stylish.
The car ride was quiet, it was only until they were almost at the house that Caroline realized that if her father intended her to marry he would obviously have someone to marry her to.
“Stefan?”
Stefan kept his eyes on the road while trying to hear out his sister.
“Who did dad want me to marry, anyways?”
Stefan smirked at the question, “Klaus Mikaelson.”
What? Did he just say Klaus MIKAELSON? The wolf himself?! Klaus was not only a horrible, murderous man but was also a part of the Mikaelson clan that rivaled the Salvatore’s. He was the oldest of the five children in the family, and the most obnoxious.
He embraced the villain role, many people believed he was born without a heart with some of things he has done in the past. Like her brothers, Klaus was being groomed by his father in order to lead the family. Their family came over from England a few decades ago, it was quite obvious since the family still had their English accents. The Mikaelson’s were just as notorious as the Salvatore’s but were known to be quite unpredictable which made them scarier.
Over the years, the Salvatore’s and the Mikaelson’s were in a constant battle for power, each killing members of the others family and followers. So naturally, they were taught to hate each other, which is why it came to a huge surprise to find out that her father not only wants to befriend a Mikaelson but to marry one.
Caroline spent the rest of their car ride laughing at the idea of being betrothed to that beast.
Things turned even worse when they pulled up to the house, seeing ambulance lights flashing and paramedics rushing into the house.
Stefan and Caroline ran into the house crashing into their oldest brother Damon, who was trying to keep everyone calm.
“Damon!” Caroline screamed as she ran into his arms. “What happened?!”
It was chaos, people were yelling, sirens flashing, people running. It was hard for Caroline to understand what was going on until she saw her father being pulled away on a stretcher.
“Father, he uh- he had a heart attack. They are taking him to the hospital right now.” Damon instantly pulled out his phone and started calling people in order to help his father, Stefan on the other hand was pulling up the car in order for them to go to the hospital now.
Caroline couldn’t even comprehend what could have happened to cause this heart attack, but never the less, the road over to the hospital with Damon still yelling at people on the phone.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
“Damon, calm down. It’s a hospital, they know what they are doing.”
Damon snapped at the nurse one last time before turning his attention towards his sister. “Oh, what do you care? You obviously don’t want to be here, you even changed your name so you didn’t have to be a part of this family. So leave.”
Caroline got up from her chair and walked over to Damon so she can look into his icy blue eyes, a trade mark for the Salvatore’s. “That’s enough, I did what I had to do in order to be normal! That doesn’t mean I don’t love my dad!”
Stefan was the sane one trying to calm the two down since they were in the middle of the emergency room, and caught everyone’s attention. However, this seemed to fail, and Stefan’s attempt to be the good brother just added to the chaos of the argument.
A short angry nurse stormed over, “ENOUGH. There are sick people in the hospital that don’t want to hear you screaming. If you three can’t handle being here, you need to leave!”
“I’m sorry. Can we please see our father now?” Caroline put on her best million dollar smile, to which the nurse rolled her eyes and told them that he was in room 2218.
As they got to the room, flowers of people who cared for their father, enveloped the room. People from all of the country already sent flowers to someone who just had the heart attack.
“Unbelievable,” she whispered. “How could there already be flowers? This just happened!”
Damon laughed as he took a seat across from the bed, where his father laid sleeping. “You’re forgetting, Care, that you are a part of a mafia family.”
The three siblings stayed in the room for a few hours before their father awoke. People had been trickling in and out, trying to see if the major mafia leader had been taken down. Caroline grew impatient with each visit, full well knowing that none of them where here to actually see how their father was doing.
Giuseppe Salvatore awoke to find all three of his children actually talking and smiling at each other. He never thought this would happen, and didn’t want to ruin the moment.
“Daddy!”
Caroline jumped up from her seat in order to check her dad, “Carolina, you’re here.”
She rolled her eyes, “of course I’m here. How are you feeling? Should I call the nurse?”
With help from Stefan, the old tired man slowly sat up smiling and shaking his head, “no, let’s give it some time before she comes.”
Damon was still sitting nervously as he pocketed his phone, “well we don’t have much time, I was just informed that Mikael Mikaelson and some of his children will be dropping by shortly.”
“What?!” Caroline’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
Giuseppe nodded and took a deep breath, “alright, Damon be prepared, are the boys here?” To which he nodded and let his father continued. “Very good, all though we are on good terms now, it doesn’t hurt to be safe. Now, Stefan? I’m sure you told Caroline about the arrangement-“
“Yes I heard! How is this fair-“
“Caroline stop it. I thought you would have understood when Stefan told you, now you look lovely, I’m sure he won’t be disappointed. Of course it’s not about appear-“ Caroline’s temper was increasing.
How could her father say this? “If you think I am going to sell myself out, you better think again! I will not be sold just so you can have a peace treaty with those buffoons. ”
Caroline put her coat on and began to walk out of her father’s hospital room.
“My darling daughter, I’m trying to keep you safe. By the severity of this heart attack, I may not have a lot of time left, and if you love me you will do this.”
Caroline walked over to her dad and kissed him on the forehead and after settled down again.
She was really doing this? Was just a few cheesy lines from her father really going to sway her decision? She most likely didn’t have a choice since the arrangement was already made.
“I don’t have a choice do I?”
Damon laughed, “No.”
Caroline rolled her eyes and sat back down. Her whole life is ending just as she was able to start over, away from the violence. She will miss, Caroline Forbes, because she will be know known as Mrs. Caroline Mikaelson.
The name sounded bitter just thinking about it.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
It was a few hour later until the Mikaelson’s showed up. The gruff leader was Mikael Mikaelson. He had four children, and each more obnoxious than the next. His wife was known as a stuffy horrible witch who became even bitterer when their eldest son, Fin died. Caroline was relieved when she didn’t walk through that door.
Who did come was his oldest son Elijah, youngest son Kohl, and finally the devil himself, Klaus Mikaelson.
Caroline quickly excused herself from the room, she could feel Klaus’ eyes on her. She couldn’t even stand near people who are not genuine, especially people who spent their whole lives trying to kill her family.
She quickly found a spot to sit far enough from her father’s room so she doesn’t need to worry about them. But this didn’t last long when Klaus Mikaelson came around the corner.
He was dressed in a three-piece black suit with a thin black tie and a white shirt, which outlined his muscular body. His eyes were cold and felt heavy as he stared at his future wife to be. He never looked happy, Caroline will spend the rest of her life with someone that only takes pleasure in killing and murdering people for his benefit.
“Caroline Salvatore.” Her name on his lips sent her spine crawling.
“Klaus Mikaelson.” Caroline tried maintain the same level of confidence but she found herself shaking.
He started to walk towards her and sent down on the chair opposite her.
“I am sorry what happened to you father, if-“
Caroline gave a subconscious laugh, “Please, no one cares if he isn’t well. So stop trying to act like it.”
Caroline put up her best front in order to seem like she was un-phased by his present, which was completely untrue. His overall presence made her uneasy, she can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like marrying him.
Klaus chuckled and leaned forward, “very well. Now we will probably be married, and we should-“
Caroline sighed, “I understand the situation that we are in, and I’ve decided that if we are going to do this we are going to do it my way. Understand?”
Klaus never expected how feisty she is. Caroline Salvatore was fierce, sharp and intelligent. She was undeniably beautiful, he heard rumours of how she was the gem of the Salvatore family but seeing her was a completely different seeing her.
Klaus quickly nodded when he realized that for the past minute he was just staring at her.
“Perfect. If we are in public, or in front of anyone other than you or my family, I will be the perfect wife. As soon as we are alone we are strangers, I won’t treat you like anything else because we aren’t anything else. We don’t know each other.”
Klaus looked at her and leaned into her, he studied her features that formed a frown, “very well. But we will see how times change. See you on the wedding day Carolina.”
Klaus swiftly walked away from her. He barely got to say a full sentence before being interjected by Caroline. She was different from everyone, but he had to be careful. He couldn’t let his guard down just because he thought she was different.
But the most unnerving part of her was that she was innocent. She had no attachment to his world, you could tell by the way she talked. She was scared, and is now being forced to marry the wolf himself.