Your name is Zachary Salvatore and your great-great-great-great uncle has killed your wife and almost took your daughter with her. Before you can even hold your daughter, you're mentally planning logistics to give up the family land for good and move far, far away.
Your name is Zachary Salvatore and you know the man that just entered the hospital room is a vampire. The way he walks, the way his eyes look down on everyone, the way he speaks his name as if it matters. He is dangerous and he has teeth and he doesn't care who knows it.
Your name is Zachary Salvatore, and rhe man promises you he will take your daughter far away from the dangers of Mystic Falls. She will grow up with another family, unaware of her terrible legacy. She will have her every need provided, and you can watch from a distance.
Your name is Zachary Salvatore, and all he wants from you is an invitation to a home you are not allowed to leave, and a promise to keep the lines of communications open.
Your name is Zachary Salvatore, and you sign two death certificates that day, a rock sinking in your stomach as you tell yourself it's the right choice.
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Your name is Isobel Flemming, and you're too young to be pregnant. Your boyfriend is too young to be a father, but sometimes you look in his eyes and you believe him when he says you can figure this out.
Your name is Isobel Flemming, and the first time you meet a vampire you have no idea what you're up against. But the man in the suit with the gray eyes offers you a lot of money to leave your baby behind. He promises she will be looked after by her family and you won't need to feel guilt. You'll be paid handsomely and you can leave this shameful part od your life behind.
Your name is Isobel Flemming and you don't even leave a note for your boyfriend after you leave town.
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Your name is Miranda Gilbert and you're not sure you want to be a mother until a stranger puts your niece in your arms. It's the wrong time for it, you know. You don't have a job and Greyson is still finishing medical school but-
Your name is Miranda Gilbert and the woman who handed you your baby hands your husband an envelope. There is a check in the envelope, enough money to cover rent and groceries and a dozen other bills you can't remember. There is a promise made too, for the checks to come until the baby in your arms is ready to have babies of her own. All you have to do is "keep the lines of communications" open, and the money will come.
Your name is Miranda Gilbert, and you wonder if the man you married has the same rock in his gut as he accepts the check.
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Your name is Abby Bennett, and your daughter means everything to you. You name her after a relative, an aunt you never met that your mother speaks fondly of.
Your name is Abby Bennett, and sometimes you feel like a single mother even though you worked very hard to get married. You know your husband loves you and your daughter but he's away so often you would go crazy if your mother wasn't there to help.
Your name is Abby Bennett, and you get a card in the mail with an owl printed on it. There are no words to go with it, but ever since you opened that envelope you feel eyes on you. Your mother tells you to throw it away, but you don't. You forgot.
Your name is Abby Bennett, and the first time your daughter shows a talent for the magic in her veins, you get a visit from a woman who looks as out of place in this town as you feel during the annual historical parades.
Your name is Abby Bennett, and she offers to teach your daughter magic. As if you won't be able to do it yourself. As if your mother wouldn't be there if you couldn't. You want to tell her to pound sand, but she hands you another card and you nearly collapse from the visions that come to you when you touch it.
Your name is Abby Bennett, and you start getting checks in the mail after you take her offer. You tell your husband you got a raise at work when he asks about the new appliances in the kitchen.
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Your name is Kelly Donovan and your husband leaves you after he destroys a town relic. No one blames you with their words, but you know what they think.
Your name is Kelly Donovan, and you had half a chance at this parenting thing when you had help. But help is gone and the bills pile up and the kids keep growing and there's only so far tipped wages will stretch across new shoes and shirts and underwear and-
Your name is Kelly Donovan, and a man who wears a suit much too nice for the Mystic Grill asks you to join him for a meal. Your manager agrees to it with no questions asked, so you sit with him and you listen to him.
Your name is Kelly Donovan, and you don't remember what was said, but you remember agreeing to something and you remember getting a large tip. You also hurt yourself on the wrist somehow. You should be more careful.
Your name is Kelly Donovan, and you don't ask questions about the checks that come in the mail. You just cash them and hope no one asks where rhe money came from.
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Your name is Elizabeth Forbes and your daughter is born a few weeks after your best friend died. Your husband thinks your tears are tears of joy, and you let him think that.
Your name is Elizabeth Forbes and you hold your daughter in your arms and you think about the legacy she inherits - vampire hunting from her father, and law enforcement from her mother. Your daughter was just born and already so much weight is on her shoulders. You wonder if she will be able to carry it all, or if it will break her.
Your name is Elizabeth Forbes and your husband has been gone for a while when a strange woman comes into the room. She looks at your daughter without saying a word, assessing, searching for something. Before you can break through the fog to ask what she wants, she sets a card on the bedside table. There is an owl drawn on it.
Your name is Elizabeth Forbes, and a woman tells you she is a vampire. She does not claim to be a good one or a nice one or a harmless one. Instead, she tells you that your husband has secrets, and to call her when you finally learn what they are. She will help with the child, when the marriage falls apart.
Your name is Elizabeth Forbes, and you wonder about the smile one your husband's face when he returns without the coffee he promised.
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Your name is Carol Lockwood, and you are learbing how to run a town event with a baby on your hip. You could've hired someone to help (with the baby or with the event) but your husband tells you his mother did it with two boys hanging on her skirts so you can learn to do it with one. You know better than to point out she had a mother and a mother-in-law to take those boys from time to time.
Your name is Carol Lockwood, and a man in a suit says something to you in French and you use your college education for the first time in years to answer him. You're amazed at how well it rolls of your unpracticed tongue.
Your name is Carol Lockwood, and the man takes you to a private room. You're not sure why you follow, but the event is going well and no one seems to notice.
Your name is Carol Lockwood, and your son bites the hand that is extended to him. The man doesn't flinch or cry out in pain. He smiles and says the boy will be a good fighter one day. He kisses your hand and tells you he would like to meet you for lunch one day, if you can get away from your husband.
Your name is Carol Lockwood, and you don't know how he ends up in your calendar when you didn't even get his name. But he's in there once a month, every month, in perpetuity.
Your name is Carol Lockwood, and you tell yourself this is part of your job now.
