Aftermath

One

"Make sure you take everything else with you. I don't need any reminder of you," Caroline barked at her husband, watching him as he went back and forth in their room—her room, gathering his stuff. He had been her husband for five years. Five long years she had been in love with him, but now she hated his guts. His lying cheating guts. A dull pain smacked right into her heart, making her feel dizzy and her eyes watered. But she wasn't going to let him see her tears. Her tears wasn't worth to be shed for him, and definitely not for anyone.

How did she go wrong? She had asked herself that question hundred times. Did he not love her anymore? Did she fail somewhere in their marriage? Wasn't he contented with her? Even as she asked the questions, she knew she wasn't, or else he wouldn't have cheated on her. Five years of marriage went down the drain. Didn't he even considered that they had a kid and one was yet to be born? If he didn't feel anything, why did he proposed to her? Why did he vow to love and cherish her when he would go back on his word? She hated the sight of him.

"Do not worry, I wouldn't make the mistake of leaving anything behind," he replied, angrily. He didn't have the right to be angry, she had that right. She watched him grab the last item before glancing at her. Their eyes met and both held immense pain. Once upon a time, they were madly in love with each other, and they still were, but they couldn't go on like this. Not after everything was broken between them.

He went for the door, but paused on his way out. "You're making a mistake, Caroline. I thought you knew me well, but I guess I was fooling myself." He went out of the room, slamming the door behind him. And that was when she broke down. She crouched down in a corner, wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed. She sobbed for a marriage that had failed. She sobbed for the vows that they had said. Promises to love each other. She sobbed for a life they had built for five years. Children they had brought into this world. And most of all, she sobbed because she loved him so much, and she hated herself for that. It was true what they said: the people you don't think would betray you end up doing exactly that. Klaus Mikaelson did that and she didn't think she could ever come back from that. Her heart ache so much that she would welcome anything to stop the pain. She clutched her heart, praying, begging for it to be over.

The door slammed open. When she saw him, she instantly got up and stiffened considerably. He opened his mouth and failed to speak. They stared at each other, and she wondered why he was back.

"I don't want you in my house."

"This is my house as much as it is yours. You said that the day we got married." His words made her eyes blurry, made her heart twist with hurt.

"That was a mistake. Marrying you was the biggest mistake I could ever do," she said, trying hard not to faint from weakness.

"So I am a mistake?" He asked, his brows wrinkling with mock. "Is our kid a mistake too?" His voice was laced with anger and sorrow, mirroring her pain. "Or the child in your womb? Tell me, Caroline, loving me...is that a mistake too?"

"No," she shook her head in tears. "You don't get to make me the bad guy. You-" she pointed her trembling finger at him. "You are the bad guy, Klaus." Her voice shook with an intense emotion, trembling with a rage she never knew she had. "You made a full mockery of our marriage. Five years! For five years I had done nothing but loved you. I meant everything word, Niklaus. You cheated on me with Camille. Do you honestly think I would forgive you for that?" She hated him for loving him so much. She despised the fact that she couldn't erase her feelings for him. It was still there.

"I'm sorry," Klaus whispered. It was a whisper that spoke of an apology, a man seeking forgiveness for something he had done, a man dying to save a condemned marriage.

"Saying sorry isn't going to change anything. You used me. You used our child."

"I never.." he inhaled sharply, striding forward. "Caroline, I had never dreamt of hurting you. Ever." He swallowed, his eyes rimmed with reddening tears. "I told you, I didn't know how I could have cheated on you." It was painful for him to say, for both of them because they knew what they were feeling. "I didn't know how I woke up on Camille's bed. The last thing I remembered was being at the office and.."

"You're seriously insane if you think I'd believe you," she spat, words biting at his heart. "Making an excuse like that. Wow, Niklaus, you couldn't be more of a bastard, could you?" She knew his weaknesses. She couldn't count the time he had came home, crying because Mikael was always reminding him how he was a bastard, and why he didn't belong in their family. It was all that his father saw in him, and he didn't look beyond past his hatred for Klaus to see that he loved him, because he saw him as his father. Caroline knew his weakness, and she used that against him.

Klaus ignored her anger, her hurt and her coldness, but he couldn't help the sinking of his heart at the hurt that she didn't believe him. Not one bit. "You're supposed to know me," he muttered, disappointed. "You're supposed to know my heart!" His eyes darkened slowly and he attempted to put his emotions at bay. "I knew from the start that this relationship had no trust in it." And the love he felt for her was clouded by the hate had for her at the moment.

Five days. It had been five days since Caroline had seen him, since she had watched him walk away from her. Each passing day was torturous. She didn't know where he was staying and he couldn't have been staying with his family or else she would have been visited by them. That could only mean he hadn't told anyone about it, but how could he? He had cheated on her, so of course he wouldn't tell anyone about it. Her emotions were strained not to care, to ignore the yearn of seeing his face just once and to ask him if he loved her. Did he still love her? It was as if her heart was betraying her, loving a man who had cheated on her.

Despite everything, Caroline loved him. Not a single thing had changed. She didn't understand how things could change so quickly, how they could be happily married just barely a week ago to not standing the sight of one another. Besides the hate, she was hurting. The hurt of knowing that the man she loved didn't respect her love, didn't respect everything she had done to him from the start to the end. She felt like a fool, remembering the sweet words they had exchanged, the nights of passion they had shared, the small talks under the stars, the moments of staring into each other's eyes with nothing but mad love in them, and the times they had read their son the stories of their lives; how could he simply throw everything all away? Was everything a fake? Had he been in love with Camille for a while? Why wasn't her heart getting it?

Every waking morning, she would wake up with a hole in her heart and with so much pain that it was impossible to breath. She was longing for her husband, the man she had been married to for five years, the man whom had helped create their child, the man who's baby she was carrying in her womb, and the same man who had promised to be there in every step of the way. Their love; it was a love that had her wishing she could remove her heart so that she could feel nothing, so that she could be able to take breath without fearing that she might die from the pain, and a love that was constantly turning to hate and then to love. Five days of missing a man she didn't want to miss, loving a man that didn't deserve to be loved, hating a man that she loved dearly, having answered to their child why his father wasn't living with them anymore, a child in her womb who was clearly missing it's father too.

"Mummy." Their four year old son walked inside the room, his stuff animal clutched in his hand. When she gazed at him, she saw him in their son. He was every bit of Klaus and every bit of her. Blonde hair, blue eyes and when he smiled, you could see the same dimple his father had. It was painful, a constant reminder of someone that wasn't in her life.

Caroline patted her bed, an invitation and he didn't waste anytime jumping on the bed and snuggling to his mother, feeling the warmth slide against her skin. The bed didn't feel cold anymore like it had been for the past five days. She would always get in their bed and slip under the sheets, and she had only the cold room for comfort. When it was night, she remembered always snuggling up to her husband, because she knew he would take away the coldness. He would wrap his arms around her and every worries and stress went away, and everything didn't matter anymore except being in the arms of someone she felt safe in. With him gone, she was left to hold herself, to comfort herself when she cried to sleep, his words hunting her dreams, his teasing kisses that always left her wanting more and holding her as if the world would stand still for them.

"Hey, baby," she whispered to her son, leaning down to kiss his forehead. She held her him tightly, deluding herself into thinking that she would at least feel better because she was holding a part of Klaus.

Her son lifted his blurry eyes at her, his lips trembling as he hold back in a sob. "Where's daddy? I want daddy back, mummy, please," he begged, as a tear escaped his eye. He never cried unless he couldn't take it anymore. He was as strong as his father, and right now he was weak; he was a child deprived of his father and there was nothing she could do about it. "Doesn't daddy love me anymore?"

She choked back a sob, feeling a pang of hurt in her heart. "Daddy loves you, Noah," she promised him. "He doesn't love mummy anymore." Hot tears rolled down at her at the truth. He used to love her. When they met, he loved her. When he proposed, he loved her. On their wedding day, he loved her. When she stood in the altar in her white dress, he had looked at her as anyone in love would. When he had said 'I do', he was completely in love with her, and when she gave birth to Noah, he couldn't have loved her more.

"It's okay, I love you, mummy." She couldn't hold the sob then, she held her son tightly and cried in his arms. The two of them cried together with no one to witness this broken family, but the moon that had failed to shine and the stars that was sparkling just a little.

XXXX

When people talk about pain, they talk about it from different experiences. Some people's pain last a minimum of two weeks, some doesn't actually leave but rather leave a scar behind, a reminder of the thing that had gone wrong in their lives. Klaus could relate to every pain out there, because he was living in an amount of it that was so indescribable. It was really surprising that he could still stand, could be able to look himself in the mirror without fainting from his reflection, a reflection of a man who had failed his family. But the worst part of everything was when his wife couldn't believe in him, and how could anyone believe in him then? Caroline didn't trust him and that was a major blow to him. He had wanted her to understand, reason with her and then try to find out why he had been targeted.

He had never once in his life ever looked at Camille the same way he would look at his wife. She was nothing but a co worker and his wife couldn't understand that, because she was too blinded by jealousy. He didn't remember anything that had happened that night, but he could only remember the betrayal that had reflected in his wife's eyes. She should have believed him, but she didn't. She had accused him for having an affair and he couldn't think he could ever forgive her. Trust was what should have been powerful in their relationship and without it, there wasn't anything to return to.

He hadn't thought for one minute that things would end between him and Caroline. They had been in love with each other and in the back of his mind that he dared not go to, his father knew they wouldn't last, it couldn't last because Klaus didn't deserve to be happy. He should have accepted that fact, he should have believed Mikael when he told him a bastard like him was never going to be happy; that even if he were, it wasn't going to last long because he didn't deserve it. He lost everything; his wife and son, a son that was probably wondering why he hadn't seen his father for five days, why his father wasn't tucking him into bed like every other night. He was probably wondering why he never saw his parents with each other. Noah was suffering, Caroline was suffering and he was suffering as well. He could no longer look his wife in the eyes, to face the hatred and pain and the hurt he had caused all of them. And also, he could no longer look her in the eye because she had let him down by not trusting him. He hadn't seen her and he didn't want to see her. For the past five days, he had been cooped up in his old apartment, lonely and hurting. Nights after nights, he couldn't sleep because every time he did, Caroline's face would hunt him. He was unable to sleep, to face the empty side next to him that was supposed to be occupied by his pregnant wife.

Klaus had not said anything to anyone, but he knew they couldn't keep it a secret. Everyone would know they weren't living together and he could be right, because he had noticed the stares from people when they saw him leaving his apartment, rather than the house where his family were. He was dealing with not seeing his son, not seeing the glowing face of his wife and her husband huge belly that held either his son or daughter. He was taking it because he thought he deserved it, he deserved for the pain he had caused them and it was right he had to suffer. He just hadn't expect it to be this bad, hadn't expect it to turn out the way it did, and he didn't expect a pang in his heart every time he remembered the way she smiled at him. Her eyes would light up and sparkle with love, and he didn't expect to feel the pain of waking up each morning to no one around, no breakfast from his wife or the hugs he constantly get from his son. Getting out of the bed was hard, willing himself to welcome another day when he would rather escape to oblivion from the absence of his family. It was beginning to get unbearable, the agony of knowing that he brought it upon himself. Giving up his children wasn't something he was just going to live with, but giving up Caroline, he had already did. He didn't want her anymore that's what he kept telling himself. Any thought of reconciliation in between them, he had thrown it out of the window. He knew she wouldn't want to get back with him anyway. At this point, he was going to try moving on, he was going to stop hoping that Caroline would come back to him. He loved his wife, but he was giving up on her. They would be nothing but arguments and he didn't want to cost him his children. He was going to end it with her because it was the right thing to do, they had no trust between them before their fighting went out of control.

So that's why he left his apartment at one in the morning and grabbed his keys and headed out. He parked his car in front of the house and willed himself to get out and face the storm that was going to brew. Mustering up the courage, he left the car and walked toward the place he had been so familiar with, the house he had once called home but couldn't call it now. He knocked on the door quickly. Their fairytale was over and their happiness was short lived. He wanted to get this over as soon as possible. Klaus still loved Caroline, he really did. Just the thought that they wouldn't be able to be family again rose the tears in his eyes, as he realised that he would never experienced old age with her. The woman- this woman he had been with for five years answered the door with bed head and dried red eyes.

When she laid eyes on him, eyes on the man who was the author of her pain, the man who was known as her husband and the father of her children was standing before her with no emotions in his eyes. He had the nerve to come back here, she thought in disdain. They stared for so long but it had only been for a few seconds.

"Caroline," he muttered the name that had left his lips so many times, be it with pleasure, caring or love. Neither was present at the moment. He watched her inhale suddenly, her heavy heart beginning to weigh on her. "I have something to discuss with you."

She didn't fight him, she let him into the house and as he went inside, his head felt like exploding. It was in this house they had loved, they had kids, they cried and shared their sorrow and it was in this house they had called it quits. Caroline waited for him to begin and he wasted no time telling her what was best for both of them.

"I'm filing for a divorce."

She wasn't surprised. She knew he only came here to give her bad news, but doesn't mean it didn't hurt much less. This was really it. They were going to end it after all. It hurt that she knew all along they were going to get divorced. "I figured." Her head fell at his admission, shaky hot breaths releasing from her chest. "It's for the best." She felt her stomach constrict at that, as emotions went over her. "For us and our children." Caroline lifted her eyes and stared at the blue emotionless one. "And because...I don't trust you anymore."

There..there was the confirmation that he had been waiting for and that he had also dreaded. It felt as if his heart was being carved out with a knife. Klaus welcomed this pain he was familiar with and he stood his guard, not wanting her to see how much it was affecting him. If she wasn't showing how much affect it had on her to say that, then why should he? The decision was clear but the choice wasn't.

"Thank you for giving me two wonderful children, I'd never forget that. And thank you for those five years we had spent together." She was emotionally spent in front of this man, the man who had hurt her beyond repair. And all that she could do was thank him for the good times. "I'm not a monster, so I'd bring you Noah whenever you wish to see him. We'd both have custody of our children, Klaus." He wasn't saying anything and she as glad he didn't. "Since you made this bed, you're going to tell everyone what happened. I can't be seen as the bad person here who kicked her husband out. I never thought it would come to this but I do not regret the five years because it gave me Noah and this little one." Caroline's eyes felt from exhaustion as everything began to wear on her and exhaustion hit. Her emotions were raising to the surface of her heart.

Then she was stepping in his personal space, reaching a shaking hand to his face. Caroline stood on her toes, meeting her lips with his as she rubbed his cheek with her thumb, then quickly pulling away with a sob. They both knew what that kiss meant. It was a good bye. She was letting him go to love tomorrow without him. Yesterday was theirs and tomorrow was hers alone. But she had needed to feel his lips, to feel the spark she knew was still there, but the heart wasn't and to kiss the man she had called her husband for five years. A good bye they both needed and would remember.

Klaus wanted to hold her, to tell her to give them another chance but it was too late. The damage had already been done. There was no going back to something that wasn't going to be there. She may still love him but she didn't love him enough to forget. The love between them only made her remember more, not forget. Before him was his family, his wife and his children- a future that no longer exist.

He was hurt.

He was in pain.

He loved her.

Klaus was accepting their split- of her letting him go, throwing away everything. He failed to respond and then he was turning to leave the house, his wife and children behind. Maybe time would heal them, but their hearts would never heal.

Sorry for the mistakes. Should I end it here? Or write one more chapter or more chapters? Tell me!