TO

Summary For a thousand years, Elijah Mikaelson believed he had buried his eldest sister. Y/N was Mikael’s firstborn child, born from a marriage before Esther. She was there before the Mikaelsons became legends, before immortality, before the family learned what it meant to run from their father. And she was the first person Elijah ever had to let go of. When Mikael and Esther demanded that Elijah choose his family over what he wanted, he obeyed. He sacrificed the one thing he could never bring himself to forget—and Y/N disappeared, leaving him to believe she was dead. Now, centuries later, Y/N returns to New Orleans. And Elijah has another choice to make. Hayley. Jackson. His family. His duty. Watching from the shadows, Y/N recognizes the pattern immediately. Elijah is preparing to sacrifice himself again, convincing himself that letting Hayley go is the noble thing to do. But Y/N knows where that road leads. She has already watched Elijah choose duty over his heart once. She won’t watch him do it twice. Because sometimes the person you let go of is the one who spends a thousand years wondering why you didn’t fight harder to keep them.