Dusk til Dawn | n.mikaelson (book one)

XVII: The Ties That Bind

Elizabeth Forbes is many things. A pillar of the community, a leader, a sheriff, but none were as important to her as her role as a mother. Raising her two girls to the strong women they have become is her greatest accomplishment. Her pride and joy. 

To Briana, Elizabeth Forbes is an angel. Her selflessness saved Briana's life years before she could even realize it. As Briana grew older, the bond with her mother grew stronger. Her admiration for the women who took her in as her own without batting an eye grew everyday. 

Briana would never be able to repay Liz for the life she so graciously gave her. For the love and kindness she provided, for the morals she instilled. For giving her a home. For everything. 

Bill Forbes was anything but. His relationship with Briana was always complicated. 

Briana had been the gift he and Liz had been so anxiously searching for. After months and months of disappointment not being able to conceive a child of their own, Briana was a light shining through the darkness, calling out to them. 

For the first few years, it was great. They were your average suburban family. Bill loved his oldest daughter more than anything in this world, until Caroline was born. 

At only 4 years old Briana could sense her father's shift in behavior towards her. The man who would once read her a bed time story before bed every night suddenly didn't have the time. The man she put on a pedestal, her knight in shining armor suddenly acted as if she was no longer worthy of his love. 

It was clear that Caroline was everything to him. From the moment she was born, all Bill cared about was his child. The child of his own, not the one he had taken pity on. 

By the time Briana was in high school, the two had no relationship at all. They were simply two strangers living in the same house with shared love for Caroline and Liz, but even that didn't last long. 

When Bill and Liz divorced, Briana could barely contain her excitement. She had no doubt that the way he treated Briana was part of the reason her parents grew estranged, but Liz tried with everything in her to make sure Briana did not take the brunt of her adoptive father's resentment. 

So you can imagine her dismay when she woke up this morning to see Bill Forbes standing in the living room of his former home. 

As Briana walked down the stairs she heard Tyler and Caroline's voices coming from the living room. 

"That's the problem. Klaus told me-" Tyler started, immediately stopping his thought when he noticed Briana's presence. 

"Please. Don't let me interrupt." Briana smiled sarcastically knowing that surely Tyler was planning something against Klaus. 

"How do I know you won't go running to him to tell him what I'm up to?" Tyler questioned. 

Briana rolled her eyes and pinched the brim of her nose in irritation, "Because Tyler, I'm not a dumb ass like you." She quipped with another sarcastic smile. 

"As long as it's anything short of killing him, your secret is safe with me. Besides, my main priority is keeping Caroline safe. And I made that very clear to him." Briana reasoned as she happily stood beside her younger sister. Caroline giving her a soft smile.

"Okay.. Klaus told me to bite you and I told him no, and then I did it anyway. Like it was completely out of my control." Tyler spoke, Briana rolled her eyes and Caroline shifted uneasily. 

"That's why I had your mom call him." Tyler finished as Bill Forbes stepped into view. 

Briana's face went stone cold. Her thoughts were blank in shock at her father's presence. Her posture stiffened uncomfortably. It was like she was trying to hid while being in plain sight.