Until This Lie Do Us Part

Chapter 1

Mystic Falls, Virginia. A small, quaint little town, he thought. Though, it had grown significantly since he had last visited. There were a few more gas stations and quite a bit more homes. But he was here for a long stay this time, seeing as how he had been given the exquisitely large boarding house at the edge of town.

Rich Boy. Trust Fund Baby. He had been called worse. His family had money. Well, what was left of his family. His older brother Damon lived in New York. His uncle, Zach, lived an hour away in Richmond. Stefan and Damon's parents had died when they were very young, leaving Uncle Zach in charge of their care. Uncle Zach had moved the boys to New York with him shortly after the accident.

The boys attended the best private schools in the state of New York. They were given anything and everything they wanted. Thanks to Uncle Zach's successful publishing company and a long line of family wealth, Stefan and Damon had never known what it was to go without.

As Stefan sat in the booth at a popular hangout in Mystic Falls – The Grill, he briefly reminisced about his days in Mystic Falls. When he was a child, he would often come with his uncle and brother to spend the summer at the boarding house. His uncle always thought the small town air was good for them. A bit of a break from the big city. That, and Stefan and Damon's parents had grown up in Mystic Falls. It was good for the boys to know where their parents had grown up, Uncle Zach had said.

Now that Stefan had been given the family boarding house in Mystic Falls, he figured he might as well use it. Sure, New York was a lot of fun. But a small town suited his purposes more so than the big city.

Although Stefan had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life, he wanted more. As in, 12 million more, to be exact. Dear old deceased Great Aunt Judith had left Stefan, her favorite nephew, a good chunk of change when he was ready for it. Now, at 25 years of age, he was more than ready for it. The only problem was one specific line of text. In order for Stefan to gain access to his trust fund from his great aunt, he had to marry. The money was for his new family, to make sure they were financially secure and could continue to live the privileged life that all Salvatores lived. Uncle Zach was now in charge to make sure the money was dispersed upon Stefan's commitment to marriage.

But everyone laughed at the thought of Stefan finding a girl who would put up with him long enough to marry him. As far as Damon was concerned, that money would rot away because his younger brother would never marry. Damon, though, was bitter. No such deal was offered to him.

So here Stefan was, staring out a window at The Grill in Mystic Falls, stirring his coffee and ignoring what his longtime friend, Alaric, was telling him. "You know you actually have to marry in order to get that 12 million, right?" Alaric asked him, taking a drink of his coffee. "Who the hell is going to want to marry you?" he asked. Stefan turned back to glare at his friend. Stefan had the looks, that was for sure. And he had plenty of money. But he was self-centered, arrogant, and a bit of an ass. Stefan believed that he could buy anything and anyone.

"Please. Any girl would be more than willing to marry me as long as I gave her some money" Stefan said, waving his hand around at the abundance of girls in the small diner.

"Yeah, but you can't bring home some tramp who would marry you for a little money" Alaric reminded him. "This has to be believable. The girl would have to be smart and play the part of being happily in love with you. This is going to be harder than you think" Alaric sighed.

Stefan rolled his eyes at his friend's comment. "I think you're just bitter that you followed me all the way out here" Stefan told him. "You can go back to New York. No one is stopping you."

Alaric laughed. "And risk missing this whole stupid plan of yours blow up in your face?" he asked. "Nah."

"My plan is fool proof. I just need to find the right girl" Stefan said, looking around the diner. There were a few girls eating. They looked young, like high school age. That would not work. But a small town surely had to be crawling with young women who were bored out of their minds and needing a little extra cash.

"You know, you could always marry for love and do this the way your dead, great aunt wanted you to" Alaric suggested.

Stefan snorted. He didn't want to fall in love, nor did he have any desire to marry for longer than he needed to for this trust fund to disperse. Falling in love and thinking he had found the one? Been there, done that. That had blown up in his face. "All I need to do is convince a girl to marry me by offering her a little money. Stay married to me for six months like the clause in the document states, and then get the hell out of my life and never talk to me again" Stefan explained. It was simple.

"There's no way in hell that your uncle will believe your marriage is real" Alaric countered. "And then you will have wasted your time and the time of some poor girl who was stupid enough to go along with you" he added.

"Twelve million" Stefan stated. "Twelve million Alaric. Do you know what I could do with that?" he asked.

Alaric smirked. "Donate it to a children's hospital?" he asked. He really did love his dear old friend Stefan, but sometimes, even he couldn't tolerate Stefan.

Stefan shook his head in disagreement. "I could start a chain of strip clubs. Or buy shares in something" Stefan said, pondering the ideas he had.

"You're ridiculous" Alaric pointed out as he downed the last of his coffee. But his attention was soon focusing on someone else. He smiled as the pretty young waitress approached.

"Can I get you two anything else?" she asked, stopping at their table.

Stefan looked up at her and a smile appeared on his face. She had long straight brown hair that framed around her face and extended down her back. She had little makeup on, but she didn't look too bad without it Stefan thought. She was kind of plain, but in a cute sort of small town way. She had light blue jeans on and a deep purple t-shirt, complete with the dark blue apron. He read her nametag. "Well, Elena" he said, flicking his eyes up to meet hers. "I could really go for your number" he said, his best flirting tone in use coupled with his to-die for smile. It worked every time.

Elena tore her eyes away from Alaric and looked down at Stefan. He had perfect light brown hair with green eyes. He was dressed in a black button down and dark jeans, from what she could tell. She suddenly smiled at the young man before her. But there was a spark in her eyes, Stefan noticed. "I'm sorry, but I am all out of giving my number to arrogant pigs who only want to get me into their bed" she said confidently, tearing the check off and placing it on the table. "Have a nice day" she said, giving Alaric a genuine smile and then glaring at Stefan.

Alaric waited for Elena to walk away before bursting into laughter. Stefan was less than thrilled as he shot a glare at Alaric. Stefan never got turned down by a girl. Ever. "Not only were you turned down. You got your ass handed to you" he laughed. Suddenly though, Stefan's glare turned into a contemplating smirk. "Oh no. What is that look?" Alaric asked cautiously, his laughter dying down some.

"She's it" Stefan smiled. "Elena is the girl I need to help me pull off this marriage" he said, smacking the table as he stood. He was brilliant. Definitely brilliant. She had spunk and spunk is what he needed to navigate his family.

Alaric groaned as Stefan left in the direction Elena had. This was a terrible, terrible idea. But, Alaric was kind of curious to watch it all play out.

A/N: So what do you think? I am kind of liking feisty Elena.