The Heiress's Revenge - A Bloody Affair - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: [24 – A Blast from the Past – I]
On December 24, 1996, after 12 years of marriage and two sons, Emily Sullivan gave birth to her and Michael Sullivan’s youngest child, a precious baby daughter they named Caroline Mae.

On January 15, 2006, tragedy struck the Sullivan family. The elderly grandfather, Arthur Sullivan, his son Michael Sullivan, daughter-in-law Emily Sullivan, and two grandsons, Nathaniel and Christopher Sullivan, were all declared dead. The only surviving member was the 10-year-old Caroline Mae Sullivan.

On the same day, young Caroline was taken into captivity and remained locked away. Later that year, in May, Camille Sullivan was declared dead in a car accident to begin the process of turning her into Caroline Mae.

For the next three years, the real Caroline struggled to survive while Camille was molded and trained to take her place. It has been almost 15 years since Camille’s entire identity was destroyed to create a fake Caroline.

It’s been about 15 years since Camille Sullivan last celebrated her birthday; 15 years since she’s been pretending to be Caroline and celebrating Caroline’s birthday instead. And after years of keeping up the pretense, Camille now believed that she truly was Caroline.

Until now.

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A few hours ago

The grand ballroom of the Azure palace Resort sparkled under the majestic chandelier’s light, its crystals facets scattering rainbows across the opulent room casting an enchanting glow. The atmosphere of the room was lively as the guests, socialites, celebrities, business executives, all dressed in their finest, mingled and laughed, clinking their champagne flutes in dual celebration.

They were gathered here today to celebrate Caroline Mae Sullivan’s 28th birthday and her engagement to Ethan Grayson.

The stage was decorated with exotic flowers and fairy lights making everything look magical. It’s floor covered in a plus red carpet. Renowned musicians were called in to perform live for the guests. Everything was organized to the perfection.

The Grayson and Sullivan family were greeting the guests while Ethan was being teased by his friends as they waited for Caroline to arrive. Chloe was with Caroline, whereas, Elijah stood in a corner, on his phone, texting Seraphina, giving her random updates about the party.

It was only when the orchestra began playing a soft waltz, announcing Caroline’s arrival, that he put away his cell phone and began walking towards the stage to join his family while Caroline and Chloe walked inside the ballroom.

Caroline was looking absolutely gorgeous in her lavender gown that sparkled under the glittering lights. As she approached the stage, Ethan stepped down and offered her his hand and helped her climb the stairs to the stage.

The mood was cheery and romantic but only a few could feel the undercurrent of tension simmering between the couple. Caroline was mad at Ethan for the recent hotel room incident and was waiting for the right time to teach him a lesson that she wasn’t someone he could mess with.

As for Ethan, he could not wait for this sham to be over. He had plans for tonight and none of them included Caroline. Parties likes these weren’t his thing but he was forced to be there.

He was only going to stay there until the engagement and after that Ethan had planned to use his injuries from the recent accident as an excuse and leavy the party early feigning pain and exhaustion.

Grabbing a microphone each, William and Marcus stepped onto the stage along with the rest of their family members, to make the big announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Marcus began, his tone light and happy, “tonight is one of the most important nights of our lives. We are gathered here not just to celebrate my best friend’s niece Caroline’s birthday, but also her engagement to my son, Ethan.”

William grabbed Caroline’s hand and brought her forward on the stage and Marcus did the same with Ethan.

“These two have always been close since childhood. Ethan, this son of mine, had always been quite mischievous. I cannot even tell you about how many pranks this young lad had pulled. He once put blue hair dye in my shampoo and I recall looking like a Smurf for that whole week.” said Marcus making everybody laugh.

“Apart from me, he often played pranks on sweet little Caroline. But one time, the prank went too far.” told Marcus and Elijah knew that his father was talking about the incident from Caroline’s 5th birthday.

William picked up from there, his eyes twinkling with the memory, “He gave us all quite a scare that day, didn’t he Marcus?”

Marcus nodded in agreement, his smile widening as William stepped over to pinch Ethan’s cheek lightly, “He received a lot of scolding that day, I even slapped him for what he had done.”

Ethan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly while Caroline just stood there smiling, pretending that it was one of her memories but it wasn’t at all.

“After that day, Ethan never troubled her again. Instead, they became best friends, growing up together, and eventually, they fell in love.” Marcus added.

“We have seen them as kids, we watched them grow up into the wonderful human beings that they are. As parents, we had our doubts, but Ethan and Caroline proved us all wrong. They are truly made for each other.” smiled William, wiping at the corner of his eyes.

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“They are made for each other, indeed, Uncle William.” chuckled Seraphina as she watched the proceedings of the party on her laptop. She was in one of the rooms, many floors above, in the same hotel where the engagement party was being held.

She could have watched the whole thing from the security of her home but Seraphina chose to come here for a special purpose.

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“Ethan, after my brother and sister-in-law’s passing, I have raised Caroline as my own daughter. Today, I am giving her responsibility to you. Make sure you keep her happy and smiling, always, because otherwise -” William warned causing Ethan to chuckle and entwine his fingers with Caroline.

Bringing up their joined hands to his lips, Ethan said, “Don’t worry, Uncle. I will take the best care of her.”

William gave Ethan a pat on his back while Marcus gestured the designated audio-visual technician to play the video file he had been given.

As the lights turned off, a large screen descended from the ceiling, and the video began to play.

It started with sweet, nostalgic clips of Ethan and Caroline as children, running through fields, laughing, playing, and sharing secrets. The guests cooed and clapped, excited at being able to have a glimpse of Ethan and Caroline’s love story that developed over the years.

But suddenly, the video changed.

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“And boom!” Seraphina burst into peals of laughter as she watched with uncontained excitement the events that were about to unfold.

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The screen flickered as if the video file was being reset. It went blank for a while before the video started playing again. But this time, the clips showered a different side of Ethan.

“Fuck, yes, bitch!” explicit footage of Ethan with various women was were being played on the massive screen to everybody’s shock.

“You like it? You like riding my dick, don’t you?” a different clip starting playing. In this one, Ethan was shown indulging in a threesome, “What about you?” he grabbed the other woman’s legs and spread them wide, “Show me how wet you are for me.”

The sound of multiple shocked gasps filled the ballroom as the video continued to play with clips from both before and after Ethan’s accident. Caroline’s face paled as she saw the next clip being played.

It was from the hotel room where she had caught Ethan with that whore. Her eyes rimmed red, fists clenched tight as she glared at Ethan with murderous intent. She had warned him but he did not listen and now they all were in trouble.

William and Marcus were livid, their faces red with anger and humiliation. It wasn’t that they weren’t aware of what kind of man Ethan was. They just had never thought that his secrets would be publicly revealed like this.

Elijah, on the other hand, looked on in disbelief, unable to reconcile the man on the screen with the brother he thought he knew.

“Turn it off!” Marcus yelled at the technician, causing the man to fumble in panic as he trued but wasn’t able to turn off the video for some reason.

Unable to stop the video, Marcus stormed down the stage and towards the projector, yanking out the wires. But that only helped turned off the video, plunging the room into dark but the sound from the video file continued to play.

The sound of Ethan’s guttural moans filled the ballroom along with the sound of skin slapping against skin, “God! You are so tight. I -”

Marcus grabbed the technician’s laptop and broke it in two pieces before throwing it on the floor and stomping over it. The lights turned on and an awkward silence settle in the ballroom. For a while, nobody said anything as the guests kept looking at each other.

The video stopped, no audio could be heard, and the party was now ruined. It started with a small murmur, that continued to turn louder and louder as the guests began to gossip about what they just saw.

Marcus and William ordered their assistants to handle the guests and direct them to the dining area for dinner. While the Sullivan and Grayson families retreated to a private room, leaving the guests to their gossip and speculation.

“Dad, I -” Ethan tried to explain himself but Marcus did not let him complete and slapped him hard across his cheek.

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Putting her laptop on sleep mode, Seraphina inserted a pair of earbuds in her ears to listen to the conversation happening in the private room that was currently occupied by the Grayson and Sullivan family.

“This is just the beginning.” she muttered to herself, “Just wait and watch how I will turn you all into nothing but ashes.”