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She was dead. To everyone’s knowledge, she died on May 11th, 2018. She stared at the death certificate in front of her. She wasn’t truly dead, but she may as well have been. Life had been better since escaping from Atlanta, but one thing still tore at her heart, keeping her from the peace she so desperately desired: vengeance. To Blake Carrington for not letting her leave their marriage. If he had, she wouldn’t have the scars on her body that reminded her daily of what she had been through. Alexis Carrington: for making her miss her nephew’s wedding and locking her in the loft that ultimately sealed her fate. She still had some anger towards Claudia Blaisdel even, but she couldn’t blame her entirely. Claudia wasn’t exactly sane, but she also provided her an escape from the Carrington family. There was also a sense of regret in her heart, for Fallon. Fallon, who had been mistreated by her mother and manipulated by her father. She wasn’t always accepting of Cristal, but deep down, Cristal knew that it was her emotional scars that kept Fallon from letting her in completely.
Despite the inkling of sadness she felt for Fallon, the need for revenge took over. This wasn’t like her. She was usually very forgiving and free-spirited, but Blake and Alexis Carrington got away with murder. They needed to pay for their actions – she needed justice.
So Cristal Flores rose from the dead, ready to take the Carrington family by storm.
~
Blake sat in his office as he usually does, going through paperwork and trying to formulate a plan that would allow him to get Carrington Atlantic back. He’s been at a loss for weeks now with his wife forever off doing who knows what, and his kids abandoning him for his nemesis and his ex-wife. He had never felt so powerless before.
Fallon was with Liam, touring wedding venues, thinking about what she wanted for their second marriage. For once in her life, she felt okay – completely content with the direction her life was heading. She knew she could do anything with her dream man by her side.
Adam, Alexis, and Jeff sat in Jeff’s office, contemplating their next move in their acquisition of Carrington Atlantic. There was no room for mistakes or faults. This had to work or the company would be back in Blake’s greedy hands.
Sam spent his day at the hotel. Each day blended into the next. People checking in and checking out. Keeping track of revenue. Keeping track of expenses. Wondering what type of alcohol to buy for the bar.
Finally, a woman approached the desk. Sam detected her presence, but his gaze never left his computer screen. “One moment, please.” The woman stood silently, waiting to receive Sam’s undivided attention. “Okay. What can I do for you?”
And that’s when he finally looked up, regretting that he hadn’t done so sooner. She looked just like her. Could it be possible? Agony, longing pulsed through his heart. This kind of pain was incomparable to any other. But as he studied her face, he knew it couldn’t be. This woman seemed to be a little more broken.
“Excuse me?” Sam pulled himself from his thoughts as the woman got his attention.
“Sorry. Would you mind repeating that for me?”
“Of course. I’m here to check in.” She spoke with a smile that was warm and inviting.
S
am could not shake this. “Um… what was the name on that?”
“Cecelia Kelley.”
He quickly checked her in and handed her the room key. Once she was far enough away from the desk, he opened a new tab on his computer and searched her name – he could sense that something wasn’t right about her. And his suspicions were confirmed to be true when he found no record of a woman named Cecelia Kelley.
There’s no way, right?
~
Cristal settled into her room, rattled by her encounter with Sam. She knew he owned this hotel, and she could not have been more proud of him and what he had made of himself. But she knew she had to be more careful now. The look on Sam’s face was unmistakable: he had recognized her. The look that followed recognition was one of realization – realization that she was dead and there was no possible way she could have been standing in front of him right then.
She hated seeing him in this kind of pain, torment for having to feel like he had to lose her all over again. But she needed to keep a distance and lay as low as possible to make sure her plans would go exactly to her plan.
She wouldn’t be leaving Sam behind again.
~
Sam immediately called Fallon after this revelation. She would think he’s crazy, but he has to be sure. After a few rings, Fallon finally answered the phone, feeling annoyed to be disturbed during her house hunting time with Liam.
“This better be an emergency if you’re calling me while I’m on a date with Liam.”
“So you’re calling looking for a place to live a date now?”
Fallon rolled her eyes and sighed. “What do you need, Sam?”
He took a deep breath. He didn’t want to tell her anything until he got more information. “Do you have a good PI I can borrow? I need to look into… a guest. They seemed weird.”
“Ugh. I don’t even want to know. I’ll send you his contact info. Are we done here?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want to disturb your date.” He put emphasis on the word ‘date’ to make her mad. He could practically hear her eyeroll through the phone before she hung up.
As soon as Fallon sent her PI’s contact, Sam stepped into his office and made the call. Could his aunt actually be alive? Did he actually have a family again?
~
Cristal worked the day through. She spent hours on the phone with Van Kirk Industries’ board trying to push them in her direction and away from anyone that had a drop of Carrington blood. She had been pushing for this for months, taking any measures needed to make sure CA ended up in her hands and no one else’s. And when her contact informed her that Jeff and Alexis were pushing hard with blackmail to acquire CA, she knew she had to return to Atlanta. It was not her initial plan as she knew returning to Atlanta risked letting people know she was alive and would put a target on her back. But this vendetta was too big and too powerful to let it go now.
Cristal prepared herself to go meet with Carrington Atlantic’s board of directors for the first time. She was hoping to sway them in her direction enough that they would rather partner with her than with Jeff and Alexis. Besides, she had something that Jeff and Alexis didn’t: control over Venezuela. She worked there for the last two years after escaping Blake and made her own empire there. Now, it was time to take over the United States and everything that Blake Carrington loved.
Cristal neared the exit doors of the hotel, sunglasses covering her eyes. She could not risk Sam taking a closer look at her and asking her any questions. The look on his face earlier in the afternoon told her that he was onto her. And with his connections, it wouldn’t be long until he found out the truth.
~
Blake was getting angry. He knew the sale of CA was happening tonight and he wasn’t any closer to swaying the board members in his direction. But he couldn’t give up. Not yet. He was Blake effing Carrington. He had gotten off from a murder trial. Surely there was something he could do.
So, as he always does when he’s in need, Blake called Anders into his office.
“What can I do for you, sir?”
“I need fifteen million in cash. Now. I’ll give each of those board members a cut and pay some up front. Everyone has a price, and I don’t know how they could pass up this offer.”
Anders nodded in agreement and headed out to do what was asked of him.
Blake prepared himself to go marching into the board meeting, all guns blazing and refusing to walk out of there until his company was back in his possession.
~
Jeff and Alexis prepared for the very same board meeting. They knew Blake would be making money moves, so they made some of their own. Twenty million dollars in cash sat in briefcases across Jeff’s office as he and Alexis prepared the perfect weapon that would ensure the board to see Blake as unfit to run Carrington Atlantic.
Adam came strolling into Jeff’s office with marks of black and blue on his face. “Does this bruise actually look believable?”
Jeff looked up at him unamused. “Aren’t you the doctor here? Shouldn’t you know what a bruise looks like?”
Alexis lightly hit Jeff’s shoulder in response. “Yes, I think it looks perfect.”
“How’s the video coming along?” Adam looked at Alexis and Jeff intently. They had been working on this for a while.
“Perfectly. Blake won’t know what hit him… literally,” Alexis replied.
“It’s done.” Adam walked over to the computer that Jeff and Alexis were sitting in front of and waited for Jeff to press play on their masterpiece.
“I, Adam Carrington, have poisoned Jeff Colby with the intent to make him sick or kill him… by the orders of my father, Blake Carrington.” Adam’s voice rang through the room as they played back the original clip. “But when I refused, he threw a glass of whiskey at me and kicked me out of the manor. That’s how I got this bruise.” He pretended to wipe his eye in the video with a sponge, but it was used as a transition into the next part of their plan. “I have been covering it with make-up, courtesy of my lovely mother because I didn’t want Blake to get in trouble. But this is just to say, he’s hurt me. His own son. And I do not think he’s fit to run a company.”
The three of them exchanged devious glances between each other. This was the final straw for Blake Carrington.
~
Sam rushed back to Carrington Manor, desperately needing to relay the news he received from his PI to someone. Anyone.
“FALLON!” He yelled through the manor.
“Good thing no one here is sleeping or else you would have woken them up.” Anders casually walked into the foyer where Sam was standing. Sam just rolled his eyes at him.
“Have you seen Fallon? I really need to talk to her.”
“She’s a little… preoccupied at the moment. Can I take a message?”
Sam was too wound up to care. He would find her on his own. Although, he regretted that decision slightly when he burst through her bedroom doors to find her on top of Liam in just her bra and underwear.
“Don’t you knock?” Fallon yelled defensively as she rolled off of Liam and pulled the covers over her.
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, we need to talk. Urgently.” Sam shielded his eyes as he spoke and then stepped out into the hallway to wait for her. Fallon sighed and put on a robe before walking out to speak to Sam.
She slipped out of her bedroom and stood in front of Sam. “This better be serious if you just stopped me from having sex with my fiancé.”
“Ignoring that comment because it is. I think Cristal may be alive.”
Fallon looked at him confused. “That’s what you had to tell me? Of course she is, I saw her earlier today… although I wish I hadn’t.” She mumbled under breath.
“No, I mean my aunt. Celia Machado.”
Fallon quickly changed from mad to bewildered. Confused. There was no way Cristal survived that fire. She could have sworn that she died that night. But if she was alive, whose ashes were sitting on the floor of the foyer?
As if reading her expressions, Sam told her everything he knew. From the moment she walked into the hotel to the moment Sam contacted the PI.
“Why the hell would she return to Atlanta all of a sudden?”
“Ooh, there is something I forgot to mention. The PI found that she has some big green energy business in Venezuela now. She created a lot of jobs and provided affordable to power to the citizens there,” Sam said nonchalantly.
Then, Sam and Fallon looked each other instantly, sharing the same thought.
“Where’s Alexis? And where is Blake?”
“Mr. Carrington has gone down to the CA board meeting. Is something wrong?” Anders chimed in.
Fallon looked at Sam nervously. “We need to tell him. Now.”
They rushed out of the manor without another word, leaving Anders confused and Liam in bed waiting for a Fallon that wouldn’t return.
~
Jeff and Alexis were about to start the board meeting when Blake bursted through the doors. Just as they expected he would.
“You’re not gonna get away with this.” Blake angrily stared down Jeff, Alexis, and an oddly bruised Adam. “What the hell happened to your eye?”
“Uh – well you should know. You did this to me,” Adam stuttered.
“No, I didn’t.” Blake looked confused, just like all the board members in the room were as they watched the scene unfold.
Adam started to cry, doing everything he could to sell their plan.
“I didn’t want it to come to this, but Adam confessed something to us on tape about Blake. I hate to be the one to do this, but you should have a look for yourselves.” Alexis smirked at Blake before handing her phone over to the council so they could watch. And as Blake listened, his face went through a series of emotions: shock, anger, horror, etc. He knew he was getting bested by Colbys. Something that never should have happened.
“That never happened.” Blake tried to defend himself. He didn’t need another trial for something he may or may not have done.
“I can’t believe you would deny hurting your own son.” Adam continued to put on his act and fake cried into Alexis’s shoulder while rubbed his back.
“He can’t even say he’s sorry for what he’s done. What kind of boss would he be?” Alexis sat there and pretended to be hurt for Adam.
“Um… a bad one, I guess?” One of the councilwomen chimed in. She was clearly confused, but she was playing straight into the plan.
“That’s not true. And I will do whatever it takes to get this company back. I have fifteen million in cash I can give you all right now.” Blake was pushing hard but not hard enough.
“We have twenty million and proof that Blake is not fit to handle this company.” Jeff piped up for the first time since this whole debacle started.
“Wait,” the original councilwoman started to speak, “what do you mean ‘get this company back’? And why do you all just have this money here?”
Alexis and Jeff looked at each other confused. Didn’t they know why they were there? They had been working on this sale for weeks now. “You’re selling CA to me and my husband.”
“No. Carrington Atlantic was sold to anonymous buyer earlier today.” Confusion flashed across the faces of everyone in that room. Jeff and Alexis for realizing they had been had by an outside party. Blake because something was entirely out of his control for the first time in his life.
“Who the hell is this anonymous buyer?” Blake couldn’t believe he had actually lost this battle.
While everyone in the board meeting was trying to put the pieces together, Sam and Fallon came running in to the office about to connect the dots for them.
“Dad, there’s something you need to know.” Fallon had been angry with her father, but she felt that this was too big of a secret to keep from him. He had a right to know. Worry consumed Blake: he didn’t know what would be coming next.
The sound of heels clacking on the floor of the building made everyone pause and look to see where it was coming from. The sound crept closer and closer to the office they were all standing in. And then it stopped. Every set of eyes in that room was on the figure in the doorway. Shock on Blake’s and Jeff’s faces. Disbelief on Fallon’s. Confusion on Adam’s. Resentment on Alexis’s. Happiness on Sam’s.
And there was nothing but a smug smirk on this woman’s face as she said “I’m Cristal Flores, and I’m the new owner of Carrington Atlantic.”