Transmigrated Into The True Heiress-Chapter 128: Revelations

"Isn’t it such a lucky coincidence that CCTV cameras are always around anywhere I’m in danger?" Ephyra chuckled darkly, her eyes gleaming with malice. "Perhaps the universe has a strange way of looking after the weak and wronged. Or perhaps..." She let the sentence hang in the air, her smile adding to the crowd’s unease.

On the screen, the footage continued, showing Ephyra moving with a precision and ruthlessness that left no doubt she was far from the weak girl her stepfamily had disregarded. One by one, Rico’s men fell, their jeers replaced with cries of pain as Ephyra dispatched them with ease.

The audience stared in stunned silence, the footage playing out like a scene from an action movie. When it ended, the screen turned black.

"At first, I didn’t know who sent these men because they didn’t tell me anything before they were taken care of by the man who I told you saved me that day. You are probably wondering how I got to know, right? Well, I’m sure I told you the individual was rather powerful and he had helped me investigate and I found out you were the one who ordered my death." she turned to Eliot with a warm smile. "Are you surprised father? No? Shocked perhaps? You shouldn’t be, after all, I just unwrapped the secrets surrounding your wife and we’ve only loosened the ribbon. Right, Marianna?"

Marianna stumbled back, her carefully composed mask shattering. "You—you have no proof!" she shrieked, her voice rising to a desperate pitch. "You think you can just accuse me and get away with it? You’re nothing but a spiteful, delusional child!"

Ephyra tilted her head, her smile sharp enough to cut glass. "Proof, you say? Oh, Marianna, I would never make such accusations without evidence." She gestured to the screen, and the projector whirred to life once more. This time, it wasn’t a video that played on the screen, instead it was a clear voice recording.

"Who is this?" A gruff male voice answered, rough and cold.

"It’s Mari," another voice that everyone in the hall definitely recognized as Marianna, said softly but with an edge. "You remember me, right, Rico?"

There was a pause, followed by a low chuckle. "Mari... Marianna Vargas. I didn’t expect to hear from you after all these years." His voice dripped with amusement.

"Times change," she replied, her tone sharper now. "I wanna collect my debt, Rico."

"Collect, huh?" He sounded intrigued, almost entertained. "After all these years? What do you want, Mari? You need a bodyguard? A scare tactic?"

"No, I need you to kill someone."

There was a long silence.

Finally, he spoke, his voice colder than before. "Who’s the target?"

Marianna exhaled, steadying herself before uttering the name. "Ephyra Allen."

Eliot who was standing behind Marianna stared at her in both horror and anger.

Another pause followed, this one more measured. Rico’s voice came back, a mocking and amused edge to it. "Family?"

There was another period of silence.

"You always did have a ruthless side, Mari. Alright. You know my price, and you know how this works. I’ll need details. Where, when, and how clean you want this to be."

"I’ll send you the details soon."

"Good," Rico said. "Just remember—once I get started, there’s no going back."

"I know."

The recording ended with a click, the sound echoing in the now-deafening silence of the ballroom. All eyes were on Marianna, whose face had gone pale, her lips trembling as she struggled to form a coherent response. Eliot stepped away from her, his expression dark with betrayal and disgust.

"You... you plotted to kill my daughter?" His voice was low, his anger coming out of him in waves. "Your own stepdaughter?"

Marianna shook her head violently, "No! It—it’s not what it seems! I was desperate! I only wanted to scare her, not—"

"Spare us your lies, Marianna," Ephyra cut in coldly, her voice sharper than a blade. She took a step closer, "You can’t twist your way out of this. The evidence speaks for itself. You wanted me dead because I was inconvenient to you. A threat to your carefully built house of lies."

The crowd erupted into whispers, some murmuring their disbelief, others their outrage. Leandra’s face was an unreadable mask as she watched Marianna fall apart before the audience.

Ephyra turned to her father, her gaze steady and piercing. "And this wasn’t the first time she did this, she has been hurting me, hitting me, insulting me from the beginning. From the first time you brought your mistress-turned-second wife home. Thinking that she can be a mother to your three-year-old daughter. The same daughter whose mother she killed."

Marianna’s expression worsened and she shook her head vehemently, "What the hell are you saying? Stop lying already! I never harmed your mother, I didn’t kill her!"

Ephyra nodded in understanding, "Yes, you didn’t kill her, you were only partly the cause of her death. Anyway, let’s all leave that for now. I’m sure from everything you heard, you all must be confused especially the students of St. Aldric’s Academy who all know me as the bastard daughter of the Allen family and Marianna as the true daughter. Well, it’s the other way around. The truth is I, Ephyra Althea Allen am the rightful and only heiress of the Allen Family, and forget about being a bastard daughter, Myra doesn’t even share a blood relation with the Allen Family."

Confusion and whispers spread through the ballroom like wildfire. Guests turned to each other, their faces reflecting varying degrees of shock, disbelief, and curiosity. The students of St. Aldric’s Academy, who had been fed years of lies, were particularly unsettled by the revelation.

Ephyra’s voice cut through the murmurs like a blade. "Yes, you heard that correctly. Myra Vargas and her mother have no legitimate claim to the Allen name. The very people who have paraded themselves as my family, who have called me illegitimate and unworthy, have been living a lie of their own making."

She gestured toward the screen once more, where a series of documents and DNA test results appeared. The text was clear, the signatures unmistakable. "These are certified records proving that Myra is not an Allen by blood. Her mother, Marianna, manipulated my father into believing otherwise. She fabricated documents, orchestrated lies, and built her relationships on deceit."

Myra’s face turned white as she staggered back, her lips quivering. "T-This is fake! You forged this, you psycho!"

Ephyra laughed softly, her tone colder than ice. "Oh, Myra, you sound just like your mother. When the truth corners you, you lash out with baseless accusations. But unlike you, I don’t deal in lies. Every document on that screen is authentic and verifiable. And if you think I’m bluffing, we can have experts analyze them right here, right now."

Eliot Allen, still standing in the shadows, spoke at last, his voice heavy with fury. "Enough." His cold, commanding tone silenced the room instantly. His gaze moved from Myra to Marianna, the betrayal etched into his features. "Ephyra... is what you’re saying true? Myra... isn’t my daughter?"

Ephyra met his eyes steadily. "You can see the proof for yourself, Father. Myra has no claim to the Allen bloodline. And neither does her mother. I know you won’t believe that easily. But I’m sure after watching this, you will believe everything I say."

As soon as she finished her words, a video of a woman strapped to a chair and looking up at the female in front of her.

She whimpered, tears spilling from her eyes as she stammered, "It was 19 years ago, in the third month of the year. S-she told me she was pregnant the day she came back from the hospital. She also said that the father was her current boyfriend, who was a gang member, and she didn’t know what to do as she wasn’t sure if she should inform him."

"I asked her why she wasn’t sure, and she explained that even if she wanted to keep the baby, she didn’t want her first child to have a gangster as a father. I advised her to tell him if she planned to keep the baby since she couldn’t raise it alone. She only hummed in response.

A month later, Marianna came back crying, saying the baby’s father had died in a gang war. But the next day, she returned with luxury bags, claiming they were from a rich new boyfriend. When I asked about the sudden change, she said they met at a club where she worked and later slept together after he got drugged by his friends. She confessed they started a secret relationship after the child’s father’s death, using him for his money. Her child’s father was never her true choice.

A week later, I noticed Marianna had moved out, leaving behind only unwanted items. She called to say she was living elsewhere. She then visited me, dressed in luxury, handing me a fake pregnancy test with a forged date. She said money had made it possible and promised to repay me for helping her. After that, I never saw her again."

"H-how... how did you –" Marianna "—how did you get this?!" Marianna’s voice trembled with panic, her eyes wide in disbelief. She looked desperately around the room, as if hoping for someone to intervene, but the faces of the onlookers were hardened, unforgiving.

Ephyra’s smile remained sharp, almost predatory. "Oh, dear, Marianna. You thought your lies would remain hidden forever, but the truth always finds its way to the surface, no matter how much you try to bury it." She turned her gaze back to the screen, "There’s still more secrets about my dearest stepmother."

This time, it wasn’t a woman who was strapped to the chair but a man who had a pained expression on.

The man winced, the pain evident in his expression. "Rico... he was the one who planned and arranged everything for Marianna. Marianna’s ex had a high position in the gang, and Rico was always jealous of him. When Marianna started dating him, Rico was always watching them. When they started fighting, it got to a point where Marianna wanted to break up with him, but her boyfriend pleaded for another chance. Reluctantly, Marianna agreed, but they still fought, and she distanced herself further from him. It was then that Rico approached her. He told her he knew she was seeing another man, that she was pregnant, and that she wanted to get rid of her boyfriend. He said he knew a way to make that happen without drawing attention."

"Was the only reason Rico wanted to kill him because he wanted his position in the gang? Is there something you’re not telling me? From what I know, it wasn’t long after Marianna’s boyfriend’s death that the gang was attacked and dissolved into their rival gang, and Rico went on to form his own gang."

The man shook his head. "I-I..."

"I would advise you to tell the truth," the unclear female said coldly, tapping the rod threateningly against the edge of the chair. "Unless you want to see how far I can go."

The man gulped, trembling. "Fine, fine! Rico didn’t just want his position. He wanted to be the gang leader, but after realizing the rival gang was stronger, he started recruiting and spreading the leader’s secrets. He used Marianna to get rid of her boyfriend."

"How did they get rid of him?"

"Poison. Rico had an associate who dealt with rare poisons. He gave Marianna a poison that killed her boyfriend slowly."

"Your words are hard to believe. Rico isn’t that smart. Are you forgetting something? Was there someone smarter pulling the strings?"

The man’s face paled. "N-No, I swear! Rico did it all!"

"Who else was involved?"

The man’s breathing quickened. "I... I don’t know—"

"I’m not here to play games. Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll make sure you never walk out of here again."

The man whimpered, blood trickling down his face. "Alright! It wasn’t just Rico! Someone else helped—someone Rico called ’the Architect.’ They gave him the plan and resources."

"The Architect. Describe them."

"I don’t know much! They wore a mask. Rico said they helped him with everything—the poisons, the recruitment, the gang alliance. After the war, Rico was supposed to hand over some territories to them, but he refused."

"And what happened after?"

"They turned on him. Rico lost everything."

"So, the ’Architect’ used Rico as a pawn. When he was no longer useful, they discarded him."

The man nodded weakly. "Yes, that’s all I know."

"And Marianna? Was she aware of this person?"

He hesitated, and the woman reached for the rod. He flinched. "Wait! I don’t know for sure, but Rico said she met them once. I think they made her a promise too."

"What kind of promise?".

"I’m not sure, but it had to do with getting rid of the fiancée of the man she was seeing."