From SuspireWiki

Mortal History

Linda and Marvin were owners of large chain of hotels in Norfolk, Virginia. They believed in living below their means as a way to avoid squandering their hard earned dollars away. Marvin had inherited a few of the hotels from his own family, and Linda provided a decent amount of money to invest into the remodeling and purchase of more hotels. The two of them came from money, from families who believed in putting every red cent away for a rainy day.

The happy couple had talked of having children once their businesses were doing well, and when the Montclair’s made their first million, it was time. There was a joyous celebration! Finally, there would be a male heir born to carry on the Montclair name and to continue running the hotels. God had blessed Marvin and Linda, he thought, life is perfect. For one reason or another, it never crossed his mind that Linda wouldn’t give him a son or that after the child was born she would never be able to conceive again.

In the hospital, Marvin was staring in disbelief through a piece of glass that separated him from his newborn baby, Samantha Michelle. Naturally, he was thankful for the child but it wasn’t a boy. Who would take over Montclair hotels? How would his family name carry on when he dies? He was riddled with worry and a slight amount of contempt toward Linda. Suddenly, life didn’t seem so perfect or blessed. They tried several times over the years to have another child but it simply wasn’t in the cards for them.

Samantha was sent to a private school from the time she was old enough to attend school until she graduated from high school. Needless to say, it wasn’t easy being one of the wealthiest kids and not being able to live like the other rich kids did. They had fancy cars, cool clothes, and really… anything their hearts desired. That’s what Samantha wanted – whatever her heart desired. But… despite her straight A’s and beauty, she might as well have been a ghost to her father. She tried sports and she was good at them, in fact… Samantha was good at everything she set her mind to. She had to be so it would impress her father. Unfortunately for her, the only thing that would impress him was if she turned into a man over night. Her mother wasn’t much better. While Marvin held her responsible for the lack of a male heir, Linda held Samantha responsible for coming into this world and making her life less than perfect; a vicious cycle.

Samantha wanted a business degree so that when it came time, she would have a sound argument for being the heiress to Montclair Hotels. It pissed her off that merely being their child wasn’t good enough for them, but she was prepared to fight for it. Samantha learned early in her life that fighting with her parents would never get her the things she wanted. She had to be clever and present a good case in order to convince her parents to get her things. It didn’t have to make sense, really… they obviously weren’t logical people; sense only confused them.

Marvin and Linda never said they wouldn’t allow Samantha to be the heiress. But it’s true that they were always waiting for someone better. It just happens to fall to her luck that no one ever presented themselves.

After four hard years of college, Samantha graduated from Hawthorn University with a bachelor’s degree in Business. Marvin and Linda had saw how hard she worked in school, they were admirable of her poise and gracefulness of trying to impress them all these years. To this day, Samantha has no idea what changed their minds and quite frankly, she doesn’t care. Her name was added to the will as the sole heiress of the hotels. Happily, Samantha remained in Carcosa – where her parents were not, thankfully – and tried to make a life for herself.

It was tragic, stunning, and positively beautiful all at the same time. Marvin and Linda had been vacationing in Florida, but it was on the way back as they were driving up the coast that they were hit head on by an 18-wheeler. They died before paramedics could reach the scene. The driver of the truck had been under the influence of alcohol. Samantha didn’t feel a bit bad at all when she sued the pants off of the driver and his company for millions.

Once her parents were buried and gone, she sold Montclair Hotels for much more than they were probably worth. She settled back into her apartment and thought of clever ways to invest her money to make it grow. Oh, but first… she spent a ridiculous amount on herself. That car she always wanted that daddy refused to get her? Hers now! The wardrobe of a fucking goddess, jewelry, the hottest goddamn apartment Carcosa had to offer… all hers. Okay NOW she was going to think of clever ways of investing her money.

Always having a thing for bad boys and black men, Samantha met one named Eric. He was breath taking and mysterious and a little bit scary. He introduced her to his friends as his girlfriend, he took her to fancy restaurants and bought her expensive wine. Everything Samantha asked for, he made sure it was there for her. Of course, Samantha noticed that trend right off the bat and began trying her hand at convincing him to get her anything she asked for. He bought her big diamonds and sent her to expensive spas. She was his princess, and she loved it. After a conversation about finances, Eric proposes the idea of money sharking to her. He’d get her some body guards, and as long as she was willing to pay them well and treat them good… they’d be hers forever.

Samantha had a bad habit of tangling people up in loans and charging them nearly double the amount in interest. These were people who couldn’t get home loans or business loans, mostly. But she got her fair share of individuals who couldn’t pay off their black tar heroin bill, too. She remembers the first time she had one of the boys cut off a man’s finger for refusing to pay her what she was rightfully owed. It felt good and liberating. She liked to see justice served on her behalf, it made her feel powerful.

Kindred History

2004

Silvia Bancroft approached Samantha about her connections with money in 2004. It was just after her spat with Damien Costello and she was looking to rebuild her financial allies. After embracing Samantha – which is when she changed her name to Mercedes Michelle Chamberlain to hide her identity from her family – she was made to fight a wild boar to prove herself to her sire. Not being the most physically capable person in the world, she used her Ventrue abilities to speak with the beast and put it to rest gracefully.

Mercedes started hanging out at a classy Victorian goth club named Trasseno after she was embraced, a business located in Josephine Blackwell-Finch’s domain. Through out Mercedes un-life, it’s commonly known that she can almost always be found there in the later hours of the night.

2005

Mercedes received her manumission and release after one year, her ceremony and party were a hit. Josephine Blackwell-Finch agreed to mentor Mercedes to become an Advocate for the Invictus after Mercedes used her allies to help Josephine. She also started charging Mercedes a small blood tithe per month for an arrangement they made concerning Starkhorn Heights.

2006

There hadn’t been a huge influx of Kindred worth recruiting since Mercedes was embraced. Terribly bored, she tried to recruit the longest standing Carthian in the city, Lili Wu. After getting her almost to the edge, Lili rebuffed the attempts to convert her. But it remains strikingly obvious to Mercedes that Lili’s heart just isn’t with the Carthians anymore. So, she decided to put that project on the back burner for awhile and moved on to other things.

2007

Through some clever means, Mercedes found out about a particular and most peculiar object of interest to Quentin Ainsworth. As a young Invictus looking to gain some favor from her betters, she took that opportunity and ran with it. He was impressed with her and as such they remained on very good terms.

2008

Cai Xing offered to teach Mercedes Obfuscate as payment for a favor she’d done for Cai awhile ago.