Caroline awoke to brilliant sunlight streaming through her bedroom window. It was going to be a gorgeous day in Mystic Falls, but she wasn't looking forward to getting out of bed. It had been almost a week since her dad died and she was still getting used to the idea that she only had one parent. She had always been so close with her father and she'd hoped that despite his initial reaction to her becoming a vampire, he would learn to live with it. Now they would never have the time to repair that damage to their relationship. In the end, she had understood his choice, but she couldn't help feeling that if she had made him love her just a little more…he would have chosen to become a vampire.
The mourning process would have at least been a little easier if Tyler were around. He had seemingly disappeared without a trace and while Elena had assured her it couldn't be him, she still feared he would turn out to be the person killing the Council members. Who knew what Klaus could force him to do? While she hoped he had actually left to focus on breaking the bond, she also feared what that process might change him. She had sat through those werewolf transformations and seen the toll they took on him. She shuddered as she recalled his agonized screams as his bones shattered one by one and the even more acute agony of waiting for the process to begin in the hours before the full moon. The idea that Tyler would have to choose to go through them again and again made Caroline want to scream. Yet the thing that scared her most was the fear that their relationship might not survive it either.
Caroline thought of the first time Tyler had decided to turn in the Lockwood cellar. The way he had looked to her after her father asked if he was sure he wanted to break the bond had haunted Caroline ever since. If he was only doing this for her how could he not end up resenting her? By the time he finally broke the bond, there was no way he could still think her love was worth all that pain. And what if he did love her at the end of it? Maybe she wouldn't love how it changed him. She couldn't deny that she loved him just a little less after he became a hybrid. She knew she loved werewolf-Tyler—the Tyler who had loved everything about her and who had given her peace just by letting her care for him. She worried that by escaping the sire bond, Tyler would also lose that gentle, loving part too.
Caroline couldn't bear to think about losing Tyler for another moment so she finally sat up, but she froze when she realized something was different about her room. A large white box wrapped in a blue ribbon sat upon her chest of drawers. She certainly didn't remember it being there last night. She slid out of bed and walked slowly across the room while eyeing the box suspiciously. A cream-colored card sat tucked beneath the bow and as Caroline reached for it, she recognized the paper.
"It couldn't be," she said under her breath. Written on the card's back was a simple message in a thin, spindly script: "Please where this tonight – Klaus." For a second, she couldn't understand what he had meant. Then it dawned on her. Klaus was throwing a formal ball in his newly renovated mansion tonight. It was to be a sort of coming out party for the whole Original family. When she had first received the invitation, she had discarded the invitation with a scoff. No way would she go to that psychopath's house to meet his insane relatives.
Caroline was about to send the dress to join the invitation when she realized that the gift might not be a friendly gesture. He had saved her life a few weeks ago and perhaps all the gifts were a not so subtle message that he thought she owed him something. Or worse, maybe he was trying to discover Tyler's whereabouts through her. The gift might really be a thinly veiled threat to show up at the party or face him personally coming after her.
And how had the box even gotten to her bedroom in the first place? He couldn't send one of his hybrids because they had to be invited in. Her mother had called last night saying she was staying at the station to work on the murder cases. Caroline gasped as a horrifying entered her mind: he must have brought it himself. She wondered why she had not woken up with her heightened vampire senses when an image from a dream came into her mind. She had been riding in a horse-drawn carriage toward a beautiful mansion. The carriage had stopped at the base of the mansion's stairs and as the door opened, she had seen Klaus standing at the top of the staircase dressed in a black tuxedo with a white shirt and bowtie.
"He messed with my dreams!" Caroline exclaimed with a mixture of disgust and awe at his audacity. "Ugh, what a creepy bastard!" She stood glaring at the box, arms crossed in front of her as her anger and repulsion increased. She grabbed the box and roughly tore the bow and cover from it only to pause in shock at what she found inside. It was a beautiful indigo dress with a layer of silver overhanging the train to give it a delicate air. Yet even more stunning than the color was the bodice. It was covered with lustrous crystals—some blue, some white—that swirled around the dress's curves in intricate patterns that recalled the bracelet he had given her on her birthday. Caroline couldn't deny the dress was beautiful, but she also knew that a lovely gift didn't make up for the liberties Klaus had taken with her privacy. She wondered what he was playing at with all of these gifts. After a moment's thought, she decided she had no choice but to attend the ball. Klaus had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to get her to attend, it could be dangerous to refuse.
She spent the rest of the day thinking about the ball and fearing the devious meaning behind Klaus's actions. She showered and spent little time on her usual hair and make-up routine. She'd be damned if she got all dressed up for that psychopath. As Caroline put the bracelet Klaus had given her over the white kid gloves that had come with the dress, she heard the doorbell ring. She looked around in confusion. Though Elena had offered to pick her up she wanted to drive her own car so she could sneak out early. She grabbed the silver shawl and clutch that had also come with the dress (he'd really though of everything, the bastard) and went downstairs. When she opened the door, she found a man standing on her porch. He wore a chauffer's uniform and held a hat in his hand.
"Your car, Miss Forbes," he said and gave a slight bow. Caroline looked over his shoulder and saw a vintage, cream-colored Rolls-Royce sitting in the street.
"Car? What for?," she responded.
"To the party madam," the chauffer replied, "your host thought you might enjoy arriving in style. Caroline sighed and considered refusing, but how could it hurt to take the car?
"This is too extravagant," she said with a sigh and shut her front door. She walked toward the car and the driver opened the door expectantly. Caroline took a moment to examine the vehicle's canvas top and white-rimmed tires before sliding resignedly into the car.