Chapter 41 Hunt Intensifies
Leonard hesitated. "Maybe. I don't know. There are... some missing pieces. Large parts of Helena's financial activity don't link to anything we've found. There are transactions, money moving in and out of accounts that can't be followed." He looked at Eva, worry showing on his face.
"Money like that isn't just missing for no reason. It could mean she's funding something dangerous, or hiding resources that give her leverage over us—even over the Consortium itself. We don't know what Helena's goals are, but wherever that money is going, it's exposing us to risks we can't see yet."
"Really? How much money are we talking about here?"
"Hundreds of millions over more than twenty years." Leonard took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Whatever the Consortium is doing, it's on a much bigger scale than Helena's own crimes."
The room fell silent.
Eva thought of her mother, the kind and gentle woman who had died when Eva was seventeen.
Had Helena been working for these people even then? Before getting into the Fransis family?
Eva remembered the last time she saw Helena. She had just returned from a mysterious trip, agitated, pacing in her study and whispering urgently on the phone to someone Eva had never met.
After that day, Helena had grown distant, more secretive than ever.
Eva had always assumed it was because she was not her biological daughter, but now she wondered if Helena had been hiding something darker, perhaps connected to the Consortium.
Had she married her father specifically to gain access to the Fransis fortune for the Consortium's purposes?
How deep did this scheme go?
"We need to know what they want," Eva said finally. "The note said cooperate. Maybe we should... respond. Find out what they're asking for."
"Absolutely not." Adrian's voice was sharp. "You don't negotiate with people like this. The moment you show weakness, they'll exploit it."
"And if we don't respond? They have photographs of my children, Adrian. They can get to them whenever they want."
"Which is why we're increasing security. We'll move you to a safer place. We're hiring more people to help."
"For how long?" Eva stood, her fear transforming into frustration.
"How long do we hide? How long do we live like prisoners in our own lives? They have already found this place. They will find our next location, too." Eva said.
"You should already know after seeing that image, the Consortium watches everywhere—through cameras, people inside the police, even technology that tracks us through our phones or money. Hiding feels useless when they're always two steps ahead."
She pointed to the window, where guards stood in the garden below. "This isn't living, Adrian. This is just surviving. And I'm done with that."
Adrian's expression changed: first to surprise, then to understanding, and finally to something like admiration.
"Fine. What do you suggest?"
"I think we should stop playing defense." Eva's voice grew steady as she made up her mind.
"They want to scare us? Fine. But we're not the only ones with secrets. Helena worked for them for twenty years. She knows things. If we can find her and make her talk..."
"You want to use Helena against the Consortium."
"Yes, I want to fight back." Eva met Adrian's eyes. "I spent seven years being passive and being a victim and waiting for someone else to save me. I'm done with that. These people threatened my children. I want them to pay."
A slow smile spread across Adrian's face.
"There she is," he murmured. "The woman I've been waiting seven years to meet."
After Eva spoke up, finding Helena became their top priority.
Adrian put a lot of resources into the search, calling in favors from contacts all over the world.
Daniel used his international business contacts, reaching out through channels that weren't always completely legal.
Even Richard, though weaker than before, was helped by contacting old friends in government and law enforcement.
But Helena Park hadn't survived this long by being easy to track down.
Three days went by. Then five. Then a week.
Every lead went nowhere. Every sighting was false. It felt like she had simply disappeared from the world.
"I don't think Helena is alone. Someone is helping her stay hidden," Adrian said seriously during one of their nightly planning meetings. "She has resources we haven't found. The Consortium must be protecting her."
"Or using her," Daniel said, tapping his fingers on the desk. "If I ran a secret group and one of my people got caught, I'd either get rid of them or make them work for me. Helena's too valuable to kill; she knows too much. So they're keeping her hidden, using her skills for... something." He paused, thinking.
"What if they need her to open new accounts or fix their financial problems? Maybe she's helping them move money or hide their actions after everything that's happened. Or..."
"Or what?"
"Or she could be planning something bigger—like a new operation we haven't found yet. If they're this desperate to keep her hidden, it must be for a reason."
"Like what?"
No one had an answer.
Eva spent those days in a strange state, feeling like she was half prisoner and half fighter.
She couldn't leave the estate without a security escort. She couldn't let the children out of her sight without feeling panic rise in her chest.
But she also refused to hide or let fear take over.
She threw herself into research, reading everything she could about secret groups, business schemes, and international crime networks.
One evening, buried in a stack of archived financial records from a defunct shipping company, Eva spotted Helena's name listed as a silent partner.
The company had been dissolved sixteen years ago, yet one of its shell account numbers matched a recent transfer Leonard had flagged as suspicious.
The connection was weak, almost too unclear to be a coincidence, but it showed Helena's influence went farther back—and wider—than Eva had realized.
She learned about money laundering, shell corporations, and how power moved through hidden channels.
She studied the Consortium's likely approaches, possible reasons, and weak spots.
If she was going to fight this enemy, she needed to understand them first.
And through it all, Adrian was beside her.
He worked eighteen-hour days, leading the search for Helena while managing his business and protecting Eva's family.
He should have been tired. In truth, he was tired; Eva could see it in the dark circles under his eyes. Still, he never complained.
He never wavered.
Every night, after the children were asleep and the house had fallen quiet, he would find her.
Sometimes they talked about the investigation, their fears, or normal things that had nothing to do with the chaos around them.
Sometimes they just sat together in comfortable silence, drawing strength from each other's presence.
And sometimes, more and more often, they did more than just sit together.
Their relationship had changed in the days since Reena's arrest.
The careful limits and uncertain connection between them had turned into something deeper.