Chapter 52 Face to Face
A confession? An apology?" Helena laughed bitterly. "You won't get either. Just leave."
"I don't want your apology. I want you to face justice." Eva stepped closer to the door. "I want you to spend the rest of your life in prison, thinking about everything you lost. Your freedom. Your money. Your precious Consortium connections."
"And you think that will make you happy? Watching me suffer?"
"I think it will make me feel safe. And right now, that is all that matters."
Another pause, longer this time.
When Helena spoke again, her voice changed. The panic was gone, replaced by something cold and calculating.
"I underestimated you, Eva. We all did. You have become very strong."
"Yes. You did. It took you this long to understand that."
"So what? You are smart, I'll give you that, but you are making a mistake. You should not have come after me. Thinking this ends with me." Helena's voice lowered.
"What are you saying?"
"The Consortium is bigger than one person, bigger than one plan. They have already decided you are useful—that is why they betrayed me. But the moment you stop being useful..."
"I have nothing to do with the Consortium. And if I do, I will deal with it when the time comes."
"Will you? Or will you be okay when you wake up one day and find your children missing, your father dead, or Adrian gone?" Helena laughed coldly.
"The Consortium has done worse to others. Made people disappear in the middle of the night, destroyed families, erased lives without a trace. They have eyes everywhere, Eva. One small mistake and they will come for you."
Eva refused to let the fear show.
"Then I will be patient too. I'll wait for them to make their move. And I will be ready when it happens."
A long silence.
Then Helena spoke, "So what do you want me to do? You want me to surrender."
"Yes, I want you to face the consequences of your actions. How you do that is your choice."
Another pause.
And then, with a soft click, the door began to open.
Helena Park stood in the doorway of her safe room, looking just as she had in Eva's father's study: perfectly dressed and calm, as if she were welcoming guests to a dinner party instead of facing arrest.
But her eyes told a different story.
Behind her careful mask, Eva saw it—fear, anger, and maybe a little respect.
"You won," Helena said.
"Yes."
"Enjoy it while you can. This victory is temporary."
"So is everything, Helena. But I will take what I can get."
Helena studied her for a long moment.
"You know, when I married your father, I thought you would be easy to control. You were a grieving teenager, desperate for a mother figure, ready to trust anyone kind to you." She gave a bitter smile. "I was wrong. You were always stronger than you seemed."
"Then why didn't you stop when you had the chance? When you saw I wasn't what you expected, you could have backed out?"
"Because I had already committed many crimes. Because my daughter needed what your family had. Because..." Helena's calm broke, just a little.
"Because I convinced myself I deserved everything, more than you did." For a moment, Helena faltered, her expression caught between bitterness and something almost vulnerable.
"You think I am heartless, that I never questioned myself?" Helena asked Eva.
Eva said nothing. She just stood and watched Helen's outburst.
Helena continued. "I told myself your father owed me more, that you and your mother were obstacles to my future. But some nights, I would sit and wonder if I became the villain only because I was so desperate not to be powerless again."
"And now?"
Helena's eyes grew hard. "Now I have nothing left to lose. That makes me very, very dangerous."
"No." Eva shook her head. "It just makes you weak. You had everything—a loving husband, a good life, a daughter who admired you. And you threw it all away for revenge against a girl who never hurt you."
"Just your existence was enough for me to hate you. You were the throne beside me."
"And that is the saddest thing I have ever heard."
Eva stepped back, making room for the officers to enter.
"Helena Park, you are under arrest for fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy to commit murder, and numerous other charges. You have the right to remain silent..."
The words faded into the background as the handcuffs snapped around Helena's wrists.
She did not fight or struggle. She just stood there with that cold, empty smile as they led her out of the safe room and into custody.
But as she passed Eva, she paused.
"This is not over," she whispered. "It will never truly be over."
Eva met her eyes without flinching.
"Yes, it is. Goodbye, Helena."
She watched as her stepmother was led away. This was the woman who had taken her mother's place, raised her own daughter as a weapon, and tried to destroy everything Eva cared about.
Gone.
Finally, completely gone.
Eva felt Adrian's hand on her shoulder.
"It's done," he said softly.
"It's done," she agreed.
And for the first time in seven years, she felt truly free.
The flight back to the States was quiet.
Eva sat by the window again, watching the clouds drift by as she tried to process everything that had happened. Helena was now in French custody, awaiting extradition. The evidence they had collected would keep her in prison for life.
It was over.
Really, truly over.
So why didn't she feel triumphant?
"You're thinking too loud," Adrian observed, setting aside his tablet.
"I'm thinking about what Helena said." Eva turned from the window. "Helena was the goal for so long. Now that she's caught... I don't know what to do with myself."
"What did she say?" Adrian took her hand and asked. "Don't worry about what she said. You have to raise your children, build your foundation. You become whoever you want to be, without enemies trying to destroy you."
"It sounds so simple."
"It is simple. Not easy, but simple." He squeezed her hand. "You've earned some peace, Eva. Let yourself have it."
Eva leaned her head on his shoulder.
"What about the Consortium? Victor Chen? They're still out there." Eva bit her lip, her gaze drifting back to the window."
"Helena warned me this wouldn't end with her. The Consortium always has eyes, always wants something. I can't let my guard down—not yet." For a moment, uncertainty flickered across her face, then hardened into quiet resolve.
"Someday, I want to know how deep their influence goes. I want them to know I am not afraid of them." Eva said, determined.
"And we have an agreement with them. They leave us alone, we leave them alone." Adrian's voice was firm.
"Will I be watching for threats? Yes. Will I maintain security around our family? Absolutely. But I'm not going to spend my whole life fighting invisible enemies."
"Even knowing what they are? What they do?"