Helena Strikes Back
Chapter 05 - Helena Strikes Back
By morning, Ethan’s return dominated every news channel in the country.
Some reports called it a miracle. Others called him the Vale Impostor.
Helena’s lawyers moved faster than the truth. They obtained an emergency order preventing Ethan from entering company property, accessing family accounts, or publicly claiming legal authority over Vale Global until his identity could be verified.
The laboratory appointed by the court scheduled a DNA test for Friday.
Helena demanded that the sample be taken at a private clinic owned by one of her charitable foundations. Ethan refused. His legal team requested an independent hospital with observers from both sides.
Helena responded by releasing medical files describing Ethan’s childhood anxiety, disciplinary reports from school, and photographs of him arguing with Arthur years earlier.
“He abandoned the family before the crash,” she told reporters. “Now he has returned because he smells money.”
Ethan watched the interview from a small hotel room. Each sentence was designed to turn his strongest emotions into evidence of instability.
Nora Quinn, an investigative journalist who had once been Ethan’s closest friend, sat across from him with a laptop open.
“You cannot win by defending your personality,” she said. “You win by proving the documents were forged.”
Nora had spent years investigating the Golden Harbor Project. Three sources had vanished from her contact list after agreeing to speak. One had withdrawn his claims. Another had lost his job. The third, company accountant Clara Voss, had disappeared entirely.
Ethan showed Nora the charred ledger page.
She traced the payments and found something worse: the shell companies were not only draining pensions. They were buying the workers’ neighborhood through forced debt, then reselling the land to Vale Global at inflated prices.
Helena planned to make billions while presenting the project as urban renewal.
That evening, Daniel came to the hotel alone.
He stood outside Ethan’s door for nearly a minute before knocking.
When Ethan opened it, Daniel did not embrace him.
“Mother says you are here to destroy us.”
Ethan stepped aside. “I came because someone already did.”
Daniel entered, carrying the leather folder Victor had dropped at the gala.
Inside was a document neither brother had seen before.
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It was a confession signed by Arthur Vale.
And it blamed Ethan for everything.
