The car door shut with a soft, expensive click. The sound sealed her in. Silence. The kind of quiet that feels heavy after all the yelling.
Eva sank into the smooth leather seat, her duffel bag hugged to her chest like a shield. She stared straight ahead, not daring to look back at the big, dark house. She half-expected the front door to fly open. For her father to come running out, his face purple with rage. For Tyler to be standing there, smirking.
But nothing happened. The house just got smaller and smaller as Maria pulled the car away from the curb and drove down the street.
"You okay over there?" Maria asked, her voice soft. She kept her eyes on the road.
Eva nodded, then realized Maria couldn't see her. "Yeah," she whispered. Her voice sounded rough, like she hadn't used it in years.
She finally risked a glance out the back window. The house was gone. Completely swallowed up by the night. A shaky breath escaped her lungs. She had done it. She was out.
For about five seconds, a wild, giddy feeling rushed through her. She was free. Then, the feeling crashed and burned, leaving behind a hollow, empty space. Now what?
Maria seemed to read her mind. "First things first," she said, her tone practical and warm. "We get you home. I've got the guest room all made up. We'll get some real food in you. None of that cold, fancy stuff."
The kindness was like a knife to the heart. It made Eva's eyes sting with tears she refused to let fall. She didn't deserve kindness. She needed fire. She needed a plan.
The idea she'd had upstairs, the crazy one about Leonard Cruz, suddenly didn't seem so crazy. It seemed like the only thing that made sense.
"Maria," Eva said, her voice a little stronger. "I'm not just... hiding."
"I know you're not, honey."
"No, I mean..." Eva turned in her seat to face her aunt. "I can't just hide. They'll find me. Or... or I'll just spend the rest of my life waiting for them to find me. I can't live like that."
Maria was quiet for a moment, just driving. "So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying I want to fight." The words hung in the air between them. "I want to hurt them like they hurt me."
Maria glanced at her, her face lit by the dashboard lights. She didn't look surprised. She looked sad. "Oh, Eva. Going down that road... it changes a person. You start a war with people like that, you gotta be ready to become a soldier. And soldiers get hurt."
"I'm already hurt!" The words burst out of Eva, louder than she meant. "Don't you get it? They didn't just make me sad. They... they killed me, Maria. A little bit every day. The person they wanted me to be is already dead. So what's left isn't afraid of getting hurt."
The car was quiet again. Maria just drove, one hand on the wheel, the other rubbing her forehead like she had a headache.
"Okay," Maria said finally. "Let's say I believe you. Let's say you're all in. What's the play? You can't just walk up to their front door and start a fight."
"I'm not going to their front door," Eva said, the plan forming in her mouth as she spoke. "I'm going to his."
"Whose?"
"Leonard Cruz."
Maria swerved the car so hard the tires squealed against the pavement. She pulled over to the side of the road, throwing the car into park with a rough jerk. She turned fully in her seat to stare at Eva, her face pale in the dim light.
"Leonard Cruz?" she repeated, her voice low and serious. "Alexander's uncle? That Leonard Cruz? Eva, that man... he's not a person. He's a natural disaster. You can't go near him."
"That's why it's perfect," Eva insisted, her heart pounding. "They're scared of him. They want his money, his name. They want me to marry Alexander to get a piece of it. So I'll cut out the middleman. I'll go straight to the source."
"And say what?" Maria asked, her hands up. "'Hi, I'm the messed-up daughter of the family you're probably already bored with. Wanna be friends?' He'll eat you alive and spit out the bones."
Eva shook her head. "I'll make him a deal."
"What could you possibly offer a man like that?"
"Me," Eva said simply. "I know things. I know all the Sterling family's secrets. The stupid investments my dad tries to hide. The guys Tyler dates to get information. The lies my mom tells her friends. I know where all the bodies are buried. I'm the one person they would never see coming because they think I'm too dumb to pay attention."
She leaned forward, her eyes begging her aunt to understand. "I can be his... his inside person. His spy. I'll give him everything. In exchange, he gives me the power to destroy them."
Maria stared at her for a long, long time. The only sound was the tick-tick-tick of the car's turn signal.
Finally, she let out a long, slow breath. "You've really thought about this."
"That's all I can think about."
Maria looked out the windshield into the dark night. "It's a dangerous game, kid. You're talking about making a deal with a shark. Even if you win, you get bitten."
"I know," Eva whispered.
Maria was silent again. Eva's hope started to fade. Her aunt thought she was crazy. She was right. It was a stupid.
"Alright," Maria said, her voice firm.
Eva blinked. "Alright?"
"Alright," Maria repeated, putting the car back into drive and pulling onto the road. "If you're going to do this, you're not doing it alone. And you're sure as hell not doing it without a plan. You can't just show up. That's how you get shot by security."
She glanced at Eva, a new, fierce light in her eyes. "First, we go home. You eat. You sleep. Tomorrow, we start from the beginning. We find a way to get his attention. The right way."
The hollow feeling in Eva's chest began to fill with something else. Something solid. It wasn't happiness. It was purpose.
She had an army of one. And it was enough.