Can "Only For" mean "Instead"?

Question

"She faked her death to avoid the penalty, only for her desperation to be frustrated as law enforment comes to her door"

I paraphrase the original sentence. I hope the change wouldn't make to much difference semantically.

The part that confuses me is "only for her desperation to be frustrated when law enforment comes to her door".

Does this sentence mean,

she feigned her death to avoid the legal penalty, but instread her plan got failed as police showed up at her door.

If it is right, where can I find more examples like this sentence? If it isn't, what does it mean?

THank you!

Answer 1

The phrase "only for", when used in this manner, is generally there to emphasize that someone expended a lot of energy/effort on something, but that unexpected events ended up making their efforts useless or unnecessary.

Another way to rewrite the example sentence that might make the meaning more clear would be something like:

"She faked her death to avoid the penalty. But law enforcement unexpectedly showed up at her door, making it so that her efforts to fake her death were in vain."