A whirlwind of terror caught Leonora by her throat, as if she had just faced death, not that she had seen Graniti through the magic eye of the main door of her house.
 
    To talk was the last reason she suspected he was there for. To meet Albioni was the penultimate one. The first reason was the suspicion that he had found out about Blerimi and had come to listen to her explanation after he had gotten rid of Blerimi.
 
    If she had had the conviction that she would have been safe if she didn't open the door, she would have never opened it, but knowing that she wouldn't always be able to avoid him, with her heart beating as if she were participating in a sports car race, Leonora accepted that she had to open the door and face her brother.
 
    Then there was the blood connection between them, which drove her to Graniti, causing her to have a fundamental need for her own well-being to meet him, talk quietly together, and spend a few minutes as siblings. Did he have the same feeling? 
 
    Maybe she was mistaken and Graniti didn't know anything about her and the Blerimi; even if he knew and Albioni had found out too, she would deny it until the end, though she knew that no one would take her word for it. They wouldn't care at all that they had no evidence. They would insist that their unsubstantiated suspicions were correct, as if those were axioms. 
 
    She stiffened her face and, with a serious look, appeared in front of Graniti. He looked back at her, tired of her avoidance, and understood that Leonora had deliberately delayed the opening of the door because of him.
 
    "So, until here we came," he remarked, disappointed by both of them.
 
    Leonora kept silent in the dilemma of whether to talk back at him or to calmly try to make him leave as soon as possible, without starting a debate.
 
    "Albioni's not here," she said in a strict tone, waiting for Graniti to walk away and for her to close the door.
 
    "I know," he entered the house without permission and closed the door behind him.
 
    His sister followed his every move in silence, unable to react due to the increasingly unbearable tightness in her throat.
 
    "I saw him when he left the apartment building. But I only came here to talk to you."
 
    "We have already talked about this, Granit," Leonora protested more curtly than she had intended.
 
    "Listen," he looked at her softly, just like the voice he used. "I know that we haven't gotten along together in the past, and that's why I'm here—to change everything."
 
    She just looked at him neutrally in silence for a few seconds in response to his request.
 
    "Am I supposed to be laughing now with these words? I'm not getting it," she replied ironically, and Graniti tilted his eyes tiredly. Apparently, he had to try harder.
 
    "It's not fair to blame it all on me, Nora. You don't know what I've been through."
 
    "Oh, great. Now you started victimising yourself," she laughed bitterly. "Have you gone through anything because of me?"
 
    "I didn't say that it was your fault." He was losing the balance of calm in talking.
 
    "I don't care what you say, Granit. Can you get out now?"
 
    "Enough already, Nora. You're not a child anymore!" Graniti scolded her with a stern look.
 
    "Child?!" She couldn't keep her voice down from his complaint. "You never allowed me, to be a child!" she accused indignantly. "I haven't lived properly because of your fault."
 
    "OK, what should I do?" he asked, resigned to her stubborn behaviour, not agreeing to talk about another chance between them. "Tell me what I should do. Do you think that if I had the past in my hands right now, I wouldn't have changed it? Immediately."
 
    "You had the opportunity to not write it like that!"
 
    "Well, it's written now," he said impatiently and indignantly. "That time has passed. It will never come back. Why keep suffering?"
 
    "Who's suffering? You?" She asked, in disbelief at the positive answer, if he would give one. "You and Dad knew very well that you were doing injustice to me. You expected me to behave like a god even when I proved to you that I am a human and that I deserved the same opportunities as you, but you treated me as if I were a demon. It looks like there's something that you don't know about demons, Granit. They don't regret the bad things that they do," said Leonora darkly, with wicked intentions in her eyes.
 
    "So now you've decided to become a bad person," he understood from that explanation. "Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately, or not? You're not the same person anymore," he pointed out. "You have changed completely."
 
    "Finally, Granit! I have finally changed." Leonora spoke proudly about herself. "I don't know what you've gone through, because it hasn't been me the reason for any of those events that have happened to you, but you know exactly what I have gone through because you caused all those events!" she kept the high tone of her voice. "You always thought bad for me—your blood! You sent your blood to hell with your own hands!" she recalled, still shocked by what he had done. "Because to think, 'Am I upsetting Nora? Am I doing her injustice?' is out of the question. God, adjourn the great danger for you to think good for me. Except, 'O men, who can first do the wrongest things to Leonora!' Yes, I have decided to become a bad person," she said openly, without feeling the need to add that she was lying, that no matter how many bad things were done to her, she would never please her enemies by falling at the same low level as them. "And to begin great, I'm starting the job with you. You don't exist for me, Granit."
 
    "You can't turn blood into water," the latter insisted once more, not to give up on them. "I'm your brother!"
 
    "Half brother," Leonora reminded him. "Meaning, nothing."
 
        "See?" He shook his head in fretfulness. "You have had such a hard life, and you still act like this. What if we had given you more freedom? We did well for setting some limits on time; otherwise, you would have gone completely mad."
 
    Leonora clapped her hands.
 
    "Well done for this brave action that you took. The whole world is grateful to you for it," she said sarcastically. "Why don't you say so? Half of Albania would have died if I didn't have such a life in Puka. Wow! For little, you were saved," she raised her eyebrows as if frightened by such a realisation of the situation, and he closed his eyes, regretting what he had said, wrongly pushed by anger.
 
    "At that time, I acted as much as I knew," Graniti justified himself. "Now I know more," he swore with a sincere look, indicating that he had changed.
 
    "You know nothing," Leonora judged. "You..." she let out a deep breath and couldn't stop her eyes from burning in time from the tears from the words she wanted to say. "You don't know what it means to have someone touch your body without your permission."
 
    Graniti moved his lips in shock because she was talking so openly about an injustice still done nowadays to women and girls, but that it wasn't said out loud enough, and the forced silence of some of those women and girls had made many men and other women consider something like that a normal thing. The failure to fight to stop that kind of crime led to that conclusion. 
 
    "But you probably know very well what it means to touch someone's body without their permission." Leonora doubted for real, and he looked at her, bewildered. The blue colour of his eyes darkened from her absurd accusation.
 
    "What on God's name are you saying? Are you out of your mind?!" Graniti criticised her with a harsh look.
 
    "Of course not," she replied in a happy voice, unconquered by his fury. "All this wonderful life that I have, how can I be out of my mind?" she asked ironically. "Oh, thank you, by the way, for the free contribution you gave so that I could come to this state. I don't know what I would have done in this life if I didn't have your wickedness." Leonora raised her eyebrows as if she were talking seriously. "Wait, I think I know," she said suddenly. "Yeah, I do. I would have lived freely."
 
    "Well, live. Who's stopping you?" He frowned, as if Leonora were complaining for no reason, when the solution was clearly in front of her eyes. "Leave Albioni and live as you like. You have wanted to become a hairstylist. Join a course if you still want that profession, and then work. I'll help you with everything," Graniti offered.
 
    Leonora was too busy repeating his words to hide the bafflement on her face at what she had heard. Her brother was offering her help to walk the path towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Would he really do it? Was he serious about changing, and standing by her side if she asked him for help, or did he need her to do something for him, and that was why he was treating her well so that later he would demand repayment for every favour he would do?
 
    That doubt tore her heart apart more than the hurt of his intent.
 
    "Me falling into your hands? God hadn't cut my mind yet," Leonora refused.
 
    Graniti sighed sheepishly. "What should I do with you?"
 
    "Get out of my sight. This is what you should do." She emphasised every word she said. "Now out," she pointed to the exit.
 
    "Nora..."
 
    "Granit," his sister interrupted him strictly. "I have given up on you since the day you forced me to marry Albioni. It's over. Don't try anymore."
 
    "Wow!" He looked at her incredulously, staggered. "When on Earth have you become so ungrateful?"
 
    Leonora shook her head in disbelief that he was serious about that accusation, and suddenly her expression was replaced by the realisation of how wrong she had been up until that moment.
 
    "Granit, I'm so sorry."
 
    He was relieved to see that she was finally coming to her senses. 
 
    "I don't know why I have become such a person when you have always tried to be an example of righteousness for me." Leonora showed through that sarcasm that a little while ago she had been pretending to admit that she was wrong, and he got huffier.
 
    "I have always tried to be careful for you in life. Always!" Graniti admitted. "I haven't drunk alcohol, nor have I used drugs, and I have also stayed away from trouble just because I said, 'I have a sister at home, and I have to be ready for her, in case she needs my help.' "
 
    "You're getting on my nerves completely!" She lost what little patience she had left. 'When have you helped me?"
 
    Graniti didn't say anything.
 
    "You have just made my life miserable." Leonora scolded him. "Do you understand the term 'prisoner', or not? I grew up asking myself, 'What have I done wrong that I'm being punished like this? I'm being punished for having these kinds of people in my life?' "
 
    "What am I saying until now?" Graniti couldn't be patient any longer, either. "I have found a way to free us both and not have such problems anymore in our lives."
 
    "Oh, but I don't want you to be free. What can we do about that?" Leonora raised her chin arrogantly. 
 
    "If I'm not free, you aren't either."
 
    "Your imprisonment gives me freedom," she replied.
 
    Graniti felt powerless in returning the light to the extinguished eyes of the surrendered Leonora, to fight even just one last time, because of the fear that her brother would abandon her again, and she could not bear such disappointment anymore.
 
    "Nora," he lenified the tone of his voice. "I lo..."
 
    "You always stay away from me," his sister commanded. "You will never find forgiveness in me for what you have done, Granit. I am ready to live the rest of my life as I am today, if that keeps you imprisoned! Leave!" She said the last word emphatically, knowing how that would break him if he had really come to apologise without having a negative intention, as she had claimed he had, and she got exactly that reaction from him.
 
    Graniti broke his gaze and left her house, defeated, without a word.
 
    Leonora closed the door and tried not to cry, thinking that now that they had talked she didn't have to see him anymore and everything would be all right, but she burst into tears of despair, that she had to behave in that way, that they had come to that state, that they weren't happy, that she couldn't remember ever having been happy, that she was against him, and she couldn't forgive him, that the hatred towards him was so deep, that there was no amount of love between them that could be enough to heal the wounds caused.
 
    As long as they were together in the same life, brother and sister would never be in the same place at the same time again.