Ruins of Autumn

44• Is It The End?

 
    Adriana sighed, more stressed than when she had had Anila in front of her eyes, while exiting the apartment building's elevator, where her parents lived, and with Anila's image in her thoughts, the moment when she had looked at her for the first time, when she had criticised Megiona, as if she were giving a message to Adriana, that she was not a person who overlooked breaking the rules and did not support anyone if she found out that they were doing unfair things by closing an eye for them.
 
    To leave Albania as soon as possible was the choice that would save her. What if she met her and Leonora, and the latter told Anila what Adriana had told her and Blerimi? She could end up at the police station; her family would find out and turn their backs on her. They would ask her why she hadn't asked her brother for money or worked but had accepted the offer of a stranger.
 
    She had thought that she had been free when she had received the money from Marinela; she had returned to New York; she had finished her higher education in Marketing, and now she had planned to work quietly in her homeland.
 
    Anila's existence had turned everything upside down, and Adriana was afraid it was too late for her to regret helping Marinela.
 
    Her brother was walking down the corridor to the living room when she opened the front door of the house and stepped inside.
 
    "I thought it was Mom."
 
    "Where did she go?" Adriana took off her black heels.
 
    "At Flutura's house. To split boards." Eltoni investigated the tense expression on her face. "What's wrong with you? Did something happen while you were hanging out with your friends today?"
 
    "No," she looked him in the eye for just a moment, and they went to the living room. "I was thinking about work and coming with you to New York."
 
    "That's great. I stand by my offer. Whenever you want, you can come and work at the restaurant."
 
    "That's what I'll do," she sat down on the hazel sofa and took out her phone. "Did you talk to the twins today?"
 
    "Only with Izabela," Eltoni sat down to her right and took out his phone as well. "I'll talk to Valentina in the evening."
 
    He lowered his voice as he read with concentration every word of the news that was recently announced on Google about the continuation of the investigation into the murder of Blerim Agolli approximately two years ago on the way to the police station in Los Angeles, where two police officers and a detective were injured.
 
    He had thought about getting rid of the three of them so as not to leave any living witnesses, but he changed his mind at the last moment and killed only Blerimi. Arjon Kelmendi had asked him to leave Leonora alone, and Eltoni had not messed with her at all.
 
    Had he been used? That person, Blerimi, had done something wrong to someone in the past, and Eltoni had been chosen to repay him with the same coin as a sign of revenge from life for someone else, while for Leonora, life had other plans, and that was the reason why she was still alive?
 
    "Did you hear what I said?"
 
    He looked at Adriana in confusion. "No."
 
    The sound of the main door opening brought both of their attention to their mother.
 
    "Has Diana come?" asked Roza.
 
    "Yes, I'm here," replied her daughter. "How did it go?"
 
    "Very well," she sat down on the sofa in front of her, adjusted the blue dress with small white flowers, and looked at Eltoni.
 
    "Flutura said that she had found someone for you."
 
    "What?" Eltoni furrowed his brows angrily, knowing that he had become the subject of such a conversation. Adriana let out a laugh. "Mom, did you ask her?"
 
    "Of course not!" His mother immediately defended herself. "Don't you know Flutura?"
 
    "That woman is so obsessed with arranged marriages," Adriana opined.
 
    Eltoni closed his eyes, tired of the same drama about him, and sighed deeply.
 
    "It would be good if you were interested," said Roza. "I saw that woman in a photo on WhatsApp. Flutura had her number. She's beautiful."
 
    "You got her number?" Adriana asked enthusiastically about the continuation of that story in her brother's life.
 
    "Of course she didn't," Eltoni jumped to answer.
 
    "I got it," replied Roza.
 
    "Of course you did," Adriana said. "What's her name?"
 
    "Anila Idrizaj."
 
    "An..." Adriana waited with her heart in her throat for her mother to say that she was mistaken and that the woman had a different name. "Show me her picture." She silently prayed that it was about someone else with the same name and not that one Anila, while her mother searched for her contact number on the app.
 
    Why couldn't she escape from that part of her past?
 
    "There she is," Roza showed Adriana the zoomed photo, and she was more saddened by anxiety that Eltoni would like her and they would date together.
 
    "You take a look at it too." Roza handed the phone to Eltoni, and Adriana kept her eyes fixed on her brother's face to know his reaction.
 
    Eltoni looked indifferently at first at the picture shown, but his complexion changed immediately upon looking more closely.
 
    "She is beautiful indeed." He was drawn to her slightly smiling face and sweet brown eyes, like the look she had, pictured standing to the left of a desk wearing light grey trousers, a white shirt, and black heels. She had parted her hair in the middle and let one part fall in front of her chest and the other part behind her back. She had a delightfully seductive beauty.
 
    "She's twenty-eight years old," said Roza.
 
    "Does she know that I am thirty-seven?" Eltoni asked.
 
    "Yes, Flutura had told her. 'He's thirty-seven, but he looks like thirty.' she had said to her about you."
 
    He laughed lightly, not taking his eyes off Anila's eyes in the photo.
 
    Adriana was seeing the end of that story, not at all to her advantage. She wanted to make some negative comments about Anila and encourage Eltoni to give up on her, but the fear that she might suffer worse in life because she had told lies about her stopped Adriana. Maybe if she didn't talk, Eltoni and Anila would meet and not like each other, and everything would be fine for her.
 
    "She has only one younger sister," continued Roza. "She also had a brother, but they have killed him."
 
    "When?!" Adriana asked in alarm. Marinela had told her that it had been a lie and that Anila had a brother.
 
    "It will be six years in November. His name was Amarildo."
 
    Lie. Marinela had lied to her when she said that Anila had no brother. Maybe even the fact that Blerimi had not raped her had been a lie? Had Leonora been in more danger than just falling prey to Blerimi's trap so that he could take her fortune?
 
    "Have they found the killer?" she asked again.
 
    "No," Roza answered.
 
    "Don't waste your time with her." Adriana took the chance to tell Eltoni her opinion about Anila. "Who knows who Amarildo has been messing with, and his sister risks suffering because of him? You too, because you know Anila and us because we're your family."
 
    Eltoni looked at Anila in the photo and weighed the value of risking it for her and his family, and the latter immediately weighed more heavily.
 
    "You're right," he gave the phone to his mother. "She's not worth the risk," he said about Anila.
 
    Adriana went to her room, more relaxed, and took a deep breath after closing the white door.
 
    She had been in the middle of a life-or-death case; she had walked in total ignorance, refusing to open her eyes to see where she had been walking, and now she was in danger of suffering the consequences of that reckless action.
 
    It seemed impossible that she would miraculously escape without getting any wounds from that fight.