"The end always surprises, even if it is written from the beginning".

With years left on his body, without an arm and a patch over his eye, Gilbert Bouganvillea appeared in front of his door, after traveling a distant path that Dietfried had forced him to take against his will, today he returned with roots dulled by the years, and the scars bathing his body in immovable memories that were repeated over and over again in his blue pupil, for having perhaps walked over the tombs of death itself.

The door opened along with the face of Violet, who, as an adult, still seemed to him like a little girl he had met amidst cannonballs, fire and blood. Violet fell to her knees, time never passes in vain, while behind her, Dietfried bouganvillea with his braided hair, followed him with his eyes from head to toe, until the playful wind patted his back and he realized what his brother had lost. Dietfried wrinkled his chin and his eyes filled with tears that he tried to hold back. what battles had he fought that led to the loss of an arm and an eye?

Violet was stunned, perhaps, because those eyes that she carried in her most precious jewel had lost their shine and looked at her with sadness and perhaps a bit of disdain.

Gilbert entered the house, following Dietfried through the corridors to the study, the door closed, leaving Violet on the floor, and Gilbert didn't even try to greet her or to get her out of her surprise with a sweet word.

Violet got up, wiped her knees and turned her eyes back to the study and disappeared into the mansion.

...

In the study they both looked at each other, as if it was not necessary for a word to come out of their mouths, so strong was the bond they had, even after falling in love with the same woman, the love between siblings does not disappear that easily, on the contrary it becomes even more complicated than that.

Dietfried linked his hands on the counter and Gilbert noticed a ring on his fingers, he looked back at him "Congratulations", Dietfried turned to look at his hands and smiling replied "thank you".

Gilbert and Dietfried left the study together, Violet together with the ladies of the mansion were waiting at the exit, Gilbert slyly searched in his hands for a ring, but in his hands there was no such jewel, he looked at it and on his neck, where before the locket that years ago he had given her as a gift shone, today a ring was hanging.

And then he raised his gaze to look into his pupil like a dagger, that feeling of regret that seized him, that gnawed insistently to his soul, because he had no heart left, his last will had been to return and face the reality of having lost her, but as always hope is the last thing to be lost and today the defeat was more than evident.

He soon hid his gaze, lowering his eyes as he passed her, without so much as a word, as he disappeared behind the door.

Violet ran down the hall to the terrace, to see him get on his horse and lose himself in the dusty road, letting the last drop of his love go with her, and she could feel it, in the bottom of her heart, breaking into a thousand pieces, without thinking of the impact it would cause to see him again...

And how heartbreaking it would be for this story to end this way, with Violet giving her heart to the man who first tore her childhood apart and turned her into a soulless being, what a painful outcome it would be to see a Gilbert who only suffered and suffered against his own sorrows and who for the simple fact of wishing her a better life decided to truncate his own destiny for her sake, now riding even more defeated perhaps towards what a devastating future, if it can be called that.

...

How would you like it if I told you that this is all just a terrible, heartbreaking, beautiful dream?

that violet's heart is much more complex than a labyrinth and that Dietfried's soul was still hesitating and taking steps with closed eyes, stumbling over and over again.

because that's how it is, it's a dream, one in which Gilbert loses all his battles searching in his deepest memories for the innocent look of his so precious Violet.

It is a dream in which Dietfried can find a moment of freedom and let go of the burden of being the family example that the Bouganvillea family inherited decades ago.

...

And when I opened my eyes that morning, the light illuminated his face, and his eyes only looked at me ...