So you’re not lying… We know about that incident. He almost killed our brother.”

Instead of threatening her, they brought her a chair. Gave her water. Started talking. They spent the whole night chatting, laughing, remembering their families and their lives before prison.

For the first time Anna didn’t see them as criminals — but as people who had never been given a second chance.

At dawn she fell asleep on one of the beds, covered with one of their blankets. And in the morning, when the guards opened the door, one turned pale and the other stepped back.

On the floor slept the most violent inmate, the one who attacked everyone — he had given up his bed for the guard.

And Anna slept peacefully in it.

The largest inmate looked at the stunned guard and said:

“If you had been in her place, kid…” — he leaned forward slightly — “you wouldn’t have made it till morning.”