When Laura Silva settled down for a quiet evening at her parents' house over in Brazil, she could have been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief.
After all, she had made the 5,000-mile journey from Dublin to Ribeirao das Neves to drag her younger sister Ana out of an abusive relationship - and had achieved it, too, moving her sibling's two young children and belongings to the safest place she knew.
But a thump on the family home's door and the subsequent screams which rang around her childhood neighbourhood brought this most fleeting tranquility crashing down.
It was Ana's boyfriend Eduardo and he had a machete in one hand and a knife in the other.
The next morning, September 17, Laura woke up in hospital. Inspecting her wounds, she was reminded of a gruesome attack which could have easily killed her but instead left serious cuts to her neck, stomach and head, as well as a broken arm, after she stepped in to defend her family.
Lying yards away from her were her father and her sister Kelly, both miraculously alive but only slightly better off than Laura.
Kelly had also flown over from Ireland, from where a GoFundMe has been set up by friends to aid the sisters' recovery, to embark on a three-week trip which was supposed to be something of a holiday.
She awoke to four stitches on her hands as well as more on her feet. Their father nursed a large hole in his head from a particularly treacherous swipe of the blade.
Ana and her two children had escaped the episode unscathed, while her mother had picked up a sprained ankle.
Eduardo, meanwhile, was locked away in a nearby prison, a welcome outcome but at a cost none of the family could have imagined when they got together on Laura and Kelly's arrival from Dublin on August 29.
Stuck in Brazil for the foreseeable future while she and her family recover from their injuries, Laura, 26, told the Daily Mail that, on the night of the attack, things seemed to have finally calmed down for her sister Ana after four years of misery.
'She gained a certain kind of courage to get out of that situation and ask for help when we arrived,' Laura said. '[The break up] happened on the first day we arrived in Brazil.
'The abuser did not allow the breakup. Even before it, he threatened her and all of us. That is why she didn't have the courage to leave the relationship.
'He kept threatening all of us and trying to get back into the relationship.'
But as their visit came to a close, it looked like Ana might have a genuine shot at restarting her life in Brazil and Laura and Kelly might head home to Ireland.
When Eduardo arrived at their door, he charged in wearing a motorbike helmet, less for protection than for hiding his face from the property's CCTV cameras, Laura thinks.
'We were in the living room watching TV,' she said. 'He screamed that he would kill all of us and he went up to my dad, who got a chair to protect himself.'
Laura then rushed over to protect her father, but at the expense of her protecting herself. Eduardo stabbed her and shoved her to the kitchen floor.
The thug then slashed his blade towards their mother's head, but narrowly missed.
In spite of the bedlam, she somehow had the wherewithal to grab a baking tray and use it to shield her head.
Remarkably, as Eduardo stepped up his rampage, Laura dragged herself up from the ground and confronted her assailant, pushing and pulling at him to try to get him out of the kitchen and away from the rest of the family.
Kelly, meanwhile, had one of the babies in her arms, its mother Ana upstairs and blissfully unaware of the vile attack in its early stages.
Their father then joined Laura and her mother in their attempts to get Eduardo out of their house and onto the terrace, brandishing a chair at the attacker, who in turn waved his knife towards his head, leaving a deep cut.
Laura said: 'It did not affect his brain thank God, but it was bleeding a lot.'
As if her stab wounds were not bad enough, Laura soon noticed her arm had been broken in the commotion, with her mother twisting her ankle too.
Kelly rushed to Ana's room to hide the baby from the gruesome scene, and as she raced back, she was joined by her younger sister who was ordered by Laura to call the police.
The rest set about seizing the machete from Eduardo and the attacker landed a few more sharp swipes on Laura's body before the family managed to subdue him.
While they waited for a response team, Laura called a friend from the police who lived nearby. He beat the local force to it and arrested the assailant.
'He was like an angel,' Laura said. 'He came before the police themselves.'
Laura, Kelly and their father were rushed to hospital straight away. Miraculously, their mother and Ana's two babies were neither stabbed nor injured.
'It is still really bad,' Laura said. 'I am really sore. I had to go to surgery [on September 18] because my arm was broken and I was very injured.
'I have nine different cuts on my body - on my head, neck arm, belly - from the stabbing. It has been very complicated, my arm is really sore.'
Her father has a large hole on his head from the stabbing and Kelly, although recovering, 'has been very mentally traumatised' by the assault, according to her sister and Dublin housemate Kelly.
Their horrific injuries might be healed in the near future, but the family's ordeal is only just beginning.
'I am really scared about the future,' Laura said. 'We stayed at our parents' house for two days after the attack. I was really scared, any noise I hear I think it is someone getting into my house and that we will get hurt again.'
Eduardo is in a nearby jail, as each side scramble for legal representation ahead of a potential trial date.
Laura added: 'I am really traumatised. I am afraid he will come out of jail and hurt us again.
'He has a motorcycle and anyone on a motorcycle who drives past me, I think is him.'
'We are still trying to get a lawyer. They are all very expensive and we were not financially prepared for all this.'
The sisters' new lives in Dublin have been put on hold after the grim trip back home to Brazil and it looks like they will be holed up there for some time to come.
'It is going to be a long time until we can go back to Ireland - at least two or three months,' she added.
'The doctors are watching me. I also need physiotherapy, they say.'
The longer-term reality is that haunting night in September could be the last peaceful evening the family ever spend in their old home.
'We will not feel safe for our parents, sister and her babies to go back to that same house,' Laura said. 'We are going to need to buy a new house - we do not feel safe.'
Do they now view the area they loved so much in a different light?
'100 per cent. [Eduardo's] house is nearby. He knows where my parents live.
'I am afraid of my family staying. He could get a friend to do something to us or do something himself. Remaining in the same city, or perhaps even the same state, would not be safe for my family.
'The laws in Brazil are not effective in a case like this. Even though he attempted murder, he will not stay in jail long.
'We need to rebuild our lives and then I can go back to Ireland with a certain peace of mind.'
For the time being, they are sticking together as a united family, and are astonished by the generosity of Dublin friends Andressa and Luciano Ottaviano, and of the dozens of strangers who have poured more than €5,000 (£4,356) into a GoFundMe.
'We are happy that people are trying to help us,' Laura said. 'It gives us hope that we can rebuild our lives.
'This was not planned. We did not have enough money saved.
'I hope we get more help to ensure our safety.'
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