"I'm sorry El, I just don't know if I can leave knowing that you're here worrying about me." Tommy apologised, knowing he had just broken the young woman's heart.
"I thought you loved me Thomas. You promised me you would never leave no matter what, that was all bullshit wasn't it? You just want to make you leaving for the war easier on you, less to lose right? Well done cause you have just made it that little bit easier." Elise scoffed, as she looked into the eyes of the man she had believed loved her as much as she loved him. Elise was holding back the need to cry, trying to swallow her emotions. The man she had been dating for quite some time, has just broken her heart into a million pieces and now being the one left alone to mend them back together.
"I do it's just-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses Thomas just leave it," She stated, cutting him off, before proceeding to walk away from him, soon letting the tears she had holding back finally roll down her cheeks.
**
The boys were going off to war, Elise couldn't prevent the tears from falling down her face. As the hard truth that her only brothers were having to go to war. Elise's sister-in-laws were both in tears as they said their goodbyes to their husbands. Elise had noticed the Shelby family saying their own goodbyes to each other over in the distance, catching Tommy looking at her with a sad smile across his face as he made eye contact with his ex-girlfriend. Elise rolled her eyes and shook her head at him before turning her attention back to Colby and Sawyer to say her final goodbyes to her older brothers. Elise didn't want to react to Tommy like that, as she still loved him deep down, but Elise couldn't let him know that she wasn't over him.
Elise had to be stronger, after all she was about to take on the family business alone to keep it afloat. Let's just say it's not a smooth sailing business to be in. Elise wasn't going to really have anyone to help her with it aside from Lia and Vera, but she couldn't expect her brother's wives to take on something they weren't yet fully prepared for. Archer Steele, their father walked out on the Steele siblings now close to a year ago, leaving his sinking business into the hands of the eldest son Colby. Elise for one was jumping for joy when their father left town. He never treated Elise the same way as her brothers. She had been raised the same as them but was treated very differently due to being his only daughter. The daughter her father never wanted. Archer made sure to remind his only daughter of that every time he came across Elise before he decided to abandoned them. He'd be pissed if he was to find out who was now going to be running his business while his sons were at war.
The sound of the train brought Elise back to the reality that was before her. This was it, her brothers were leaving, and they might not even return. They were leaving their wives, children, and Elise. They were all she had now, and she could only pray for their return, even if they didn't end up returning the same as how they left as long as they returned alive.
**
It took Elise a little bit but she had moved on to someone else, although not really. As an unwanted one night stand, led to her needing to get married to a man she didn't even love. Blake Hightowere. Only because Elise had discovered that she had fallen pregnant. Blake told her that he loved her, promised her that he would never leave her all things Elise had heard before, only difference is she wasn't in love with the man she married but yet the one that had broken her heart, She still wasn't over Thomas Shelby. Blake up and left the moment Elise had told him that she had miscarried. Leaving Elise to battle her emotions alone once again.
**
Elise couldn't understand why or how this could even happen or if it was even possible to begin with. The second year into this war in France, only barely a year since all the men were deployed and now she too was being deployed. Elise had been told that there were more nurses needed to help, as truthfully they had underestimated their enemy so now they needed more nurses to tend the wounded. It's not like Elise even had a choice in it, as much as she wished she did. The feeling of guilt that took over Elise for something that wasn't even her decision in the first place.
Lia and Vera were now the ones in charge, as they needed to try and keep the family business afloat, due to their sister-in-law's sudden departure. If Elise had it her way she wouldn't be leaving them to do it alone, knowing the stress and pressure her in-laws were soon to be feeling.
**
It was the year the men were due to return as the war was over, at least the ones who survived it. The men may have been the ones that went to war, but they weren't the only ones that had changed over the years. Elise too returned a different woman, one that she know her loved ones wouldn't be able to recognise. Especially the new relationship Elise had left behind. She had just gotten engaged to man named Lyndon Cartwrighte before the discovery about her sudden deployment, deep down she had a gut feeling that he may leave her too.
There he stood waiting for the train to arrive, standing just a small distance away from his soon to be in laws' families as he waited for his fiancé's arrival. Although the woman he proposed to now no longer existed.
Elise couldn't believe that she was now watching her older brothers reunite with their own little families, hearing pure excitement from Colby's children as they ran up to their father, while noting how Sawyer instantly pulled in his wife holding her tightly against his chest, Colby now also holding his wife and children as close as he could. Lyndon didn't do that, it was like he wasn't happy to see Elise return.
Elise had told her worried brothers that Lyndon was different but of course in the end he wasn't, he left her too before they had even said their vows. The day that Elise and Lyndon were supposed to be married that is and he just left Elise standing there looking like a hopeless, loveless idiot in front of her own family as well as Polly Gray and Ada Shelby. At least that's how she felt she appeared as she stood waiting for the man that would never show up. Deep down it was also the day Elise had realised how little love she had for Lyndon Cartwrighte.
**
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Twisted Minds
Fanfiction**Slow Updates, you have been warned :D** Elise Steele, the brains behind the family business her older brothers being the brutes. Although you wouldn't want to cross her. What was once young love, disappeared when the war came insight. She wouldn't...
