Elise had made plans to stay in Small Heath for the next couple of weeks, however she wasn't sure just yet if she was planning to stay for good. Today, Elise decided to stop by Sawyer and Vera's home, she wanted to meet their newest arrival. Another Steele girl to the family. Something Elise had been most excited about when she read the letter she had received from her brother and sister-in-law only a few days after the new Steele had entered the world.
Ainsley. That was her name. And from the moment Elise new of her newest niece's arrival she had made another vow. One she had made once before when young Kendall Steele had been born. It was to protect the young girls to no matter what end Elise had to take. She knew how her father was and still is to her. She had already gotten a broken jaw from refusing to allow little Kendall endure her grandfather's wrath. The wrath Elise had been so used to being on the other end.
Colby hadn't understood why his little sister hated their father so much until that fateful day. However Sawyer was still in disbelief. Believing his sister was making it all up so that they would hate the man that responsible for even being created in the first place. If only he and Colby knew exactly how Archer Steele truly was. Elise never sharing the traumatic secret she held deep down, eating away at her.
She felt relief that night. The night Thomas Shelby finally made her tell him the truth. The truth she wished she told him long ago. Maybe then they would have stayed together. But that's not what had happened. And sadly that had only been the tip of the iceberg for Elise. There had been countless years of her father's abuse that she could barely find the starting point. Only her mother's death had made it all worse.
Amedea and Archer Steele were barely even in love. Only marrying due to Amedea falling pregnant with Colby, just as Elise had done with Blake only few years earlier. Elise's mother also suffered her father's wrath once before. If only Amedea had known what her husband would do to their only daughter the day of her funeral and many other occasions after that.
Tommy however only knew of the one. The one that started it all. Elise was too ashamed to even tell him it was more than once. All the times she tries to forget. But she's haunted by them. Haunted by the memories. Reminded by the large scarring she bore from her back to the shoulder. That's a story for another day.
Elise looks at herself in the mirror, always wondering where that happy, young girl that followed Thomas Shelby around, hopelessly in love with the older boy. The young girl that always smiled, just like the framed photo of the young Steele that still hung up on a wall in her family home. The home she was raised in, but also the one where Elise stopped feeling safe. Where who she was first began to die without her having to take her final breath.
This had also been the home where Sawyer continued to live with his wife and children. If had been up to Elise she would set the whole place on fire and waited around to watch it crumble to the ground. Only to tell those around her that it had been on accident. She held no remorse. Her father never did, so why should she? That is what Elise believed. But those that had known the young woman since childhood would know this wasn't Elise Rosa Steele. It just couldn't be.
**
On her way back home, Elise had forgotten about a piece of important information that she was supposed to discuss with Polly during the course of that day. Luckily her family home didn't stray far from the Shelby household. Deciding she might as well, the young blonde made her way to the residence, not thinking any differently about it all.
She opened the door the moment she reached it, just as she always had since the moment she could. That was normal for the young Steele. But as she walked in to where she believed to find Polly, there had been someone else there as well. "Hey Polly, I forgot to-" The young blonde began to speak until she spotted the unknown company that resided at the table Polly stood by. "Oh, I'm so sorry Pol. I didn't realise you had company. I should've knocked." Elise rapidly apologised, feeling instantly disrespectful. What would her mother say to her about her rudeness? She definitely would have gotten in trouble if her mother had been there to see her, no matter how old Elise may be now.
"It's alright Ellie, you know you'll always be welcomed here." Polly laughed, as to comfort her nephew's ex. "I was hoping you would be stopping by anyways."
"Elise this is -" Polly had begun, until Arthur and John came barging in pretending to shoot each other with their guns. Soon followed by Thomas Shelby. "Alright then Polly, whose this?" Arthur questioned, smugly. Finding it slightly funny that the three boys had walked in to see their aunt with some male company. "I was wondering the same thing." Elise piped up, ruffling up John's hair under his hat, as she walked closer to where Tommy stood. As she knew it would set the Shelby brother more on edge.
"Gentlemen, this your cousin. Polly's son Michael." Tommy stated, watching as his brothers' facial expressions had changed, but noted that Elise's didn't. At least not visibly. Michael walked over to Arthur and John, shaking their hands to greet them. But when he greeted the young Steele girl, he took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth planting a kiss on the back of the woman's hand in a flirty fashion. Something Tommy took an immediate disliking to. "Pleased to meet you all." Michael stated with a small smile, barely taking his eyes off of Elise.
That was something that bothered not only Tommy but Elise as well. She was never one for all the male attention she would receive, although she couldn't avoid it no matter how hard she tried. "I'm Arthur, you've already met me, I used to throw you out the window so John could catch you." Arthur stated, still fathoming the young man that stood back beside his aunt. "Yeah, and I used to put you in a shoebox and kick you down Watery Lane." John added on, receiving a slight chuckle from Elise as the blonde woman remembered the memories. As that used to be a time when Elise used to be attached to John by the hip, that is what led the suspicion that the two should have been together. "Bet your glad to be back." Tommy joked, receiving a chuckle out of Michael. "I don't remember any of it. All I remember is the day that they took me away."
Polly's demeanor changed once she heard her son say those words. She sighed, walking over to bring her newly found son in for a hug. "You're here now son. Welcome to Shelby family." Tommy welcomed, patting the young Gray on the back. "Lucky you." Elise muttered to herself so that no one else would have heard her. At least she thought as much.
"Well I best be off, It's my night for family dinner. Got a lot to do." Elise stated, before she rushed out of there not waiting for anyone to say anything as the pit of butterflies fluttering around her stomach, since Tommy made his entrance, started to become too much for the young Steele sister to handle.
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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...
