The Sweetest of Hearts.1| T.S

•Two files.

XXIII. Two files.

When Tommy and Maude arrived in the little village where Michael now lived, Maude could immediately tell the boy and his adopted family were well of. Their house was nothing grand, but it was better than any house Maude had seen anywhere in Birmingham. But she knew only people well of money wise, could afford to do something as cruel as stealing children from their parents and get away with it.

Maude followed Tommy towards the house where a woman stood, calling her two sons in from the field where they were playing. One was still quite young but the other one was well into his teenage years, and Maude figured he was Michael.

"Mrs. Johnson?" Tommy called out as they approached the woman who stood by the front gate, staring back at her sons as they made their way into the house, but Michael stopped by the door, watching them curiously.

"Yes." the woman confirmed as she turned to Maude and Tommy, looking at them with furrowed eyebrows. " Who are you?" She asked them.

"We're from Birmingham Council, Bordesley parish," Tommy replied as he pointed between him and Maude.

"No one wrote to me." The woman said as she shook her head, her eyebrows furrowing even further. "What do you want?" She asked as she glanced between them.

"We would like to talk about your son, about Henry," Tommy informed her. "Can we come in?" He asked as he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, I'd rather you didn't, he doesn't like to talk about this."She replied with a shake of her head as she held a hand up to stop them from entering her yard.

"I see," Tommy muttered as he slowly nodded his head at her. "So what does Henry know about his real identity, Mrs. Johnson?" He asked her as his gaze shot towards Michael who watched them from the front door of the house.

"I only deal with Mr. Ross from the agency and he only ever writes, so..." The woman said as she glanced between Tommy and Maude with suspicion, slowly shaking her head. "Why are you here in person?" She asked them.

"Well, the boy is approaching his 18th birthday," Tommy informed her as his gaze shot back toward Michael.

"This isn't right!" The woman insisted as she shook her head. "You're not from the council, something isn't right." She said and Tommy sighed, not caring much that she caught on, but irritated about her lack of cooperation with him.

He hummed at her as his gaze diverted from her for a brief second. "What does he know, Mrs. Johnson?" he asked her again.

She stared at Tommy before she got a smug look on her face. "He knows his mother couldn't cope. She drank too much, she used opium. She used to beat him." She informed them as she shrugged her shoulders.

Maude's eyebrows furrowed and her eyes squinted at the woman. "But that isn't the truth, is it?" She asked as her head tilted to the side, glaring at the woman as her jaw clenched. " It's all lies you told him so that he wouldn't know monsters came in the night and stole him from his mother." She spat at Mrs. Johnson.

The woman stared at Maude, taken aback by her words. She huffed before shaking her head. "Look, I think you should come back when my husband's here." She demanded.

"Does he know what his real name is?" Tommy asked her as his gaze returned to Michael who had now begun to slowly approach them, his eyebrows furrowed deeply.

"His real name is Johnson, Henry Johnson, now I would like you to go away and come back when my husband's here." She demanded again as she glared at Maude and Tommy.

"The truth is, he was taken from his mother without her permission," Tommy spoke, his voice raising loud enough for the boy approaching them, to hear clearly.