Anna [J.Shelby]

CHAPTER NINE

"Where are you now, Anna?" Anna's father, Martin, asked her, earning a sigh in response.

"Dad, we don't do this, we agreed if I'm to start anew, you don't get to know where I am" Anna responded, as she lent up against the wall with the telephone to her ear.

"Anna, I would really like to know where you are this time, I'm your father, I just want to know that you're safe" Martin coaxed her.

"I'm in Birmingham, I'm currently residing in Birmingham"

"Birmingham? That's not a place for a y-" Anna cut her father off with a laugh.

"That's not a place for a young lady to be alone, I know. You say that about every place I go. No matter what you say, I'm not coming home dad. I'm staying in Birmingham, Birmingham is my home now"

"I've heard about Birmingham, that's the city that those Peaky Blinder devils run, where in Birmingham are you?"

"Far away from Small Heath dad, if thats what you're worried about" Anna lied through her teeth.

"Are you happy there, have you found somebody?"

"I'm content here, and no, there's no man here for me" Perhaps it was another lie that had escaped Anna's lips.

Anna had avoided John, granted she still looked after his children on Saturday's. Being beaten up for just being seen with a Peaky Blinder was hard to swallow for Anna, she couldn't help but imagine what being with John would do to her. She knew this was cowardly, but Anna had been through too much in the most recent years in her life to want to go through worse because of a man's last name and occupation.

She said her goodbyes to her father, and readied herself for work, putting on her coat and grabbing her purse.

Polly recognized her from across the street as she walked towards number 6 Watery Lane with John.

"What's that, that look she gave you?" Polly asked John, as the pair locked eyes.

"I dont fuckin' know"

"What do you mean you don't fuckin' know? Oh Christ, she hasn't spoke to you since she was taken has she?" Polly's voice hardened.

"Course she fuckin' hasn't, she has sense. She looks after the kids Saturday's, that's all I see of her now"

"Why?"

"I dont fuckin' know Poll, maybe because I'm a Peaky-Fuckin'-Blinder" His words earned him a slap around the head from his aunt.

"What the fuck was that for?"

"I'm trying to knock some sense into ya, fuckin' talk to her, use your fuckin' brain for once. God knows you have one." Polly snapped at him.

Inside the Garrison, Ada soon came storming in, breathless and distressed, holding her stomach. Anna immediately rushed over to the girl, insisting she sat down.

"Ada, a woman as heavily pregnant as you shouldn't be running around like this, I'll get you some water, you look peaky" Anna worried over the heavily pregnant woman, immediately shoving a cup of water in her face and insisting she drank it.

"W-where's Tommy? And Freddie? Have you seen Tommy and Freddie? Have they came here?" She rushed out.

"Slow down, Ada, slow down"

"They'll kill eachother" Ada whispered.

"Tommy wouldn't kill your husband Ada" Anna reassured her.

"Then you don't know the Thomas Shelby I know. An' Freddie's just as bad as him too"

"Why don't you go home, I'll walk you if you like?" Ada nodded in response, and Anna warned Grace that she'd be gone 15 minutes.

"You can't mention where I am, to any of my family though, Anna, not to John or to Aunt Poll. Nobody"

"I won't, I don't even speak to them nowadays, not even John"

"Well why the bloody hell not?"

"Getting taken for simply just talking to your John and serving him in the Garrison made me realise that I don't belong in your brothers world, I'm not cut out to be stopped in alleyways and taken in by the police"

"It's not just that, though is it. You and John is not just talking and serving him in the pub. I see it, Polly sees it, Arthur, Finn, bloody hell maybe even Tommy. Out of all my brothers, John deserves someone like you as much as he deserves a bloody break from Tommy and his orders once in a bloody while."

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Purposely didn't write the exact words from Ada and the exact scene as it is a fanfic and I wanted to twist it. Next chapter you get an insight in Anna's troubled past that made her move elsewhere :)