god is a woman (arthur shelby.)

eight.

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Rowan stood on Arthur's doorstep practically beating a hole in the front door panel. It was beginning to throw it down as she walked over and the ditzy girl had forgotten to bring a coat whilst she was blindsided with rage.

"Fuck off it's midnight." She heard Arthur grumble from the upstairs window.

"Let me in." She pleaded.

"Oh, it's you!" He shouted and she heard footsteps run down the staircase.

The door flung open and Rowan was greeted with a naked Arthur, bar the towel around his waist.

"I was having my annual bath." He joked. "Come on before you get consumption."

"Thank you." Rowan meekly replied, lugging her heavy bag over the doorstep.

"You look a state, what happened?" He asked as he saw her bedraggled state.

"I fell out with my dad and now I need somewhere to stay." She sighed and brushed through the brown knotted hair on her head.

"What did you do?" He asked and tightened the towel around his waist to avoid flashing her.

"Nothing. I stood up to him for once so he called me whore and slapped me." She revealed.

Arthur noticed the bright red slap mark on her cheek glowing against her skin. It looked like it stung but Rowan wouldn't dare show it. He raised his hand and gently pressed it, causing her to flinch.

"I'll cut his fucking eyes out." Arthur replied instantly. "Cut 'em out and leave him crying for mercy."

"It's honestly not worthy of something like that. Save that for further down the line." Rowan bargained.

"He can't get away with something like that." Arthur's anger bubbled inside him.

"He can. He's my dad." Rowan rolled her eyes before throwing herself on to the sofa. "You of all people should know that."

In the whispers that echoed around the city, Rowan had picked up the various stories about the father of the Shelby brothers. Arthur Shelby Senior had a less than pleasant reputation around the area and there were many tales about the vile activities he'd taken part in. He'd beaten up his own children and robbed from his own family, these being some of the less offensive actions which surely spoke volumes about his character.

Arthur Junior's problem was not that he was blind to these actions, but was that he chose to look over them. Sharing the same name and being the eldest son, Arthur Junior felt as if he had to live up the legacy of his father, however disgusting it was.

"Who is he anyway? I haven't seen any new faces in the pub other than you." Arthur remarked and sat next to Rowan on the sofa.

"A man. A horrible and vile man that I hate being related to. But there's nothing I can do to stop it." Rowan twirled the fingertips of her hair around her finger.

"Why did you come with him if he's so bad?" Arthur asked and lit a cigarette.

"His work. It's just me and him these days and so he forced me to come with him. I don't think I wanted to stay in Ireland anyway." Rowan sighed. "It gets awfully lonely when the only person that truly cared for you dies."

"Your mother I'm guessing?" He asked carefully.

"She was an angel in an apron. God knows what she saw in my father but thank god she saw something in me." Rowan mused.

The room fell silent as she reminisced to herself.

Rowan's mother was a woman of true beauty, both inside and out. She had long brown hair, similar to Rowan's, but had striking green eyes that glittered in the light. Whilst their personalities didn't always match in every single way, they complemented each other. Rowan was fiery and fearless, whereas her mother was law abiding and level headed. If Chester wasn't in the equation, life would've been cliché and perfect.

"How did she see something in you? She didn't really get a choice when she gave birth did she." Arthur asked.

"She adopted me. Her and my father did, together. She said she fell in love with me because I was the baby that wouldn't stop screaming the house down. She said she liked my tenacity. My father wanted to adopt a baby called Maximillian because he wanted a boy." Rowan revealed.

Rowan remembered how whenever she got into trouble as a child, her mother was the first to defend her. Her father would often rant about how he wished she was a boy instead, despite nearly all of his arrests being that of young boys. She told him of her dream to become an author, he laughed in her face and told her that she was a waste of space.

"I don't know why I just told you that." Rowan cringed.

"You've had a long day love." Arthur sympathised with her.

"I'm still coming tomorrow. I can't wait to see your family again." Rowan rolled her eyes.

Her and Polly hadn't gotten off to the best start, but Rowan was determined to get on Polly's good side. Polly and Rowan were similar in many ways, in fact Rowan was almost Polly if she were thirty years younger.

"How do you know so much about Chester Campbell?" Arthur asked out of the blue.

"He is well known where I'm from. I know him better than most." She mused.

"How?" Arthur asked again.

Worried she'd given too much away, Rowan changed the subject into one she could handle much better.

"We never finished what we started earlier." She seductively smiled at him.

Arthur was instantly under her spell. He leant over and kissed her, completely forgetting what he was originally talking to her about. Despite their brief relationship, Arthur was totally intoxicated by her. In the same way she felt as if adrenaline was a drug, Arthur felt as if she was his drug. He couldn't get enough of her and had to be around her.

Even if it was only for sex, he could live with it.

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a/n: this is such a bad chapter but I have a migraine the size of south america so have some sympathy x