𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐍, ᵖᵉᵃᵏʸ ᵇˡⁱⁿᵈᵉʳˢ

𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳

Thomas glued his eyes to the corner of the paper where a small clipped photo of the Morelli woman was pinned. A nurses hat sat upon her head, and what was obviously her nurses uniform peeking out from the bottom of the photograph. Her eyes shown bright, different from the misty golden eyes he looked into a few nights ago. The picture he was staring at now, showed of a young adult who carried such optimism and hope. A complete three sixty of the ones he was growing familiar with that displayed nothing but emptiness, a sort of stillness that never went away because they refuse to let go of the horrors they've seen.

Thinking back to their previous late night chat, her words blared through the front of his mind,

"You know, Miss Morelli. I find it odd that your last name is Italian, but no Italian accent is present."

"It was my mother's maiden name. I took it as my own."

"She changed her last name in 1915." He mumbled to himself quietly in realization. Thomas was fairly certain she was either running from someone or trying to escape her past. He just didn't know which one yet, for all he knew it could be both.

Turning his attention back to the only man in the room, the Shelby man asked in curiosity, "If someone, let's say, changed their last name. How possible is it to retrieve their birth records?"

Kal, nodded in thought, "Very unlikely. If you don't know their fathers or mothers surname that they were given when they were born then odds are you'll come to a dead end," gauging the Shelby man's reaction cautiously, he finalized, "It could take months, years even."

"But, not impossible is what I'm hearing." Thomas concluded. If it took longer than expected he'd take those odds over not trying at all. He was hanging on a thin thread lined with the things he knew about the Morelli beauty, a thread that could snap because of the small amount of info he had on her. He had to know the story behind the person who had plagued his mind since that night.

"Mister Shelby, sir I-" Kal was curtly cut off by Thomas's assertive tone.

"Send it in. I want you to dig deeper until you have everything gathered on her, ya hear me?" Passing the folder back to the man, he waved his hand towards the compliant man in dismissal, "Go on. go."

Kal hurriedly left out the office door leaving Thomas Shelby to his thoughts. Leaning his elbows on his desk, he ran a hand over his mouth before leaning back in his chair.

"Who are you, Miss Morelli."

Erasing the thought of the little to nothing file to the back of his thoughts, he waited a few seconds behind a fence. Flicking his cigarette to the side, Thomas slowly followed after the woman.

Trying to stay hidden, Thomas would halt his steps when he got too close and busy himself with the nearest thing to him. On his second time from almost being spotted, he turned and bent his head down smoothly, distracting himself with a cart of fruit that was displayed outside a shop.

"Oh hello, Mister Shelby. Is there something I can help you with?"

Breaking his gaze away from the brunette, he met eyes with an elderly woman with a scarf wrapped around her head. Debris from the polluted air was left scattered on the light purple fabric. Looking to the elderly woman and back to the far retreating figure of his target, he shook his head quickly, "Nothing of the sort," looking back to the woman, he nodded to her trying to leave but she called him back, "Fruit then, Mister Shelby. It's freshly picked, perfect for this season. My husband got them..."