the 20s were roaring for a reason ; drugs , prostitution , gambling and gangs. if you weren't involved in any of four activities then you were obviously, emmy shelby , the younger sister to tommy , john , arthur and ada and a twin to finn shelby. finn and emmy were the overlooked siblings he often referred to himself as "the brother they didn't get round to." and she " the step down from ada.".
for a while the twins didn't want a thing to do with the family business but when they hit their teens they were greeted to a new life opportunity.
by they time they were 14 finn was practically begging to be in the gang whilst emmy was taken away by the sights of his best friend , isaiah.
tommy had told her since the day she was born that there would be " no boys till she were 21 " of course she never abided by that rule , boys were practically drooling over her. however, the only boy who didn't seem interested was isaiah jesus. emmy's 14 year old dreams of her and isaiah were crushed when she found out he was pursuing girls upon girls each night and she knew she would never get a chance of the love she wanted from him.
in present day the twins were newly 18, polly couldn't of been prouder of them and tommy even agreed to give finn a day job in the den and allowing him to take calls and fill in records.
though emmy begged him tommy forbid her from joining the business for at least another few years and instead he sent her on small jobs with finn and isaiah which she wasn't allowed to get involved in. though it caused a huge argument between the family tommy stood his ground as ' head of the family '. she hated the fact that everyone else was included but her, finn and isiah constantly teased her about it and said she was 'unimportant' and on multiple occasions finn would ask 'maybe it's because we're not actually related so tommy doesn't want you in the buisness'. although emmy would play these off with a sarcastic comment it did hurt her to think that she was unneeded or unimportant to her own family.
however what kept her sane and gave her something to do was that emmy was crazy popular at school , girls either loved her or hated her and the boys all took a liking the the shelby girl they could never have , all except the one she wanted, well used to want. isaiah and emmy had a strong bond , he was the only lad tommy ever approved of for emmy to even be friends with - he was the boy she got drunk with for the first time , he was the boy who gave her first cigarette nevertheless tommy saw him as a good influence upon the girl and " a good standard for her to hold herself to ".
tommy never paid much attention to emmy's life unless it included things he didn't approve of , like when she was 14 and a half and he found out she had been to a pub in london with a date , when she got back the two had argued that she shouldn't of even been on a date never mind drinking. whilst polly had taken her side and said that tommy should loosen the leash round her neck he was having none of it and couldn't fathom why emmy even needed to talk to anyone of the opposite gender but there's tommy shelby for you as protective as ever.
arthur was emmy's mentor in some ways , he taught her how to shoot a gun the first time men made crude remarks to her - he taught her how to fight like a man and to take a punch like one ; john adored emmy , she was the only chance the properly got to have a younger sister he was always very overprotective of her but understanding of anything she ever did and was always there to back her up to tommy and arthur. though it caused many arguments the family all loved each other incredible amounts.
ada and emmy had a phenomenal relationship and she was the woman emmy looked up to the most , her strong opinions is what emmy admired most though when ada moved away to when emmy was 12 it hurt their friendship a lot ; part of emmy wondered why ada didn't take her with her to her new house and the other half of emmy resented her for leaving her with their brothers. ada was always fighting emmy's corner and even promised to teach her some of the tricks of their brothers trade and how to get to do some odd jobs for them which had worked but only on the off occasion.
emmy was polly's shining star ; she practically worshiped her since the day emmy was born. polly loved emmy beyond words could tell and emmy loved her aunt so much , their bond was something special that no one could ever break. polly knew that her daughter had passed on so when she was given a 'daughter' to raise she demanded for everything to be perfect and even went as far to pick up a job or two to pay for expensive dresses or yous for emmy.
