red↳ thomas shelby

- XXXIV -

did you really think I was gonna kill off my girl? 😏

[ A r r o w H o u s e , 1 9 2 4 ]

"He's back."

Ada Thorne let out a shaky breath as she saw her brother return home on top of his black stallion. She let the curtain fall back into place, hoping he hadn't seen her in the window, although he was too observant not to.

"Has he been out there all night?" Michael Gray asked.

"Every night since the funeral." Ada sighed. "Comes back in the morning to see Thea and feed the horses, and when it gets dark he goes off again."

Polly Gray looked up from her newspaper. "He used to sleep out when he was a kid. Curly would find him in the pasture." The family stayed silent for a moment, as Polly poured them all some tea. "How's the baby?"

"She asks for her mum at night. She doesn't want to be with Tommy." Ada clicked her tongue. "Tommy made a list. He wants to see you two first." She passed Michael a piece of paper containing the order in which Tommy wished to see his family. It would be the first time he had seen them since the day his wife was shot.

"What about John and Arthur?" Polly asked.

The trio looked up as the heavy front door opened, and was slammed shut, Tommy not bothering to take his hat and coat off before he stormed past them and into his office. Ada gave Michael and Polly a sympathetic look before the mother and son joined Tommy.

Polly sat straight up in one of the chairs opposite Tommy's desk, while Michael relaxed back into the other one. Tommy didn't look up from his desk for a few minutes, continuing to write, and making them wait.

He let out a shaky breath. "How are the books?"

Polly hesitated, worried about her nephew. "Unaffected."

Michael waved a hand. "Up slightly." Tommy stopped writing, resisting the urge to punch his cousin in the face. "There's also been a threefold increase in donations to the Shelby Foundation charity. The counselor suggested naming the new school 'The Zara Shelby Institute'."

Tommy picked up an abandoned cigarette from the ashtray on his desk, tapping out the ash. It was taking every muscle in his body to keep him from breaking down, he needed to keep it together in front of his family. "Tell the counselor the name has to be 'The Zara King Institute'."

He sniffed, folding the paper he was previously writing into an envelope and sealing it. He passed it to Polly. "This is a list of the other things I want doing." Polly looked at him in sympathy. "That's all."

"Tommy." Polly tried.

"That's all, Pol." Tommy started rummaging through his desk, pulling more papers out. He froze as he found an old picture of him and Zara, taken by John, shortly after they started dating. His face hardened as he knocked all the papers off his desk in frustration. Polly and Michael continued to watch from the doorway. "Well done, both of you." Tommy signaled them to leave.

"Here we fucking go." Tommy muttered as John and Arthur came in next.

"Well, there he is." Arthur took his peaky cap off, trying to keep Tommy in a good mood. "Hi, Tom."

"Hello, boys."

John grimaced at the sight of his brother, he was a complete disaster.

"We, uh, didn't get a chance to see you after the funeral." Arthur took a seat in the chair Michael was previously in. "Well, you disappeared on us, but, well, me and John, we just wanna say that..."