War. The first man-made catastrophe of the twentieth century. The Great War lasted four years. After the loss of many lives, the war was finally over. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, a cease-fire went into effect for all...
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"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, but love leaves a memory no one can steal." - unknown.
He was empty.
Since her death, life's been a blur to him. He drinks and drinks till he's passed out and wakes up a few hours later and repeats it all over again. The family is worried about his health but there's nothing they could do, they themselves were trying to get over their grief for her as well. Tommy does what he can to forget that night, her being taken away in the ambulance and her final words.
"Don't hate me Thomas, I'm sorry."
He could never hate her, and it was just classic her to be worrying about how he was feeling and not that she was dying. It was one of the things he loved about her the most. Her care for others. It was one of the things that Thomas was glad his son had inherited. Their son. Charlie had lost a mother and he could barely look at him, all he could see is her and the guilt grew heavy on his sole when Charlie asked where his mother was. Not having the heart to tell him yet as that would be him finally coming to terms that she really was gone, and he didn't want to do that.
Not yet anyway.
Thomas strode into his house, ignoring the emptiness the place gave him now that she was gone, he would never hear her laugh echoing through the house as she played with Charlie. The way she'd wait up for him when he arrived late at night to see her curled up on the couch by the fire with a book in her hand before jumping into his arms.
He walked passed his family members without a word spoken, he couldn't deal with there sympathies. He hated it.
"How are the books?" Thomas asked, scribbling a list of things to do on a piece of paper.
"Unaffected." Polly replied quietly, tip toeing around his nephew as she didn't want to set him off.
"Up slightly." Michael added making him stop. "There's also been a threefold increase in donations to the Shelby foundation charity. The councilor suggested naming the new school 'The Lillian Shelby Institute.'"
Thomas stopped what he was doing, putting his cigarette out my smashing it hard into the ash tray more than he needed to as he fidgeted with the pens and papers on his desk to distract him. "Tell the councilor the name 'Lillian Shelby Institute' is acceptable to us. And this is a list of other things I want doing. That's all."
Michael headed straight for the door, but Polly held back, he knew she would. "Tommy."
"That's all Pol." He replied quickly as he banged his desk drawers shut as he sifted through all the papers. Polly rolled her eyes but turned to leave the room, knowing it wasn't a good time to argue. Thomas slammed the table not finding anything he wanted. "Well done, both of you." After that he was left alone, and silence surrounded him.
It wasn't long before he could hear his brothers coming to his office and he breathed out a sigh as he rubbed his eyes. "Here we fucking go." He said to himself as Arthur walked in first with John behind him and surprisingly two of his brother-iin-laws.
