HUMBLE BEGINNINGS || T. SHELBY (1)

THIRTY-SIX (EDITED)

Tabitha was three months pregnant, and things in the betting shop and with the Peaky Blinders had been going well. The female Blinder was still recovering from the trauma from shooting her ex best friend, Grace Burgess-McMillan.

The trauma was always going to be there, but Tabitha was still living on happily with her husband Thomas. Her baby bump was small but beginning to show, and her and Thomas were in love more than ever waiting for the arrival of their child.

The family was ecstatic from the arrival of the next baby Shelby, fighting with Tabitha and Thomas over whether or not it was a boy or girl. Tabitha wanted a girl while Thomas wanted a boy, but decided to wait until the birth to find out, not wanting Polly to read the tea leaves. The couple decided on the names for if it was a girl or a boy, but kept that secret from the family. They were looking for a nice home to raise the baby in and take care of it, mainly around Warwickshire, to keep them away from the family business until they were grown up.

One Monday morning, Tabitha was in the betting shop all alone with Esme while Thomas and his brothers were off taking care of business. They sat there, talking about the boys and everything going on like they normally did. When no one was around, that's what they did, and they called it "girl talk." Tabitha kept one hand on her small baby bump, rubbing it as Esme talked about something funny John did the night before.

"So, how's the house search going for you and Thomas?" Esme asked.

"We've been looking around Warwickshire and we found this really nice, but house to raise the baby in," Tabitha said. "It's called the Arrow House, so we might buy it. It looks good to raise the baby in."

She smiled down at her stomach, rubbing it, showing love to the baby growing inside her. Three months in and she already had the symptoms, all except sickness.

"Are you getting any symptoms yet?" Esme asked, pouring Tabitha another glass of water.

"Everything except morning sickness," Tabitha answered. "I'm kind of glad about that, but I was looking at this poor, starving dog in the street the other day and I started crying because it looked so sad."

"Pregnancy makes you emotional, Tabitha, worst part about it beside back pain."

Both women chuckled, and they heard the front door of the betting shop slam closed. That made Tabitha and Esme turn towards the sound, and a man dressed in a nice suit and hat walked in. The man's head was low as if he as trying to hide his face.

"I'm sorry sir, but this shop is closed for the day," Tabitha said as her and Esme got up from the table.

Both of them knew something was off when the man didn't answer, slowly walking a little closer. Then he lifted his head up, he had short and curly brown hair and a mustache, but not as good as Arthur's.

"Can we help you sir?" Tabitha asked.

"You can, but she can't," the man said with an American accent.

He pulled out a gun from the back of his pants, making both Tabitha and Esme jumped and put their hands up. The gun was pointed at Tabitha's head as she tried to remain calm.

"My name is Clive McMillan...And you killed my wife," the man, his anger shown more than before.

"Grace's husband," Tabitha whispered in shock.

"You killed her and now I'm here to kill you!" Clive screamed.

"Esme, get out of here."

"Have you lost your mind? You're pregnant and being held at gunpoint!"

"It's me he wants, not you, and this has happened already while I've been pregnant. Now, get out of here!"

Esme did as Tabitha told her, going off to find Thomas, Arthur, and John. Clive still pointed the gun at her, tears forming in his eyes.

"You're a monster," Clive sneered. "Your whole family are monsters!"

"Did you know that your wife was attracted to women and not men, Mr McMillan?" Tabitha questioned calmly. "Did you know that she was in love with me long before she met you?"

"That is not true! We were gonna have a baby and then you killed her!"

"Grace told me she was going to leave you, Mr McMillan."

"No." He shook his head in denial.

"She came to me at Epsom, told me to run away with her to New York."

"No, you're a liar!"

"And when I said no, she held me and my baby at gunpoint and planned on killing me."

"STOP LYING!" Clive screamed and sobbed in denial. "You killed her, you shot my wife!!!!!"

"I DID KILL HER!" Tabitha screamed back, losing her temper. "I killed my best friend and I live with the guilt every fucking day. But I had no fucking choice, I had to choose the lives of my children and she wasn't going to let us live if I didn't choose her."

"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP!" He continued to scream. "And now I'm going to kill you!"

Clive cocked the gun back with his finger on the trigger, but as he went to pull, he didn't get to. A gunshot went off, and the American immediately fell to the floor on his stomach, lifeless. He was dead, and the pool of blood draining from his head proved that. Tabitha gasped, standing back and holding onto the table for support. When she looked up to see the shooter, her eyes widened, and thought she was having an illusion of the person in front of her, a ghost.

The shooter had dark brown hair like Tabitha's, and it was shaggy and went to the nape of his neck. His face was covered with a lot, but short facial hair and his eyes were brown with flecks of gold in them...just like Tabitha's.

"Tabitha..." The man said with a thick Birmingham accent.

It sounded the same as the day Tabitha had last seen him, before the war. And then she whispered his name like a ghost, thinking he was just a ghost from the past.

"Theo?"

The End...or is it?