VULNERABLE | thomas shelby

☆F O U R T Y- S I X ☆

CHAPTER FOURTY SIX; BIRMINGHAM DREAM

BETH WASN'T SURE how she ended up back in Small Heath but when she arrived she couldn't face her home, instead arriving at the old wood house at the end of Watery Lane. Knocking on the door, Beth shook with the cold, the black lace dress she wore to the Derby wasn't exactly the warmest thing and her jacket was left in the passenger seat of Johnny Dogs truck. The door slowly creaked open and the old women's face crinkled as she smiled wide realising it was Beth. "Bethany!"

"Mrs. Addison!" Beth managed to blurt, forcing on a smile. The older woman's eyes crinkled as her eyebrows scrunched together looking at Bethany in confusion. "Come inside." Mrs. Addison instructed stepping out of the door frame. Beth walked inside the house, shivering from the cold she swallowed the thick lump of tears in her throat and walked into the sitting room, sitting down onto one of the plush velvet armchairs in the old woman's home.

Mrs. Addison disappeared for a moment but soon hobbled into the room, a blue tin filled with sugary biscuits inside that Beth had guessed Mrs. Addison had payed a small fortune for. Mrs. Addison handed Beth the tin before sinking down into her arm chair. "Eat, food makes everything better." She instructed. Beth let out a small laugh biting down on a biscuit and glancing up at Mrs. Addison who watched her. "So tell me what has happened." Beth bit down on her lips. "The solider, my solider. Thomas. He's done something I don't think I can forgive."

Mrs. Addison nodded slowly, raising her tea to her mouth. "Do you love him?" She asked. Beth nodded slowly, her eyes watering with tears as she stared at the fire that blazed in front of her. "I fell in love with him two seconds after I saw him. And I'll never stop loving him, even though it doesn't make sense anymore. Nothing makes sense anymore." Beth answered. Mrs. Addison smiled, shrugging her old wrinkled shoulders. "So are you going to tell me what he has done?"

"Another woman. The Irish woman. He got her pregnant. Had an affair." Beth explained, a tear streaming down her face. "Sometimes the people we love don't love us back, and it's painful but there's nothing we can do about it." Beth let out a sarcastic laugh her eyes wandering over to the woman who's house she was sat. "Thomas loves me." Mrs. Addison shrugged rolling her old eyes. "If he loved you would he have gotten with her?"

Beth pulled her knee to her chest, hugging them to her body tightly. "Bad things are going to happen. That's not negotiable my sweet Beth. What is, how you handle it. You can stay and keep going back to him while he has affairs with Irish women behind your back or you can go and get the life you always wanted from another man. First love is amazing but last love is what you need. A family of your own, a husband who cares for you." Mrs. Addison spoke, looking over at the picture of her husband on the fire place.

"I won't see you for a couple of months. I can't stay. I'm to leave, today. He'll find me and I'm afraid if I look at him again I'll never leave. I'll just forgive as I always to because he was my a tommy and I'm his Beth." Beth murmured reaching up to tug at her hair. Mrs. Addison smiled nodding and stood up slowly shuffling over to her cabinet and reaching in, pulling out a small bag filled with money. Beth watched as she walked over handing it into Beth's hands and smiling warmly. "I can't take your money." Beth pried, trying to hand the bag back but Mrs. Addison shook her head, waving her hand.

She simply pointed to the framed black and white solider sitting on the mantle piece. "I found my solider, it's time for you to find yours." Beth smiled widely, wiping her eyes and standing up to hug Mrs. Addison tightly, who gladly returned the hug. Beth shot her one last smile nodding her head in reassurance before walking through Mrs. Addisons house and out onto the shitty streets of small Heath. "I don't want a new solider though." Beth mumbled, beginning her walk to Charlie's yard to find Curley.

•

It wasn't hard to convince Curley to drive Beth to Camden Town without an explanation. He left her outside Alfie Solomon's bakery as she had requested, still in her race day dress with messy hair from sleeping on it in the car and puffy eyes from crying. Beth hasn't realised what she had done till Curly drove away leaving her standing outside Alfie Solomon's bakery all on her own with working men's eyes watching her.

Beth flinched when the doors swung open and a man was pushed out onto the door, Alfie Solomon's himself standing in the doorway and towering over the man who scattered back pushing himself accidentally onto Beth's feet. It was only then that Alfie's eyes fluttered up to stare at the broken blonde stood in his doorway and he squinted his eyes. "Am I seeing right or is that fucking Bethany, eh Finn?" Alfie asked his brother who walked into the door frame looking Beth up and down who watched the man who landed at her feet run down the driveway. Finn nodded slowly his eyebrows raising.

Alfie stepped outside onto the streets of Camden Town his eyes watching Beth in suspicion. "What's your business here, eh doll?" Beth glanced back to Alfie her eyes red and sore as she tried to swallow a sob. "I want to kill Thomas Shelby." Beth spoke. Alfie grinned, a soft chuckle escaping his mouth as he held his arm out to indicate for Beth to walk inside his bakery. Beth walked in sending a small smile to Finn. "Well that makes the bloody two of us." Alfie joked, slamming his bakery doors shut.