(first shot)
01 | in which she sees him again
"You can go, Andriessen" the guard told her, Bella stared at him holding the bars of the cell.
"I can go?" she asked suspiciously. "I thought I'd be hanged."
The policeman didn't answer.
He opened the cell and the girl, walking in the corridors, confused and at the same time relieved. She had no regrets about what she had done, couldn't regret having done what the bastard deserved.
When she reached the outside of the prison house, massaging her aching wrists, she lifted her chin and her lips parted in surprise.
"Tommy," she murmured.
Polly Gray's handsome nephew released the smoke from his cigarette and cleared his throat.
"Bella," his husky voice said the girl's name.
Isabella could expect anyone in front of that prison, but Thomas Shelby, her childhood friend whose existence of this friendship was hidden from her grandmother, was far from expecting to see.
"What are you doing here?" She asked hesitantly, walked a few steps away from him and started her way back home.
Tommy walked beside her, not seeming to care about the torn wedding dress and her blurred makeup.
"Get you out of 'ere." He said without looking at her in his deep, empty voice tone.
"Why?"
"Because no one wanted your fiancé alive and he would die even if it weren't you who killed him."
Bella raised an eyebrow.
"Not a good explanation," she said quietly.
"No," Tommy agreed. "But that's the only explanation you'll get."
"It's still better than being hung," Bella said, staring at him, Tommy still staring as he walked. "Thank you."
"No thanks, you'll probably pay for it later."
"I know," Bella insisted. "But anyone else could have come in your place."
"I just do what I have to do," Tommy replied pragmatically.
He nodded to Bella, moving away.
The girl watched his back walking slower, after Tommy was far enough, she called him.
"Tom!"
He stopped, didn't turn completely, just looked to the side showing that he had heard her.
"Did you know what Victor did? With Nina?"
Shelby looked forward again, starting to walk.
"He had the end he deserved."
Said just that, and left.
It was strange for her, talking to him after so long.
Bella and Tommy used to be friends since school. Bella's father was Dutch, her mother came from America to England by ship, her mother and her father met and fell in love, but the few opportunities made her father become a Blinder and die as one.
It was almost impossible for her mother to find a job because she was a black woman, and with the illness that came later, her mother's only choice was to give Bella her paternal grandmother to care for the girl.
After her mother died, Bella had been working from an early age to support her niece and grandmother.
Meredith took care of the girls as best she could, and always warned Bella of the dangers that the Birmingham gangs caused. Especially the Peaky Blinders, which in Meredith's mind were the ones that caused the death of her son.
Bella couldn't help but get close to Tommy, however much time had left him bitter ... She still thought of him before going to bed every night, and sometimes prayed for him too.
Secretly, Bella knew the true feelings she had for the blinder, but life took them in different ways.
And today, like the young bride who shot the groom on their wedding day, there were no options left but to forget the love for now.
Meredith was sitting in her armchair in the living room of the little house, anxiety was consuming her, but the knocking on the door made the old woman stand up complaining in a low voice and her face was stunned to see who was on the other side of the door.
"They said you would be hanged."
Bella stood up and shrugged contemptuously.
"They wanted to, but we never have what we want." She climbed the two steps and Meredith gave room for her granddaughter to enter. "Where's Nina?"
"Sleeping, it's only 6 o'clock in the morning." Bella's grandmother said closing the door. "How did you get out?"
"Someone helped me." She spoke without giving details and sat down on the couch, after a few seconds staring at nothing, swallowed dry at the tears coming. "I'm sorry. "
That simple word hit Meredith like the bullet Bella used to kill Victor.
The woman knew the reason, knew that the granddaughter felt responsible for what happened Nina. Meredith couldn't blame Bella for having faith in people, it was Meredith herself who taught her.
"Take a shower, put on clean clothes," Meredith finally said.
Bella nodded, wiping the tears down her cheek.
"Can I sleep here tonight?" She asked hesitantly.
"It's your father's house, you can sleep here every day," Meredith replied to her. "But let me give you a warning, first of all."
The hazel-colored girl stood up and waited for her grandmother to speak.
"Yes?"
"Don't let another bad man enter this house again," she paused, then continued. "I'm talking about Thomas Shelby too."
Bella, feeling her heart sink into her chest, nodded again.
She went up to her own room, there was a bed and an antique wardrobe. Bella opened the first drawer of the wardrobe and pulled out a box from inside.
She sat on the floor, opening the red box and watching the objects inside her with a small smile on her lips. Some short letters exchanged between two teenagers, there was a glass of French perfume left for her by her mother, and she remembered to perfume the paper with that same perfume to deliver.
Bella wondered if Tommy kept his letters too, or if he had torn or thrown away.
She would marry Victor because he was a man with lots of money and no family. He became interested in her, which was hard to come by and said she would take care of her family as if it were his.
It was out of necessity, it wasn't love, her heart always belonged to other person.
Bella's grandmother didn't know the Thomas Shelby that Bella knew.
[author's note]
Hi! Welcome to "7 Rings"! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and also thank you for the comments and votes!
Tommy is a difficult character to write, I hope I have been able to write it truthfully hehe 😂 I'm having a lot of fun even though the story is in the beginning!
Thank you and see
you in the next chapter!