Vive's POV
The sun penetrates through the curtains and causes me to wake up from a, finally peaceful sleep. When I look besides me I see Tommy already left. I look around his room, still a little disoriented from the sleep. Then I remember again... all the trouble from this morning. The good thing is that I don't feel sick anymore and I feel like I have back a bit of my strength.
I rub my eyes as I sit up in his bed. What shall I do now. I go out of Tommy's bed and make my way to my own room where my clothes are. While I'm getting dressed I hear high heels crossing around the kitchen downstairs. Must be Polly.
I take my boots to the bathroom and clean them both. Right now, I have one mission and that's to check on Arthur and apologize. Now I can think more clearly I'm even more embarrassed about my reaction last night. I won't be like my mother anymore, nor my father, from now on I will be like my brothers and that means I'm going to be a strong Shelby just like them.
I put on my shoes and go downstairs. The kitchen door is open and to my surprise I see Ada sitting on the table. She's drinking a cup of tea and as soon as she sees me she stands up from her chair.
When I see her standing up I'm in shock, she's huge, but in a really, really beautiful way. It's so weird to see her like this. She almost looks like a complete different person from the last time I saw her.
"Hey" is all I can bring out as I walk up to her.
"Hey Vive, god it's been a long time." She says while giving me a hug. I can't help but feel very awkward right now. I can't get my eyes off her belly too.
"What'd ya think eh?" she says while rubbing over her shirt with both hands.
"You look... different, beautiful" I respond, giving her a smile. It's getting so real now, the fact that there's going to be a new family member very soon.
"Come, have a seat." She says, pointing to the chair next to hers.
Then Polly walks into the kitchen straight up to me, pulling me into a hug with both arms while letting out a deep sigh.
"God, Vive. You scared me. Tommy told me everything about yesterday. You okay?"
I look at her in confusing. "Am I okay?"
"I'm not the one who got beat up... I'm fine."
She nods. "I know about Arthur, but I also know about you" giving me a look and pointing her finger in my face.
I feel myself already turning red again. I feel embarrassed and especially now Ada is here.
"I'm fine." I say, trying to close the topic.
"Are you staying here Ada?" I ask.
"For now" she responds, turning her gaze to the table again.
"Freddy needed to go out of town for a while, and since I'm close to my due date, I'd rather not be alone at the house.." As she says it, I hear a sad undertone.
"So, he won't be here when the baby comes?" I conclude.
She lets out a small sigh. "Probably not." giving me a fake smile. I can see she's hurt and although I don't have that much empathy for Ada in general, I feel bad for her right now. She doesn't deserve to be alone and what does 'out of town' means? That he just left? What can be more important than being with Ada right now?
There's an awkward silence in the kitchen, which makes me remember what I wanted to do in the first place. Go to Arthur. The clock in the kitchen says it's 4 p.m. I didn't expected it to be this late, so I have no time to lose.
"Ehm, can I go out? I want to see Arthur."
"You sure?" She gives me a questioning look.
"Why wouldn't I?" I respond.
No reaction.
"Alright, go." she finally says.
O-kay. She probably thinks he looks worse after the beating since she haven't seen him yet. I've seen worse in the past, such as my own body so wounds and blood are probably the two only things I'm not afraid of.
I give Ada a kiss on the cheek and go outside. As I make my way to my brother I think of all the things I want like to tell him. Of course that would be a sorry in the first place, but I also want to ask him if he can teach me some things... things he taught Tommy and John when they were younger. Might be helpful for me too.
I run up to The Garrisson as soon as it's in my sight, expecting him to be there. The door is open even though the sign on the door of the pub says CLOSED.
"Arthur?" I yell as I burst in, closing the door behind me.
When I walk further, I see him and Tommy both sitting on a couch in the corner. Arthur sits with his back to me and only Tommy looks up. On the table is his cap and a bottle of rum with two glasses. He doesn't seem surprised to see me. I suddenly feel like I'm interrupting something here and I feel there's some tension between the two of them.
I'm still standing in the middle of the bar, looking at Tommy. I'm pointing to the door "I... should I come back anot..." I try.
"It's alright, come'ere." He says. Already knowing what I wanted to ask. Arthur still hasn't moved and he doesn't bother to turn his head to me, which gives me an unsure feeling.
Instead of walking up to him, I decide to go to Tommy first as he gestures me to come to him a second time.
I walk around the table and take place next to him on the couch. There's still a deadly silence. I now can see Arthurs face half. He's staring at the wooden table, not giving my presence any attention. I observe him and Tommy to try understand what's going on here.
Deciding to make an end to this extremely awkward silence, I just start to talk, spitting out everything I want to say to him. I try to put on my sweetest voice, in case he's mad at me and that's what causes all of this tension.
"Eh, well, I wanted to see you because last night and this morning, I didn't really got the chance to say what I wanted to say to you. I'm really sorry that I didn't help you and.. I, I was just really scared myself but as your sister I should've helped you or at least got some help even though I'm little and probably not any kind of treat to those men. I didn't do the right thing and... it won't happen again. So from now on you can count on me."
I take a deep breath since I'm rattling like crazy and nervously twisting my fingers.
I want to tell him more but wait for some kind of reaction of one of them first.
Tommy lets out a deep sigh as he leans back in the couch turning his head to the ceiling. Finally Arthur brings his head up and his eyes lock on mine. The whole situation finally hits me when I look at him. Besides the gap on his head and the blue spots besides his right eye there's a huge red noose print covering his neck in a straight line from the left to the right side.
I'm confused for a moment, was it there this morning? Did they do this? No it can't, I'm sure his neck was fine this morning since I took a good look at him when he was at Johns... After John we all went home, me and Tommy were together, Polly wasn't home...
"Don't apologize to me..." Arthur mumbles so quiet I can hardly hear him. The things I just told him are suddenly completely non relevant as my eyes are now focussed on one spot. It takes me a while to understand how this might have happened and as soon as it hits me I feel the color fading from my face and my heart starts to race like crazy. I just can't bring out the words.
"Tell her what happened Arthur." Tommy says, pointing to his neck. Also annoyed by his silence.
Arthurs eyes are avoiding both of us again and he mumbles some things I can't understand.
"What?! Can't hear you Arthur?" I say loud, pointing to both of my ears. I stand up, stepping away from the table and from my brothers. Because of the anger that's building up in my body, I start to feel hot and sweat forms it on my forehead.
"You tried to kill yourself didn't you?" I spit out to him in disbelief and disgust. In my heart hoping he would tell me otherwise but the silence that continues confirms me being right. I let out a sigh, swallowing my tears away.
"I can't believe you, I honestly can't believe you. Why in hell would you want that?"
He still doesn't say anything and it absolutely drives me crazy. I feel like my heart is being ripped out at the moment.
"FUCKING ANSWER ME!"