Heavy is the Head ||A Peaky Blinder Fanfic||

17| The New Boss

She discharged herself from hospital the next morning. George offered that she could stay with them, having heard that her own house in Small Heath was out of bounds to her. She accepted the offer gratefully.

Mollie May loved it at George's house in the countryside. Often, she took long walks along the little dirt paths, through the wide, open fields, sometimes through the forest behind the house. Benedetta was good company when George was working, even when Mollie May didn't feel like talking.

Since the night at the warehouse a couple of weeks ago, Mollie May was very quiet. It took her a while to get use to only having seven fingers, but that wasn't so bad. The scar on her face wasn't the worst thing either, the doctor said it would probably be permanent, but that didn't bother her. The bruises on her neck and down her side were sore, but the thing that kept her awake at night was the absence of Leon's ring.

She kept going to twist it on her finger, frowning when she remembered it wasn't there. Leon was gone, officially now. She went back to the warehouse to look for it a few days after she discharged herself from hospital, but the ring was long gone. An empty, bottomless void filled her heart and stayed planted there firmly, no matter how many times she tried to shake it.

One night when George came home, he told her that he had spoken to both Aldinio and Lippy. He apologised on their behalf, but Mollie May waved him off, "It's fine." was all she muttered. "It's not fine. There are consequences for their actions. Lippy and Aldinio turned on one of their own with no firm proof or evidence. They can't be trusted."

"Yes, they can. They were right to try and kill me. I vouched for John Shelby and no matter what he did, there was no punishment. They were sticking to the code; they did what they thought was right." And she got up and left, pulling her coat on and headed to her car to go for a drive.

She stayed with the Kings for another month until her birthday. Benedetta baked a miraculous cake which was big enough to last for a whole three days. Their gift to her was quite amazing. After dinner, George handed her a tiny, little blue box. It was wrapped up in a silky white ribbon which came off easily in her hand. She opened the box to find a set of keys.

She laughed, holding the keys up in her hand to admire them, "Eh, keys are good." She told them hesitantly. "Don't you want to know what those keys are for?" Benedetta asked her with a smile. Mollie May nodded.

"3 Kings Road." George recalled the address, "I know you've been looking for a place of your own and I thought the address was quite fitting. Come on and we'll go check it out, we can move your stuff in later this week if you'd like." Mollie May exhaled with a growing grin and bewildered look. "You bought me a house!"

"Yeah well, I bought it, Benedetta picked it. It was a team effort." She pulled them both into a hug. Nobody had ever gotten her anything as expensive, or big, in her whole life. None of the Shelby's had even wished her happy birthday. She told herself they'd just forgotten, trying to ignore the fact that Tommy had ordered everyone not to go near Mollie May.

The house was very similar to the Kings house. A little cottage that had plenty of space and although it was nowhere near the size of Tommy's house, it was more homely. It had a cozy thatched roof which seemed to swallow the top of the house. A grand, but simple wooden door stood proudly under a climbing rose. The window shutters were painted a subtle blue, which leaped out at her from against the stone walls.