𝗂𝖿 𝖺𝗇𝗒𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗉𝖾𝗇𝗌. / P.B

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞.

— 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲𝐧.

Evie wrapped her arms tightly around herself, to keep the shivering and sniffling at bay, to hold herself together. Currently, the young girl was sitting on an uncomfortable metal chair just inside a police station, with only her thin blouse and a modest, cotton dress to keep her warm.

Moments ago, she had just identified the bodies of her parents, who themselves had just died in a motor car accident.

Evie was shocked that she'd come this far without collapsing, as silent tears still escaped her dead, brown eyes. All she could think about was the cold, dead bodies of her parents, lain side by side on the metal tables of the morgue.

Evie's hands gripped her arms until her knuckles went white, unintentionally trying to pinch herself out of whatever nightmare she was in. Just a fifteen year old girl, she was bound to be sent to an orphanage. That thought alone sent a shiver down her spine.

.
.

— 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐬.

The police chief in charge of her case, Sergeant Williams, was currently inside his office, working out a solution for Evelyn. At the moment, Williams was calling around to orphanages to look for a place for the traumatised, young girl, until he got a call in, all the way from Birmingham, it seemed.

"Hullo?" Williams enquired down the line.

"Is this the Sergeant in charge of the death of Mr and Mrs Stones?" came a deep and quiet brummie accent.

Williams was perplexed, but continued nonetheless, with suspicion. "This is him. To whom am I speaking?"

"Thomas Shelby. Evelyn Stones' cousin,"

"Cousin?" Williams was confused. When he'd asked Evelyn if she had any family he could call, she'd told him she was an only child, grandparents dead and her parents relatives were very distant.

"I am afraid to tell you that Evelyn was adopted. Dorothy and John Stones are not Evelyn's real parents," the assured and quiet voice continued, already assessing that an explanation was in order even without the Sergeant's direct say so.

Thomas Shelby then went on to explain the situation to the police chief, how Evelyn had been taken away from his aunt, Polly Gray, when she was just a baby. How they had to wait until she was eighteen to contact her again, but seeing as her adoptive parents had unfortunately passed away, that it was opportunistic and just to return Evelyn to her true and biological mother.

The police chief was suspicious, but assured when Mr. Shelby confirmed they'd be sending files to confirm what he was saying was true.

The files took a day and two to reach Hastings, where in which the police station had arranged for Evelyn to stay in a hotel. The files confirmed Evelyn's DNA and date of birth were aligned with a Mrs Polly Gray's, confirming the fact that Evelyn wasn't a 'Stones', but a 'Gray'.

Thomas had reassured the police station about travel costs as he would come down to collect Evelyn himself. All of this seemed sound proof and sorted, the only thing to do now was tell the grieving child that her dead parents, were not her real parents.

Sergeant Williams was on the job, and it was painful for him to watch sadness and confusion pour into the young girl's soulless eyes, as the truth of her parents and the situation she was in was told to her.

.
.

— 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲𝐧.

Evie could not believe what she was hearing. The people who raised her were strangers, and that she was originally from Birmingham. Evie slowly rested her head in her hands as Sergeant Williams told her that her biological cousin -a Mr Thomas Shelby- would be picking her up tomorrow, to return her to her real mother. Unless she'd prefer to go to an orphanage, she should pack her things.