BRUTAL LOVE || JOHN SHELBY

Chapter 22

2 Years later

It was a very sad day in the Shelby household today. Freddie Thorne was dead. Pestilence took him away from his family too soon. Everyone in John's household were getting ready that morning for Freddie's funeral.

John and Libitina had their first baby together, the baby was a girl and they named her Nesrin-Rose Shelby. She was a beautiful little girl, getting her blue eyes and plump pink lips from John and brown hair from Libitina. This pregnancy was very hard for Libitina but she was so happy that she got a beautiful little girl from it with the love of her life.

When all the kids were done getting ready the family headed out their front door, meeting the rest of the family outside. Libitina walked up to Ada and gave her the biggest hug, she didn't say anything to her though, knowing Ada would be hearing the 'I'm sorry for your loss', 'He was a good man', shit all day. Libitina couldn't even imagine how Ada was feeling in this moment, but she promised herself she would help her sister-in-law through all of it, no matter what.

The Shelby family made their way down to the grave yard, seeing all of Freddie's communist friends there already. They all huddled in one group around Freddie's casket.

"...Give him peace. Amen." The priest said before handing things over to Tommy.

Tommy walked forward and started to speak. "I promised my friend, Freddie Thorne, that I'd say a few words over his grave if he should pass before me. I made this promise before he came me brother-in-law, when we were in France, fighting for the king."

"Amen." Arthur stated.

"And in the end, it wasn't war that took Freddie." Tommy started. Nesrin started to cry in Libitina's arms so Libitina passed her to John, making Nesrin stop crying.

"Come here, sh-sh-sh." John calmed down his little girl.

"Pestilence took him. But Freddie passed on his soul and his spirit to a new generation before he was cruelly taken." Tommy finished.

Everyone said their goodbye's to Freddie's grave and parted into their little groups. Libitina was standing with John and their kids before the kids went and played with Karl, leaving just Libitina, John and Nesrin in John's arms, quiet as ever.

"Told you she liked me better." John joked to his wife.

"Yeah, okay John, you can look after her then." Libitina said back.

"Okay Lib, no need to get annoyed with me." John said, wrapping Libitina into him and Nesrin.

"It's just so fuckin' hard. When I started to look after your kids when Martha passed it was easy, Harry wasn't as much as a pain as Nesrin is, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong." Libitina spoke truthfully.

"Hey Lib, it's alright. It gets better over time, trust me alright?" John pleaded with her, Libitina just nodded not knowing what to say.

"I'm going to go visit Martha. Come get me when everyone's going back to the Garrison." Libitina said walking away from John, not giving him time to say anything back.

Libitina walked a couple of steps through the graveyard, arriving at Martha's grave. She sat down next to the gave stone and leaned her head on it, seeking comfort.