Created by the devil

Empty future.

The warm water hugs her curves in every way. The coldness of the iron bath gives shivers on the back of her head as she leans against it.

She tilts her leg and rinses it with a sponge. Placing her foot back in the water, she sighs out loud with pleasure. The steam, caused by the warmth of the bath, dances around the room.

She tilts her head backwards and curses at the ceiling. Not a second later, does she dip her head under water, the silence engulfing her. 

Not long before, was Gia still reunited with her godson in the Shelby resident. Someone's came to get him, like agreed.

It broke her heart to let the young boy go to a home that doesn't bring him comfort that he needs. All the stress isn't good for her and the baby, which she knows and feels.

Gia tries to play it off and be more than what people expect from her, but at the end of the day, she just wants to be able to breathe once in a while.

A sudden bark from Stella, makes her sit up directly in the tub. The dog lies back down, making her do the same.

She inspects her hands that are against the sides of the tub, they've become wrinkly, her body deciding for her that she'd need to get out soon enough.

The door slowly opens and closes. It stays silent for a moment behind her, when suddenly the grounds cracks as he makes his way towards her.

The sound of a chair creases against the wooden floor. He sits down behind her, tilts his sleeves up and picks up a can. 

She follows the moves of his hands and the can that he fills up with water from her tub. His hand slides over her back before he lets the water run down it slowly.

He does it once more bfore putting the can down and kissing her neck. She hums in response which makes him kiss her shoulder and almost lean his whole head on it after.

This is what her life will be like, silent answers, excuses and thank you's. She weirdly accepts it easily. She lifts her hand from the side of the tub and places it on his cheek. 

Disturbing thoughts make her turn around. "Promise me you'll try your best not to get yourself killed tomorrow." She half-heartedly jokes.

Now, nose to nose, both Tommy and Gia can see how unsure they both are of going to the Epsom. He would be lying if he said he was a hundred per cent sure he would come back to her.

His silence makes her place both her hands on his cheeks and pull him even closer "Promise it. Promise you'll always find your way back to me."

He sighs and places his hands over hers. "I promise that if something is to happen, I'll come back. I'll come back in your dreams and thoughts, like you do in mine."

She closes her eyes as a reaction to his answer. "I'll see tou later." He kisses her forhead and stands up to leave the room, leaving the initimate comformity.

Gia sighs and get's up to get ready to go to Polly's house for, probably, the entire day. Something about Tommy's silence makes her not want to sit down in her office chair, look people in the eye and promise them an empty future.

She tried going to her mother, but seeing the woman without her father by her side breaks her heart in ways that make her even more silent.

And Tommy going back on the streets after Luca gave more men and options to Mr Campbell is the one thing that makes her bucket overflow.

It's like her head is pacing from left right but her feet can't seem to follow. Making neither Polly or Ada know what to do.

"Are you good?" Esme asks Gia, who can't concentrate on the conversation. "It takes a minute getting used to. After an hour you won't notice it." Polly intrudes as she looks over the news paper.

Gia finds herself looking through their eyes. She is acting childish, she scoffs  at her own actions. All these women are waiting for their husbands and children to come back, like during the war, but she's the only one seemingly losing her mind.

But the war is done, another thought surpasses. Why would they go back to their old ways?

Like an angel sent from heaven, Linda walks through the door waving the paper. The poor woman has been trying so long to look past the sins of the family to give Arthur a chance.

She throws the paper on the table for Gia to read. She clears her throat as she read, "Women for change."

"Who the fuck is Jessie Eden?" Gia throws the paper back on the table and places her hand on her stomach. Linda takes her gloves off and answers, "She works at the Lucas factory in Sparkhill."

Gia has heard her name before, but she can't put her finger on where exactly. Linda looks at the gears turning in the heads of the women and goes on, "She is gathering with other women in a pub at midday. They're going to talk about a protest in the near future for all the shit we women go through."

"Them bastards down there, having fun. Yet, me months gone sat here like a pudding." Esme speaks out loud.

Lizzie comes into the conversation saying, "Only one outside lavatory between the lot of us."

Linda puts another thing on the list "Not consulted." 

"Bend over a fucking desk." Lizzie stands up.

A silence rules over the women, who look at Polly to make a decision, "Never respected." She looks up at Gia and blows out the smoke of her cigarette.

"Lock the door, Ladies. We're out for today." Gia smiles and whispers, "Fuck it." She stands up with the keys in her hand and closes the door, leaving the men who came to bet, outside.

As she turns around she says to the women, who are already putting on their coats, "First, we've gotta stop somewhere."

Gia has tried her best to make sure that the women and men are treated equally in her enterprise, but that doesn't stop them to divide themselves. It might have taken twenty minutes of their time but it was worth it.

As Gia walks into her building she yells, "For all ya women, get ya bags and coats, we're going out." A man who stands close to Gia asks "What about us?" She answers as she's walking  out, "Guess you'll have to be on your own today, honey."

With a name as big as Gia's it's sure to cause attention. But right now what other people think of her was the only thing on her mind. She wants change to happen, she always did, but it doesn't stop it from being scary.

You would think that with a name like hers and the fact that during the war she was the only person standing, that she would have recognition. Maybe in a perfect world, she would.

But on this exact day that isn't the case. The thought was on her mind that when her son is born he would have more rights than her the moment he came out of her womb. She who carried him for nine months, she who will support him financially, and she who will love him for the rest of his life, will not have as many rights for the simple fact that she's just a woman.

That's if he's a boy. If she's a girl, she will already be doomed by the second that she's into this cruel world. Her decisions will already be made. She has to go for her child and family but also for the women who were too scared to speak up for themselves. She wanted to live, not just survive.