Another Paradise | T Shelby

TWO - OLD TIMES

Blair felt like all the air had been snatched from her lungs before she had a chance to take a breath. The room felt cold all of a sudden and at that moment, the bright sun that was casting broken shadows through the glass disappeared behind a grey cloud, plummeting the house into heavy afternoon darkness.

"Frances," Thomas swallowed, "Could you give myself and Mrs Kennedy a moment, please."

"Of course, Sir."

Frances nodded eagerly and scurried out of the room, brushing past Tommy who stepped aside to let her out, closing the door behind her.

Blair was still frozen to the spot, the entire length of a drawing room between herself and Thomas who also seemed unable to put one foot in front of the other, or perhaps he didn't want to.

The last time Blair Kennedy had set eyes on Thomas Shelby, he had reached inside her chest with fingers like knives and pulled out her heart, tossing it to the side without even a glint of remorse in his eyes.

He'd left her sat at the table, a lump in her throat and a scattering of notes on a silver tray, enough to cover the bill without a tip for the waiter. Her eyes were drowning in tears but somehow, only a single one managed to roll down her cheek as she sat and stared at the candle on the table, watching the flame dance alone.

The way Blair felt like her world had stopped spinning when Thomas told her that he was done with their relationship because he'd found someone else was, up until she learned of her late husbands passing, the single worst pain she felt she could ever imagine.

It was as if everybody else in the restaurant vanished and she found herself alone in an empty room, the world passing her by without anyone noticing that she was still breathing, quietly existing in her own trapped version of a world that nobody else knew was just a pane of glass away from their own.

Her life had fallen away from her in one cruel, swift moment, at the hands of Thomas Shelby, who now stood in the same room as her for the first time since that day.

Blair never thought she'd ever see him again, and she didn't want to, either. She'd often thought about him, wondering what he was doing while she finally managed to build a life of her own without him. She thought about him when her husband left for France, wondering if he'd ever made it back home.

Though she never thought she'd get an answer.

"Frances said you're the best person we've interviewed."

Blair nodded, hearing her heart beating in her ears as each step he took towards her echoed against the high ceilings and canvassed walls.

"He's four, Charles. You'll need to teach him to read and write, all of that."

Swallowing, Blair looked up at Tommy when he eventually stopped walking, pausing six feet away from her with his hands in his pockets.

"Yes," Blair replied, "I taught in a primary school for a handful of years."

Tommy looked her up and down, not believing his eyes at first sight that Blair O'Hara, evidently married to a Kennedy now, was stood in his home. He was convinced he'd never see or hear from her again, and he had been right up until that moment.

"Your husband working around here?" He said, glancing down at the ring on her finger.

Blair instantly grabbed her hand, covering her fingers with her palm.

"No," she shook her head, "I'm widowed."

Thomas kissed his teeth, nodding slowly with raised eyebrows, "That makes two of us."