Gabriela's tale

Thirty-eight

It's been a week since Polly's funeral and nothing was the same anymore in any of us. Polly was a big part of our lives and seeing her go the way she did pained us deeply. 

I felt anger inside of me, because deep down I knew something bad was going to happen. This was the reason tommy wanted to get into politics, to get rid of Oswald, but he couldn't accomplish it so they came for one of us, just like the Italians did years go. 

I wasn't going to stay here and watch tommy do more damage until they come for the rest of us. 

"john?!" I called for him from inside. 

He's been quiet recently, with everyone. 

I walked outside to try and look for him, he was sitting out far on the field. He looked up at me with a light smile. I took a seat next to him on the field. 

"How are you feeling?" I asked him, as I wrapped my arm around his. 

"I've been better." he said. 

"Look, I've been wanting to talk about this since everything happened, but I just wanted to give it some time, and we just need to talk about this." I said, hoping for the best outcome of the conversation we were about to have. 

He looked over at me as he waited for me to continue. 

"You remember we promised if anything like this happened we were going to leave this life, leave this business and all this death behind us..?" he nodded as I talked. 

"We can't keep living like this. They once again came for one of ours. john and I'm scared to death that there's more to come. I can't let it happen again, not with our kids here close enough for anyone to just come and take."

I said, tears forming in my eyes. 

"I don't want to do this, I really don't, I love this family so much, but its for the best, if we want to grow old together and watch our kids grow up. We need to leave, john. We need to get out of this mess." I said. 

He looked down at his feet, not saying anything. 

"john, this is a dangerous life and We've known that since the beginning, but this is getting out of hand. I wanted to leave years ago, but I gave tommy the benefit of a doubt, but it fucking happened again. Our kids are growing older. Look at Katie and what a grown woman she's becoming. We need them to be safe. We need to be safe and in this house I feel anywhere but safe." 

"But what about Arthur? he's in bad shape right now." he said. 

"Arthur will get better, he's just grieving, like we all are. and Ada's still here, Finns a grown man now, he has other people other than you john, he just needs some time." I said. 

Once again we sat there in complete silence. 

"I love you to death, john. With my whole heart I love you, but if you're not willing to leave with us then I'm willing to separate, for the kids. I don't even want to think about doing that, but if you refuse than I'll have to." I said, clearing my throat, nervous on his reaction to that would be. 

"I promised. I promised that I would keep you and the kids safe and if anything happened again that we would leave. And I'm keeping that promise. I don't think I can do this anymore. Ever since the war it's all been fucking death around us. I can't keep doing this." he said, tears falling down his cheeks. 

"You don't have to anymore. We can move away far from here to a house just like this with a big field. You can work with horses or cars. We don't have to be like this anymore." I said, crying along with him. 

"We've got enough money for years. We just need to leave Birmingham." I said. 

"We will. Soon." he said, bringing me into a tight hug. 

"I love you." he whispered into my ear. 

"And I love you." I said, bringing him into a tight hug.

The conversation went better than I thought. I didn't want to separate him from his family, but we together have our own family and we can't keep putting them at risk. 

I myself don't want to leave. Ada.. Finn.. Arthur.. I don't want to leave them but its for our family, we need to leave before this all catches up to us..

and with that, i say this is the end of the story. I hope most of you stuck until the end well im sorry if it wasn't what you expected, but I think gabriela and john deserve a happier life somewhere else where they could start fresh. 

I'd again like to say thank you to everyone who read my story and really really appreciate it!! love you all!