Sinbound

(8) The Abuse

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tommy asks, shutting the door to Alex's office.

"Tell you what?" Alex responds.

"Fucking hell, where do I start? Ada being with Freddie? Ada being pregnant with Freddie's child? The letters attached to your door? Why are you so insistent on keeping things to yourself?" Tommy questions, "anything else I should know?"

"Ada asked me not to," Alex shrugs, "I told her I wouldn't tell you, so I didn't. It's that simple."

"The letters?" Tommy asks.

"It's things I've been called my whole life, it's not the big deal you're making it," Alex states.

"Someone telling you to die isn't a big deal? Someone knowing where you live and feeling okay to stick slanderous notes to your door isn't a big deal?" Tommy says, "wake the fuck up, Alex."

"Drop the attitude," Alex warns.

"Alex, for fucks sake," Tommy sighs.

"Why is it such a big deal to you? I told you it doesn't matter to me and to drop it," Alex replies.

"It matters to me," Tommy says, "it matters to me that someone is doing this to you. It's not okay. So no, I'm not going to drop it. I'm going to do what you should want to do, find out who it is and put a bullet in their head!"

"I thought we were reducing the killings," Alex remarks.

"Alex, don't," Tommy says, "just stop. Start fucking caring about yourself more, and stop getting angry at us for caring about you."

"You're whole argument for reducing the killings is so that I don't go to jail, what about you? Care about yourself more, Thomas, you don't need to do anything about this, not worth risking jail," Alex replies.

"I'm not doing this with you," Tommy states, "can't you fucking see that this is not okay? It is not something someone should feel no consequences for. Imagine it was someone else they were doing it to, eh?"

Tommy knew what he was going to say was going to hit a nerve, but he didn't care.

"Imagine it was Ada. Someone sticking a note or the door calling her baby a bastard. Would it not matter then? Would you still not fucking care? Do you care about anything?" Tommy states.

"Get out," Alex states, her tone deathly calm, as she looks at him, a dangerous glint in her eye, "get the fuck out."

Maybe he'd struck the nerve too hard. Because this Alex. This is the one he'd heard about. The one with a manic look in her eye, staring down at a person as if they were prey and she a predator. It was like something or someone else overtook her. He wasn't going to lie, it did scare him.

Tommy nods slowly, removing himself from the room. He'd never seen that look in his sister. But lord knows he'd heard about it.

Alex's hand clenches around the armrest of her chair, his words repeating in her head.

'Do you care about anything?'

What a fucking joke.

She may not show it, but she cares for her family shitloads. She cared for them so much that she didn't even fight their father back when he almost killed her, purely because she didn't want anyone else to feel the brunt of his drunken anger.

There were multiple times she'd just let him beat her, all because she didn't want him to go after them. And Tommy has the nerve to ask whether she cares about anything.

And just like that, it was like she was a teenager again. Her eyes were blank as she stares at the wall in front of her, memories flooding her mind.

'Nobody will ever care about you, what good could you possibly do for them? Nothing. You are worthless," Arthur Shelby snr sneers, tightening his grip on the chunk of Alex's hair, as he strikes her across the face again.