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"You alright, love?" Polly asked as Matilda approached the group, noticing the anger that was radiating off of her. "You look like you're about to go fucking ape shit, what's happend?"
Matilda placed her head on John's shoulder as she took a deep breath trying to contain her emotions. "Oi, who's upset you, eh?" John asked.
"Two fucking women, just offered 100 pounds for my fucking daughter." She spat, standing back up straight and looking at the group. "You're fucking joking, who was it!?"
Matilda shrugged, sitting down and lighting a cigarette. "Don't know and I don't particularly care. Told Tom to get them out my house before I cut them a smile from ear to ear." She snarled, zoning out into her own thoughts.
"I'm sure they didn't mean much by it, I'm sure they were just trying to be friendly." Linda, Arthur's new girlfriend butted in.
"I don't particularly give one single fuck if they were trying to be nice Linda, no one speaks about my fucking daughter like she's a doll up for sale." Matilda spat, looking directly at the other woman.
Esme and Ada walked over to the group, sensing the tension from the other side of the room. "What's going on?" Ada questioned, looking between Linda and Matilda.
"Nothing." Matilda mumbled, looking from Linda to her two best friends. "It's my fucking wedding day, I ain't gonna let daft fuckers ruin it." She stood, putting her cigarette butt out into an ash tray.
The group watched Matilda away before looking back to Linda. "Wonderful thing to fucking say, Linda." Polly rolled her eyes, knocking back a whisky.
••••••
The night had ended, everyone had left the Shelby home, apart from some of the family who had passed out in the guest rooms. Matilda was exhausted, pregnancy was really taking a toll on her, and the wedding had wiped her out.
"Evie's asleep." Tommy mumbled, slipping into bed behind Matilda, her back pressed against his front. "I love you." He whispered, kissing against her neck.
Matilda smirked at his words, flipping herself to face her husband. "I love you too, Mr Shelby."
Tommy leaned closer, closing the gap between them with a soft kiss, his lips lingering on hers as he looked into her eyes. "Im having someone come to the house tomorrow to discuss some business, so if you see him before I do, you haven't got to panic."
"Who is it?" Matilda questioned. Buisness hadn't been discussed around Matilda a lot since they had found out she was pregnant, so she was confused as to why Tommy was informing her.
"Alfie Solomans. He's no threat to us, just need to talk about some things." Matilda nodded at his words, feeling her eyes begin to grow heavy. "Go to sleep, love." Tommy kissed her forehead making Matilda smile to herself as she closed her eyes, allowing herself to fall into a deep sleep
••••••
"Mrs Shelby." Matilda looked up at Francis, stood in the door way of the sitting area. "There's a man here to speak to Mr Shelby. Should I let him in?"
"Thank you, Francis. I'll go to him now. Watch Evie for me, will you?" Matilda smiled as Francis nodded, standing up and walking to the entrance of their home.
"Mr Solomon's." Matilda spoke, the man turned, a grin on his face. "Mrs Shelby! Good to finally meet you, yeah." Alfie took Matildas hand in his as he introduced himself.
"Good to meet you, follow me I'll take you to Thomas." Matilda turned and began walking in the direction of Tommy's office, her hand placed on her small bump.
"I've heard you and Tommy are with child, aye? That's beautiful that is. Yeah." He nodded to himself making Matilda smile. "We are, thank you."
Matilda got to the door of Tommys office, not bothering to knock as she opened it, making her way in. "Ah, Tommy! Good to see you, mate."
"Alfie." Tommy nodded to the man, a small smile on his lips. "Drink?" He offered, pouring himself one. Matilda sat in the chair besides Tommy, making herself comfortable.
"Yeah go on then. Let's talk about Changretta then, yeah?" Alfie sat, taking the glass of whiskey off of the table.
"Tilly, you can go, love." Tommy lowered his voice as he turned to his wife. "No, let her stay, nothing you need to hide from her is there?" Alfie spoke. Matilda looked from Alfie back to Tommy with a smirk.
Tommy raised his eyebrows and turned back to Alfie. "Right, well you said you had some information on him to start." Tommy lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"Yeah, well, him and his little lost puppy came to me and asked me if I could train his men to kill you, mate. He was a cunt about it, thought his little accent and tooth pick scared me the silly twat." Alfie rolled his eyes. Matilda smiled to herself as she flicked threw the newspaper, liking the man already. He was upfront and funny, just like her in some aspects.
"And you agreed?" Tommy questioned, staring at Alfie intently. "Course I did, just thought I'd tell you first to see if you'd be alright with it, mate." Matilda burst out laughing at Tommy's unamused face and stood up to leave.
As she opened the door she giggled to herself. "You might be me in a man's body, Mr Solomans." She said before shutting the door behind her.
Alfie looked from the door back to Tommy. "She's got a sense of humour on her, that one." Alfie grinned, making Tommy crack a slight smile himself.
"That she does."
••••••
Tommy smiled at his wife and step daughter as they lay on the bed together, Matilda laughing as Evie pointed at her stomach, mumbling incoherent words to herself.
"You exciteded to have a sibling, Evie, eh?" Tommy sat at the foot of the bed making the child scramble over to sit in his lap. "She's going to be the best big sister." Matilda smiled over at Tommy, who placed a kiss to evie's blonde locks.
