Love and Lies • 𝑇𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑏𝑦

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Economic League, Russian aristocrats, Blackmail, Robbing a train full of weapons.

Even though Liena stood in front of a mirror, finally wearing the wedding dress she and her mother had designed - she couldn't think of anything but the world crashing down on everything she and Tommy had built over the last two years.

She glanced at the dresser on the other side of her and Tommy's room. It was decorated with framed photos of their last two good years together - starting with their holiday in Shanghai.

They'd needed a story for their relationship, and they'd found one. His family had known her as Celia once, so they'd told them that was the English name she'd chosen when she'd first left China. When she'd disappeared from their lives the first time, Tommy had stayed tight lipped, only offering (she left the country) as an explanation. So after the success at the Epsom races - with Shelby Company Limited thriving - he'd told his family that he was going to visit her.

From that lie, she and him had spent four months in China, where she'd found her mother. Ann Lihua had moved to Shanghai in the time Liena was away, but she was still the woman Liena remembered.

Liena hadn't been sure what she was going to say to the woman who raised her, even though she'd had months to prepare. But when her mother had opened her house door, she'd taken one look at her daughter, and it was like she saw every secret in her eyes, every single thing she'd done that she wasn't sure she was ever going to tell her mother. It made Liena realise that she didn't have to say anything, because the truth was already evident, and lying would've been an insult.

Introducing Tommy had been a whole lot harder. Her mother had never been one who hid what she felt - and from the look on her face every time she looked at her fiance, it was obvious she didn't like him. But that hadn't stopped her from travelling back to Britain with them.

When they returned - with documents from Mr Churchill that proved she was, and had always been Ann Liena - Tommy had told his family he'd brought her back to marry her, and she'd gotten the same cold reaction her mother had given Tommy.

It was almost funny - Lihua didn't like or trust Tommy, because every second with him made it obvious he was a dangerous man - and the Shelby's didn't like or trust Liena, because every second with her they could feel there was a lie they were being fed.

Over time, some of Tommy's circle warmed to her - Ada, Karl and Arthur in particular. John still kept his distance, but was no longer as brash as he used to be. But like how Lihua stayed fixed in her dislike for Tommy, Polly stayed in hers for Liena.

A year, and four quiet Churchill sanctioned assassinations later, she was at her wedding day, feeling like she was going to vomit. Work for Churchill had lulled like it usually did from time to time, then he'd dropped a new task on them. A new task from him and a new paymaster - the Economic League - asking them to plan and carry out the robbery of a train full of weapons, under the threat of hanging for Tommy, and his family's past sins.

They were sins that she had no ties to - Churchill had told her. He'd also told her he'd made sure the history he'd written for her was clean and air tight - but that didn't calm her fear. Fear that someone would break through the air tight seal and see that the things the Shelbys did were nothing compared to the damage she'd caused. Then they'd have everything they needed to truly destroy the Shelbys, because here she was about to permanently tie herself to them.

Their sins they could survive - she'd help them - but could they survive hers?

"Liena." Her mother's voice came from the other side of the door before it opened. Name was dressed in an elegant gown, with her hair knotted in a low neat bun.