As the youngest Shelby child and twin to Finn Shelby, Kezia has spent the last 4 of her 10 years locked away for her mental defectiveness.
She returns to Small Heath under the legal guardianship of her brother, Thomas Shelby. Despite knowing she's s...
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Shamelessly promoting my new published story, a completed and original young-adult fantasy novel. The first two chapters are up now. I will update twice each week until finished. Please check it out if interested!
In the meantime, please enjoy this short chapter. I got my period and no longer want to metaphorically die.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Arthur said it before, and he would say it again: an angry Tommy was not something to be trifled with.
The man waited for Arthur and Linda as their car came around to park on the gravel driveway. Hands shaped like fists in his front pockets. Arthur didn't need to have spoken to him on the phone just before to know something very serious had happened. And this type of rage could only mean one thing: Kizzie was involved.
"Brother," Arthur tentatively greeted.
"Hello, Arthur." The greeting did not extend to his wife. "Come inside. We have something to discuss."
Arthur avoided Linda's heated gaze. Bile rose in his chest. He felt like a child caught between two fighting parents. And like a good boy, he did as Tommy asked and followed him until they reached his office.
"Inside," he told them both.
Arthur sat beside Linda. Her face betrayed no emotion. Damned woman had a master poker face.
"What is it, Tommy?" Arthur asked once his brother came to sit across from them. "What's goin' on?"
"Kizzie knows you tried to commit suicide, Arthur."
He went pale as a ghost and just as cold. "She...she what?"
Tommy motioned to Linda. "She knows because your wife told her."
Fire entered his soul, extinguishing any chill that was once there. "You fucking what?!"
"She had a right to know," was her only excuse. "And with how you have been acting, Thomas, I thought it best to say something. She was worried about you while in the hospital. She wasn't allowed to see you. High and injured as you were! She deserves the truth. You are unwell and under tremendous stress. If anyone can make you come back to your senses--"
"My sister never understood death, Linda. You just unleashed a bomb."
Linda tsk'd. "Oh, honestly. Had death been conveyed to her when she was a child, she would not have had this type of reaction."
Tommy shook his head, light but deadly. Like a snake before striking. "That was not your call to make."
"No," she agreed. "It should have been yours the moment Arthur survived his hanging."
"It's over," Arthur said, voice harsh and dry. "Linda won't bring it up again."
His wife looked at him with another fiery glare, but Arthur refused to look away from Tommy's harsh blue eyes. The man was just as angry with Linda as he was with Arthur--for not having a better handle of his wife.
Tommy suddenly stood. He was not a tall man, but God did he look every bit horrific and gigantic. He sauntered over to their chairs. Placed both hands on Linda's armrests, and leaned in to tell her, "Men have gone to war for their God. To protect and ensure they are heard... I was once told that my God is Kizzie... Do that again, Linda, and I will go to war with you."
