The Runaway • 𝑇𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑏𝑦

23

The Runaway
Chapter
23

season 1
↳ episode 6
Part 2

♕♡︎♔

     Charlotte knows she should be rushing home. Going to the Bull Ring with the rest of them, but she can't bring herself to move. Her mind reels at the betrayal.

     Someone had ratted them out to the Inspector. Someone had helped him find those guns and lay out the perfect plan to sabotage them all.

     The same someone who had given up her information to help lure Theo here.

     Someone who had been one step ahead of them, and they had all been too blind to see it.

     It all came back to that one person.

     Charlotte had been so wrapped up in Theo arriving to town that she forgot all about her suspicions.

     Her eyes move to look to Grace who stood at the other end of the bar, looking around anxiously. Charlotte's eyes focused on her.

"They're the ones who helped me find you in the first place. Their operatives are quite good at getting information."

     Charlotte recalled Theo's words from the day before. The way he said them, it was as if he knew something she didn't. Perhaps he did. Turns out her suspicions the past few weeks had been right.

     She had been fooled again. Fooled by someone's kind words and friendly nature. Charlotte had shared things with Grace, seeing her as a mirror of herself, but that image was shattered now. Just like any residue of their false friendship from all these months.

     As Grace turns her head, eyes catching on Charlotte's, she knew that she knew. That she had found her out.

     Charlotte stays in place as Grace quickly moves her eyes from her own and walks past her to get her things hung in the back.

     Charlotte stands there absorbing it all as disbelief and anger fill her. An anger so hot that all she could see was red. Red from the betrayal, red from the lies, red from the blood that had and will be shed because of her.

     Harry takes a step upstairs, to clear everyone out, leaving Charlotte and Grace alone. Charlotte uses this moment to confront Grace.

     "Leaving so soon, Grace?" Charlotte asks, startling her.

     "I heard there was trouble." Grace says, avoiding her eyes now as she ties her cardigan. Charlotte observes her.

     All this time, all these secrets and all these lies they both had. Keeping a tight lid on everything. Just for it all to come out and ruin everything for everyone around them.

     Well Charlotte was done lying. She was done with secrets and running from her past. It was time to face it, to face everything.

     "It was you, wasn't it?" Grace stumbles in surprise at Charlottes words. "You were the one who helped Campbell find the guns. The one who turned Freddie in. The one who betrayed Tommy." Grace swallows nervously.

     "The one who lead him here." Charlotte finishes.

     She was the only one who could have given what little insight on her life back in America, and if she passed that insight to the Inspector... Who knows what he could have dug up on her as a means to their own ends.