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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I just really love writing, okay?
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
How did Kizzie know?
This was the question that everyone in the family asked. Silently. Even saying the name "Kizzie" was enough ammo to send Tommy into a tirade.
He was a volcano ready to implode. Part of him knew, always, that one day Kizzie would find out. He just never knew it would come so quickly. In the middle of a war and in the middle of her life on the brink from being taken from him.
Everything he did, he did for her.
Not Grace, Charlie, the rest of the family. Why couldn't she understand that? Accept that?
Tommy was no monster. He wasn't.
"Open the door," he demanded, banging on her locked door again. "Open the fucking door, Kizzie!"
She had not left her room since their fight. Three days ago. No one was able to get her to speak. Tommy tried every day, every moment he had a chance. Before the blow up, he was going to tell her about Lizzie. About her being pregnant with his child. Now, Kizzie may not find out until the baby is out of Lizzie.
Behind Tommy, Ozzy rested his back against the wall. He was in the dark, literally and figuratively. He had no fucking clue what happened. When he entered the house two mornings ago, the energy shifted, shattered. No one spoke about it. No one spoke to Tommy if they could help it. Ozzy didn't like not knowing. He didn't like feeling like he did not have the right.
Tommy kicked Kizzie's door. It rattled on its hinges. He did it again and the wood splintered.
"Sir—"
This was a bad idea. Whatever had Kizzie upset before, the breaking of her door would not do Tommy any favors.
"Kizzie!"
Tommy entered her room, shoulders hunched and squared like a police officer searching for a murderer.
He started at her armoire, a tiny thing with just one door. Moved away clothes and found no sign of her. "Kizzie!"
A thin section of drywall and a door separated Kizzie's room. Was Tommy's on the opposite side? Ozzy didn't know the house very well. He was rarely allowed upstairs.
Her small bed was twin-sized with a pink comforter.
"Kizzie!" Tommy stood in the center of the room, out of breath. The lone window opposite her bed was open. The lace curtains swung gently from the breeze.
She must have gone by Alfie's... Hopefully without issue.
Tommy looked under the bed and angrily pulled up the comforter. "Her bag's gone."
She definitely went by Alfie.
Ozzy did not immediately follow Tommy out her room; he moved to quickly and the movement made Ozzy dizzy. He also dreaded being asked to drag her back from Alfie's. Because, even though Ozzy wasn't on the Italian hit-list, he was still allied with the Blinders. They would kill him without a second thought. Or kidnap him, torture him for information, then kill him.
He told Kizzie that he wanted his death to be peaceful, and he was doing everything possible to make that happen. Still, he wasn't sure he could reject an order from Tommy, especially not an irate Tommy.
"Shit," he whispered into the empty room.
With quiet steps, he left Kizzie's room and followed Tommy's voice into the kitchen.
"Take a seat, boy," Polly ordered. "You look ready to die." She poured a glass of water and set it beside the empty chair beside the wall. "More than usual."
"Thank you," Ozzy said. He did not fight her. Did not tell her that he wanted to be anywhere but here. He wanted to lay in his dark flat and feel sorry for himself while the world burned outside his windows.
He chugged the water and closed his eyes. He recently took to meditation. It...helped. He couldn't fully explain why. But the silence of his mind temporarily soothed the physical pain he was in.
Ozzy pretended to sleep while Polly and Tommy spoke beside him.
Polly lit a cigarette and inhaled before speaking. "She's not stupid, Thomas." As much as he maybe did believe so. Polly was convinced now more than ever of that. "She will return."
"You don't know that."
She smiled. "Call it a hunch." Kizzie and Tommy were tied by the soul. One could not be far from the other for too long. But Polly was glad that she was holding her own; she could have a life—a meaningful life—without Thomas breathing down her neck. He needed to understand this too.
"I need more than that, Pol."
She ashed her cigarette. Just days ago, she, along with the family, watched Kizzie explode on Thomas. With reason. Everyone, even Arthur, disapproved of the deputyship. "You really put yourself as her deputy?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"I am a mother, Thomas. Try me."
Thomas lifted his hands—they shook—and cupped them together. "She was so small when she was born. But even before that, when my mother was pregnant, Kizzie responded to my hand on the stomach. Her little hands pressed against the womb and I just fucking knew, Pol...I knew she was going to be special." He blinked away the memory, but it was swiftly replaced with another. "Then she came out second, after Finn. I insisted on being in the room."
Polly shook her head. "I didn't know that."
"Arthur and John were out drunk celebrating. Ada was still too young. My father was...somewhere. Probably out drinking, too. Mom needed someone there with her."
"Your mother told me Kizzie cried nonstop."
"Yeah. Until—"
"Until you held her."
Tommy shook his head and curled his fingers until they made fists. "I never wanted to take care of anything more than when I held her the first time."
Polly wasn't around much before their mother died. She had her own life, her own children. And her relationship with her brother was far from perfect. Part of her would have loved to see the magic unfold between Tommy and Kizzie. Polly wondered if at birth the girl could see colors. Maybe that was why she cried so much.
"I don't regret what I've done," he admitted. "I'd do it all over again."
The phone began to ring. Polly pushed Tommy down when he went to stand. Ada answered, out of breath.
"Hello?... Kizzie?...Oh, god, we've all been worried sick..."
Tommy flung himself off the chair and ran into the next room. Ozzy nearly fell out his chair at the sound. He blinked away his fear and rubbed his good eye.
"Kizzie?"
Ada's worried eyes bulged when he entered. "Okay...And you're safe?...Good...I—"
Tommy took the receiver from Ada. "Kizzie."
The line was silent until the dial tone rang in Tommy's ear.
Author's Note:
This author's note is a selfish plug of my HOTD work. If you just started getting into HOTD and are looking for new fanfics to read, I got three stories on my page. One of which I just updated today.
