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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Not edited.
CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED
He needed her for this.
Not to be in the room, no, Tommy would never let her succumb to such evil talks. And in a place of worship. A place, Tommy recently discovered, that abused children the same way she and countless others were abused before Tommy rescued her.
He was a coil of rusted and sharp metal. Polly volunteered to bring Arthur instead, but Tommy insisted. He knew that Polly saw in him a second chance in administering justice against those who hurt her.
Tommy was never fully convinced that she told him everything that happened at the hospital. She kept her secrets better than Tommy could have ever imagined. Things were easy when she was just a little thing—she wore her emotions on her sleeve. Tommy always knew when something was wrong.
Until he couldn't.
He lit a cigarette.
"We don't smoke in here," Mother Superior told him and Polly.
"Well, I fucking do." He couldn't look the woman in the eyes for too long. Otherwise, he'd reach across the table and beat her senseless. Just as he did to the doctors and staff who hurt her.
"Nor do we use language."
Polly exhaled smoke. "Nor do we find fault in the innocent, but you do. You fucking do."
The Mother Superior looked between them both, not yet fully afraid. "May I ask what this meeting is about?"
"The Grace Shelby Foundation is the biggest single source of funding for this charitable institution," Tommy told her, as Polly pulled out a thick folder. She slid it forward. "Devoted to the care of the orphaned girls of South Birmingham, yeah?"
"For which we give thanks."
"Uh-huh." Tommy pushed the folder further, unable to hide the shake in his hand.
"I have a temper," Polly began, "similar to the one described in that report. Yet unlike you, I wait until I'm matched in size."
"Whose report?"
"The testimony of children."
Tommy remembered the day when Polly finally confessed to him what had happened at the hospital. His lambkin, when experiencing an episode, was tied by her neck to a pole outside, in the dark for hours. Other days, she'd be forced to listen to the adults abuse the girls just beds away from her. Physically and sexually. She swore that she was never touched in that way, and Tommy believed her. Until the priest entered her life again.
"Who have they spoken to?" the Mother Superior asked, flipping open the folder.
"You'd only have them speak to God," Polly chided.
