Not Just A 'Shelby'

Chapter 33

That night, the three stayed in the big room, drinking away the scenes that had happened just hours before. Everyone tried bringing up the mood for Dorthea, but nothing could help her from overthinking everything. From Lucas running back to Birmingham and telling her brothers, and them running back to Camden town to tear the place down looking under every stone for her just to be in the big bad gangster boss' mansion. She could see Thomas' face when he found out.

But that was the exact opposite of what Lucas had done.

Small Heath, Birmingham

The streets of Small Heath were silent, which was very odd for any night of the week. Nothing could be heard but the fires of those who worked through the night to provide for their families.

Through the silence came the crunching of tires on the gravel, the engine of a car overheating as he pulled up to the Grey residence.

Loud knocking could be heard through the house, disrupting the sleep of Polly. She came stomping down the stairs, swinging the door open to reveal Lucas Thorne. She was confused.

"I found her." Was all he had to say for Polly to pull him quickly into her home. She sat him at the kitchen table, moving through the room to make tea.

"Polly, I never even thought to look for her there. It's the most obvious place and we never thought of it." He spoke quietly to her as she sat two cups in front of him.

"Where?" She questioned, wanting to know but also hoping he would keep his knowledge to himself.

"She with her London friend. But her friend isn't just an ordinary woman. Her friend is the daughter of Alfie Solomons. And she's staying in his home." He looked down, picking at his fingers as he spoke, not revealing the part where he found Dotty and another man. He wouldn't burden Polly with her relationships.

"Have you told Thomas?" She questioned.

"No, I figured I would tell you first, since you were the last person she talked too."

"Well, you won't tell him. We don't need him going in there guns blazing to drag Dorthea kicking and screaming out." She sighed, rubbing the sides of her head.

"But we have to, we need to bring her back." He stood from his chair, pacing back and forth through the room.

"No! You will leave her be." She looked to a small picture on her wall. It was a picture of all of the Shelby siblings right before the war, before chaos. Just 6 kids living their lives in happiness.

"She'll come back when she's ready."

♛

"Dorthea, you may regret this. I mean it will grow back, but with time." Beth begged her friend. The two were sat in Beth's bathroom, Dorthea sitting on a stool in front of the mirror with a pair of scissors in her hand.

"I have changed everything connecting me to that place, this is the only thing reminding me of them. I need to do this." Pulling her hair down the front of her shoulders, it laid to her hips. She had never had her hair cut before, Tommy forbid her from cutting it. Ada cut hers as an act of rebellion when she was 9, after her and Tommy got into a fight about her talking to boys.

So here she sat, after almost 25 years of never cutting an inch of her hair, a pair of scissors would do the job in a matter of seconds.

Staring at her reflection in the mirror, without a thought she began cutting. She started at the bottom of her breast, and by the time she finished making everything straight it ended right at her shoulders. She looked at her work in the mirror, in awe of what she had done.