Another love

Part Sixty - Five

Chicago

It was in the early hours of the morning when Sarah received a phone call from Ada to tell her that Michael had lost a large amount of their money, Sarah cursed at the situation before telling Ada that she'll try and sort out the Chicago office. When she got to the office everyone was in a state of havoc, she was unbelievably grateful to her assistant manager otherwise she would have had a meltdown. A few days after everything had calmed down Sarah had gone home and opened herself a bottle of wine, she stared at some of her pictures in her home and thought back to her previous conversation with Ada earlier on in the day when they had updated each other with everything, Ada had also passed on the message that Lizzie would be having a birthday party where a lot of associates would be, if she wanted to attend. Originally, Sarah had intended on not going, stating that she had too much going on over in Chicago due To the Wall Street crash, but the more she thought about it the more she realised that her managers were just as equipped as her if not more. It was in that moment that she decided to go back to England, she marched upstairs and started packing her suitcase, she then called Vera upstairs and told her to call her assistant and to tell him that she'd be going away for a while, and then told her to also pack her things, and that she was to come back to England with her, and just like that they left to catch a boat back.

Tommy

The stress of the Wall Street crash was becoming too much for tommy as he slid down the wall in the stables and closed his eyes, pulling at his hair as Sarah slid down the wall next to him, speaking softly "She's taunting you again isn't she?" When he didn't answer she pressed on "she wants you to join her? How selfish."

"Shut up! Shut up Sarah, You don't know what you're talking about."

"She wants you to end it all! That's not love. It's in your head."

Tommy just scoffed and looked at her "So are you."

Sarah pursed her lips and nodded at him "True."

"You can't pretend that we've never pushed each other to far, you said that yourself."

"We have. We were toxic at times, but we both know that nothing will ever measure up to this, no matter how much you pretend."

He considered her words and glanced at her face, squeezing her hand "It's different. I feel different things, you give me different things. You're both gone because of me."

"Well I'm still alive, but I see your point. Do you want me to come home?"

"Depends. Are you happy."

She blinked at him a few times before standing up and squeezing his shoulder "What do you think?"

"You don't want to know what I think" He smiled at her. Sarah just nodded at him and sighed as she started to fade away "Please don't go."

"Stay off the shit, eh Tommy? For me, for the kids. For yourself."

He reached out for her but just like that she was gone again.

Sarah

During one of their stopovers she realised that she hadn't informed Ada, she called her immediately but found herself disturbed from their phone call.

"Ada?"

"Where the hell have you been? I've called your places nearly a hundred times!"

Sarah rolled her eyes at Ada's dramatic exaggeration "Look it's fine! The office is under control and i-"

"Control? Why wouldn't it be? What's going on? Oh forget it! Look you need to get back here now, it's Tommy-"

"Ada I am that's what I'm-wait what about tommy?"

"Your on your way back?"

"Ada! Tommy! And be quick!"

"It's bad. He's having hallucinations of you and Grace and the other night he...he..."

"Ada?!"

"He nearly killed himself, to join grace. He thinks she's calling to him."

"That's-I mean- No I can't. Look I'm at a stopover now, I'll be in Birmingham six days tops."

"Be safe." Ada said before hanging up.

As Sarah joined Vera back in the boat all she could think about was why Tommy was imagining her, she knew that Grace was Tommy's true love and he was married to Lizzie raising their children so surely he couldn't possible have any more feelings leftover for her

Arrow House

"What did you do with my letter?" Lizzie asked

"I burnt it. So did Arthur." He declared casually.

"-Did you read it first?"

"-Yes."

"That's more than Arthur did."

"Didn't help that you can't fucking spell." Tommy spat out

Lizzie crossed her arms at his insult "I left school too early. Did you read the bit about the lawyers?" She pushed trying to get a reaction.

Tommy ignored her implied threat "Do you want to fuck?" When she glared at him he shrugged "Didn't think so."

She bit her tongue and persisted in trying to reason with him "-You don't want to eat?"

"-No."

"-You've got calls?"

"-Yeah."

"It's Ruby's birthday today, Tommy." Lizzie was trying not to let her voice shake "Do you know why I took her to Arthur's? Because she said she's scared of you. When she knows you're not coming home, she's a different kid. But I've bought a cake. And I want you there. We're in the drawing room." She told him firmly as she turned to walk to the door.

Tommy poured himself a drink and stared at her "Lizzie...I'm in a room..." she slowly turned to look at him "...and they're coming at me. It's OK. I want 'em to. Last thing I want is silence. Standing up there, in silence, and someone says....'Sorry about all that noise. Sorry about all that...dust. Sorry about all that mud. And all that fucking blood' And you say, 'Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry. It's all I can do now.' You want me to write this down? Do you want me to write you a fucking letter? Me and Arthur can't write it down...cos they haven't invented the fucking words" He said standing and putting his back to her "We don't have the fucking words. And the worst thing is...could've stayed at school. But we volunteered. Still don't have the fucking words." He gulped his drink down.

"Well you seemed to find the words for all the unsent letters you wrote Sarah."

Tommy raised his eyebrows and glanced over his shoulder at her "You went through my stuff?"

She ignored him and carried on "Should you choose to depart, Tommy, either by your own hand or someone else's, the person who would take your place is me. Legally. Financially. Everything. I need to know there'll be something left."

"Well, you know, Lizzie, in my head, I still pay you for it, so...good luck with me" he said turning round and sitting back in his chair "I have business." He said coldly as the phone started ringing and Lizzie left with tears in her eyes.

He stared at the phone before his eyes slid down to the top drawer of his desk where he kept them. The letters he wrote to Sarah but never sent. He opened the drawer and flicked through them and thought about all of the outcomes that could have happened if he'd sent them, but instead he only sent the one. Which truthfully wasn't exactly warm, it was a basic condolences letter with an offer to reach out to him if necessary. It was pathetic, and he knew it.

A/n - it's not edited and when I wrote it I had a reason for writing it this way but now I'm doubting myself, oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️ xx