Heart of Gold | B. Gold ✓

32 | Liked You Better

For Fawnie, it was like time stopped when Thomas finally spoke, "I do too." That confused her, maybe it was crazy for Fawn to think that Tommy knew all this time but... it made sense at the time. That he mistreated her because he regretted knocking Victoria up. But he didn't know-

That meant Polly kept it to herself for all those years, telling Fawnie she had to listen to her big brother and respect her brother. Only to be hiding the fact that Fawn's brother was her maker... everything suddenly made sense to the young woman. How Polly reacted to the leaves, it wasn't hurtful anymore, it made sense... somehow Pol saw her betrayal to Tommy and Fawnie in the leaves...

She saw how her great-niece was putting her nose in places she shouldn't. Polly knew that Fawnie had found the loose ends the older woman forgot to tie up... and then Pol tried to derail Fawn and her search by putting things in the girl's head. Or at least, Fawnie guessed as much.

And... how Pol was the one who pushed Tommy and Fawn to get along well the girl's whole life finally made a lick of sense. Polly must have suspected that the truth would come out eventually and tried to force a steady relationship before then so the father and daughter would have something to build off of... but all Pol did was push Fawnie toward John, her loving brother/uncle...

"You didn't know?" Fawnie finally vocalized her thoughts, "So Pol lied to us both- to us all..." It still boggled her mind, the man she grew to detest in the last year was her father. But Fawn tried to understand why Polly lied to the whole family, even Arthur Senior thought he somehow wound up with one child too many.

A deep breath sounded from the receiver, "I'm in London, I'm coming to the house so we can... talk." Of course, Tommy wanted to talk about the whole 'being her dad' thing, but if Fawnie was being honest, she didn't want to talk about it. She wanted nothing more than to brush it under the rug and live life as normally as she could.

"Bonnie's fight is tonight, Tommy."

"I know, we'll make it there in time."

"We?" She asked, surprised he came up with a plan of them going together that quickly.

"The family, Fawnie. Everyone should know."

Fawn cringed at that thought, "Why can't we keep it to ourselves for a bit longer? Who says Luca won't use it against you?" She swore she could hear Tommy's brain think through her questions.

"Fine." Thomas stated, "Don't leave the house, I'm on my way."

The young girl nodded, "Okay."

━━━━

The last person Fawnie expected to see with Tommy was her aunt Pol. Fawnie mustered up a smile as Polly hugged her great-niece. "I'm sorry I never told you, it was for the best, you know?" Fawn just shrugged as she turned to look at Thomas.

For the first time in a while, he forced a small smile at Fawn and she did the same. "Where do you want to talk about... this at, Fawn?" The fact that Tommy asked her made her nearly tear up.

She ignored the urge to cry and shrugged her shoulders once more. "Anywhere works, maybe away from the ears of the maids and all."

The trio of Shelby's wordlessly made their way into Thomas' office. Three generations all sat in one room when two of the later generations had no idea of said occurrence. It was weird for Fawnie and she assumed the same for Tommy. Believing one thing her entire life only to find out it was a complete lie made her head hurt.

Fawnie's hands were intertwined as she writhed them together nervously. She fought against the urge to chew on her nails as Polly began to speak.

"I wanted to tell you both one day... perhaps not during a bloody gang war but I suppose it is what it is."

Tommy sighed, "What are we to do, eh? The one fucker in this family I could stand is my child. Are we to just... go on with our lives or what?" Upon hearing Tommy's claim that Fawn was the only person he could stand... her jaw dropped.

"You've been a dick to me my whole life, what do you mean-" Fawnie exclaimed.

"I'm bad at a lot of things, Fawnie, I'm sure you know."

"Apparently showing love is one of them." Her sadness was turning into contempt, "Maybe if you weren't such a prick to me, I'd have liked you better, you know." That made Polly snort.

The older woman spoke up, "You were rather harsh to her, Tommy."

"I was only being careful, our dad- my dad, your brother isn't the most credible man. Who knows what he'd do to get back at us one last time."

Fawnie's eyes widened, "I was three years old!"

The father and daughter began arguing but Polly quickly shut it down, "Alright, that's about enough of that! We've come to discuss this like the adults we are and not to argue like children!" Fawnie looked down at her hands in anger. "First off, I apologize, I lied and it wasn't fair to either of you. And secondly, I'm about tired of you two fighting one another every other goddamn second! Even if you aren't siblings, you're still family and family ain't like that."

Matching shades of cornflower blue clashed when the pair looked up at one another. Thomas clenched his fists and Fawnie sniffed loudly, their staring match not ending. Polly sat down in the chair with a loud sigh, "Say something will ya?"

"What do you expect us to say, Pol? That we forgive one another and we're best buddies now, eh? Years of shitty behavior doesn't go away just like that." Fawnie snapped her fingers as an example, still looking at Tommy stoically.

Surprisingly, Tommy nodded in agreement, "Fawn's right, this changes nothing." Polly snorted out a laugh at Tommy.

"Of course it doesn't, you're not her father because you didn't raise her, John bloody did."

Fawn's jaw tightened as she looked away, "Aunt Pol, you raised me. John was like my fun uncle, ironically enough." As soon as the words left her mouth, Fawnie realized something horrifying, "Wait... does that mean Finn's my uncle too?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

I'm gonna do a double update since I guess I forgot to update on Tuesday? I remember posting the chapter but it's whatever. I honestly struggled with writing "the talk" between Fawinie and Thomas but I think I did okay <3