1922

You had been Ada’s friend for years. One of those quiet yet deep friendships, built through complicit glances and long conversations by a window. You had always been different from the other women who wandered through Birmingham: you loved poetry, though you were never good at reciting it; instead, painting was your refuge. You portrayed the people you loved as if you feared forgetting them one day, as if charcoal and paint could fix them forever in the world.

For years, you had liked Thomas Shelby. Not as a naïve fantasy, but the way one watches a storm from afar: with fear, respect, and fascination. He was your best friend’s brother, a gangster, a man made of sharp silences and cruel decisions. And yet, something about him drew you in. Perhaps because you, too, were the kind who stepped away at parties, who preferred observing rather than participating, who found beauty in solitude.

Thomas found you interesting precisely because of that. You weren’t loud, you didn’t seek attention. While the others laughed too loudly and clung to his arm, you stayed on the margins, as if the world never quite belonged to you. That intrigued him. You reminded him of himself, before war and blood had hardened him.

That night, the Garrison was full. Cigarette smoke mixed with the smell of cheap whisky, laughter crashed against the walls, and the music made the floor vibrate. Men danced clumsily, women spun in dark dresses and painted lips. Everything was noise.

And you were standing at the edge of the dance floor.

You weren’t dancing. You weren’t drinking. You were watching the old chandelier hanging from the ceiling, swaying slightly, as if it, too, doubted it would remain there. Your fingers toyed with the edge of your coat while your mind drifted into thoughts no one else could hear.

“Do you think it’ll fall?” a voice said behind you.

Thomas Shelby was standing beside you, watching the chandelier just as you were, cigarette between his fingers and that sharp gaze of his. He didn’t look at you right away. That calmed you.