To Fix a Broken Heart
Summary: She was broken, fragile and in pieces. Cora was a troubled girl who just happened to get involved with the Shelby family. No one ever asks for a dangerous life but when it's thrown at you, there are only two things you can do; let it engulf you or run away and she didn't want to run.
Greed and Sorrow
Edward waited for Cora to come down to join them for breakfast but with every moment that passed, his anxiety grew more and more ravenous. He didn't know what she would say to her father or what she was going to do next. The ball was in her court and he didn't think she was going to play fair; especially after their argument at the party and the short conversation they had last night. He wasn't sure what had gotten into her, Cora was usually compliant; the way he liked her, but this new side of her was ugly and it was going to swallow him whole if he wasn't careful.
"It's nice of you to join us." Norman said as he looked up at his daughter from over his newspaper. "What time do you call this?"
"It's still morning." She replied as she sat down across from Edward, she raised a brow at him and took a bright red apple from the basket beside her. "Is Julian not for joining us?"
"I've sent him on an errand." Her father replied as he resumed his reading.
"What a shame, there was something I wanted to talk to him about." She bit into the apple and turned her gaze away from her husband.
"Is it something that I should know about?" Edward asked her coyly. He knew she was trying to make him sweat and he wasn't going to play this game with her.
"I don't think so, it really doesn't concern you."
"Edward is your husband, perhaps you should speak about whatever it is you need to talk about."
"He may be my husband, but I didn't realise he was my keeper, father." She watched her father recoil at her comment from the corner of her eye and felt a sort of satisfaction drown her.
"Enough of your behaviour, what has gotten into you? First you get too giddy at the party and now you're answering me back?" Norman shook his head at her, he didn't recognise his daughter. "Well?"
"If you really want to know, Edward is,"
"Cora, perhaps we should have a moment alone?" he interrupted abruptly, his heart pounding heavily in his chest.
"I think that might be a good idea. I'll leave the two of you alone and finish my breakfast in my room." Her father picked up his plate and his paper and left the table as quickly as his legs could carry him, grumbling under his breath, "Perhaps I'll get a bit of peace."
Edward waited for a few minutes until there was no one within earshot. "Were you really just going to blow my secret out of spite?" when she shrugged her shoulders at him as if it was nothing, his anger reared its ugly head. "You're a spoilt brat, aren't you? I am your husband whether you like it or not and you'll do what I say."
"You're not going to be married to me for much longer, Edward. So, you can throw your weight around all you like because it's going to mean nothing in a month's time."
He knew that he wasn't going to get Cora's good graces anytime soon but he did know that she loved money a little bit too much; she was like her father in that regard but he didn't know if he could pander to that greedy little monster inside her and come out to tell the tale. It was worth a shot if it meant his secret remained secret.
"You'll get a few thousand pounds out of me in a divorce, but wouldn't you rather have more?" he could see by her face that he had her hooked on his words. "For every year that we remain married, I'll give you five thousand."
Cora thought about the rude awakening she had last night and the words that Tommy said, he was the reason she wanted the divorce because she did deserve better than this sham marriage. She placed her hand into the pocket of her robe and ran her fingers across the silky handkerchief that he let her keep as she weighed up her options. The money was too good to refuse. She could use that to set herself up for life and it didn't require her to do anything other than stay married. But she still wasn't convinced.
"I'll think about it, Edward but I'm not making any promises." She stood up and left her half-eaten apple on the table. "I've lost my appetite, so if you'll excuse me." She went to walk away from the table, but Edward grabbed her by the wrist, stopping her in her tracks.
"Before you go, what do you want with Julian?"
Cora looked down at Edward's worried face and smirked at it. "I'm going solo, I don't need Julian to make me a star. He's fired." She pulled her arm away from his grip and left him to mull over her words. Was she being harsh? Yes. But Edward deserved it.
Her fingers played with the handkerchief in her pocket as she walked along that corridor that led to her room. She knew that she shouldn't daydream, but she couldn't help but think of that kiss and she wanted more. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Edward chasing after her. She was aware of his presence when he pushed her into her room and slammed the door shut. He had her pinned against the wall in seconds and no amount of struggling would break her free.
"Get your hands off me now, Edward!" she was thrashing her body from side to side and banging her fists against his chest. "Who do you think you are!?"
"Calm down, Cora." He was trying to stay as calm as he could but the more she hit at him, the more exhausted he became with her. He knew that he shouldn't, but he couldn't see any other way of making her stop. He struck her across the face with the back of his hand and when she fell onto the floor, he realised the severity of what he had done. "Cora," he took a step towards her, but she crawled back, "I didn't want to hurt you."
"What is wrong with you?" she was trembling, and she didn't know if it was shock, fear, or adrenaline. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Why are you firing Julian?"
"Because I can and because I want to. You've got your answer now, fuck off!"
"You are letting your jealousy come in between the deal we made before we were married, and your jealousy is the only reason why you want Julian gone. Do you think that I'm dumb, Cora? You think that if Julian is out of the picture that my love for him dies." He watched her struggle to get onto her feet and slowly lowered his hand down towards her. She took it gingerly and allowed him to pull her up. "You don't really want a divorce; you just want Julian out of your hair."
"You're wrong, Edward, right now I want both of you out of my life and I want both of your worlds to come crashing down around you because that's what the two of you get for ruining my life." She stormed over to her dresser and pulled out a dress, throwing it onto the bed.
"How did we ruin your life? You're young, beautiful, and talented. What harm will a couple of years of pretending do?" he turned his head away from her when she took the robe from her body.
"You can't even see the damage you've done to me because it's inside, in my heart and in my mind." She stepped into the dress and pulled it over her body. "You can look now." She shook her head at him and looked at her face in the mirror; she had a little cut underneath her eye, and she could tell by how red the skin was that it would bruise.
"Then why agree to our terms? You couldn't have loved me that much."
She placed some make up over the redness, wincing slightly as she patted the powder on. "I did… I suppose in a way I still do." She fixed her hair and glared over her shoulder at him and let out a sigh. "I don't want to work with Julian anymore, he can go teach at my father's academy and I suppose the two of us can continue to tour the world together," she took a couple of steps towards him, she wanted him to accept because if he did, she would drop the idea of divorce, "like the years before Julian when we were successful in Moscow." She slipped her hands into his and looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Don't you want that success again? I know that I do, much more than my want to get rid of you."
"Cora, those days are over. You can tour but if you do, you can find a new choreographer because if Julian stays, so do I." he took his hands away from her grasp.
"Very well, have it your way." She grabbed her coat and her gloves, placing them on and slipped into her shoes. "I think it would be better for Julian if you told him that he was fired, I don't need to be struck twice today." She opened the door and nodded for Edward to leave.
"Where are you going Cora?" he stood in the hallway and watched her lock up the room.
"To see a friend, I don't know when I'll be back."
The taxi stopped outside of Tommy's office and when she got out of the car, she looked around at the dirt that surrounded it. She thought Paris was a dump, but this place was worse. Cora didn't see what Tommy saw in this city, but she was thankful that she wasn't going to have to spend long in it. As soon as she stepped into the building, all eyes were on her and as she looked around the lower floor, Tommy's familiar face was nowhere to be seen. She stopped a man in a suit and gripped him by the forearm.
"Is this Thomas Shelby's office?"
"Yes, do you have an appointment with Mr Shelby?"
"No, but he's a friend of mine, he made a considerable donation to my father's ballet academy and I've been sent here to thank him. Is he around?"
"His office is upstairs, follow me."
Tommy was in the middle of his letters when there was a knock on his office door. He was expecting it to be his secretary, but it was Mr Devlin. He put his letters into his drawer and took the glasses from his face. "What is it?"
"Mr Shelby, I have a young woman here to see you."
"Tell 'er if she's lookin' for help, to come to the Garrison on a Monday morning."
"She says that she's a friend of yours, and something about a ballet academy."
He reached for a cigarette and stared at the nervous looking man. "Send 'er in." He didn't know why Cora was here, he didn't understand why she would come to this end of the city. When he she came into his office, she shut the door behind her and draped her coat over the back of the chair before sitting in front of him. He watched her remove the gloves from her hands and place them on her lap. "When you asked me last night if you'd see me again, I wasn't expecting you to show up." He looked closely at her face and noticed the cut underneath her eye. "What happened to you?"
She ignored his question and took one of her own cigarettes from a little gold cassette, lighting it up with Tommy's lighter. "I've been thinking about what you said last night, I didn't get much sleep to be honest because your words played in my mind until the sun came up. So, this morning at breakfast, I fired my dance partner and told Edward that I want a divorce. He offered me a different a deal, five thousand per year that we stay married and at first I thought it was a good deal until I got in the car to come here and I thought about it and I know what he's worth and five thousand a year doesn't even dent the fortune he inherited from his family. I want half of his fortune and one of his family's estates at the least and I thought that you would know a solicitor, a good solicitor that could help me get what I'm owed."
Tommy watched her as she watched him back and nodded at her after a moment. "I do know someone, and I'll be honest with ya, getting a beating from your husband ain't enough to get a divorce."
"I know that, Tommy. But adultery is and I plan on sinking him to cut myself loose." She took a long drag from the cigarette and let the smoke fall out of her nose. "I deserve better, I deserve the chance to be married to someone that actually loves me, you helped me see that."
"If you're going to step in front of a court, you're going to have to prove what he is, you need evidence. I don't even think the court will give ya half of his money."
"I don't even care that much about the money; I have money of my own, I only want it to kick him while he's down. The most important thing is my freedom."
He didn't have to help Cora, but he wanted to. He felt sorry for her and although he didn't want to admit it to himself, there was some care there. "I'll set up a meetin' with a solicitor, you need to get the two of 'em caught in the act." He rested his elbows on the desk slowly and rubbed his tired eyes. "Do ya think you can do that?"
"There's a party in a couple of weeks that the three of us have to attend, all I have to do is stay sober enough to make it to the end and wait for them to slip off."
"Good, that should do the trick." They sat in silence for a moment, neither one of them knowing what to say. Tommy didn't want to press her for answers, but he wanted to know what Edward did to her. "Will you tell me how you got that cut?"
"He slapped me across the face, I imagine that it was his ring that cut me," she shifted in her seat and fixed her dress, "I like to think he regretted it, but he didn't apologise."
"If he ever lays a finger on ya again," he pointed his cigarette at her and waited for her to bring her gaze up to him, "you tell me and you'll have no need for a divorce."
She could tell by the way his eyes glazed over that he was furious, and he meant exactly what he said. It didn't scare Cora and it didn't put her off Thomas Shelby. She only wanted to get to know him better. He wasn't like any of the men in her circle and his rough and gritty nature appealed to her. Perhaps Birmingham wasn't as bad as she thought.