In the coming days, Verity found herself becoming the sole and lead person involved in the planning of Charlie Shelby's 7th birthday party.

It came in the form of one rainy, miserable late March morning – where the dismal grey rain pattered relentlessly upon the window panes – a rhythmic reminder of the bitter cold and wet of the outside world. Charlie's tutor had cancelled for the day, having phone in to say she was ill. With Tommy out as usual, Verity took it upon herself to devote her time to the young boy – it wasn't exactly looking like she was going anywhere any time soon.

"Are you looking forwards to your birthday next Friday?" Verity asked, as the two played a game of Snap on the cosy rug by the hearth.

Placing down a card on the plush material, Charlie sighed and shrugged. The display was immediately off putting for Verity, she hadn't seen a child act like that about their birthday before.

"No. Nothing ever happens." He sounded truly downtrodden, his expressionless face and blank eyes not telling a tale of a spoilt child who had longed for a party – but a sweet boy who had always come second best to the many follies and business' his father was trying to get involved in. Charlie Shelby hadn't really ever had a birthday worth remembering.

That was the moment she decided, whilst she was here, she was going to give that little boy the best bloody birthday he had ever seen.

Initially, Verity was so mad at Tommy for not having made his son's birthday more of a priority all these years, that she didn't even tell him about her plans for a big family party, with lots of lovely presents, delicious food and celebration like the boy had never seen. She kept it to herself, fearful she might not be able to bite her tongue at why Tommy Shelby hadn't been able to sacrifice some time in the past to give Charlie just one day in the year where he felt like he was the only thing that mattered.

On her days in London, Verity spent many an hour before her nightly performance at the club – traipsing around all the best shops she could find to obtain all the necessary components for a good party. Of course she had started with the key planning at home – talking to Francis about catering etc, and the rest of the things – decoration and present buying could be found in all the London shops she bounced between on the odd afternoon.

Verity's purse was noticeably lighter after one particularly important trip to Harrods – her arms bundled with bags containing gifts, wrapping paper, bunting – anything she had set eyes which would be perfect for the party.

It was no wonder however, when she returned to Arrow House the next Sunday morning by cab, then her plans that had so far been unfolding peacefully in secret – were about to be foiled.

It was the first crisp and clear morning in weeks, as Verity huffed and puffed with the bags in her arms. As she had made her way to the station in London earlier that morning after staying the night at Scarlett's beautiful London home, she had even had to enlist the help of her best friend and colleague to take a bag just to lighten the load. As usual, Scarlett was as helpful as ever and kept her promise not to mention it to either Arthur or Tommy for the time being.

So, as she made her way through into the main foyer of the house – Verity set the bags down with a deep burdening breath of air, removing her coffee coloured coat and hanging it up on the rack by the large front door. She was about to take the bags to her secret stash area in her bedroom when Tommy appeared from the study, his eyes cold and surveying in that usual fashion were it felt impossible to assess what was going on in his mind.

"Been shopping?" he remarked dryly, as Verity let out a deep sigh. There was no use in trying to keep it a secret anymore, she'd have to come clean soon anyway when she sent out invites.

"Its for Charlie's birthday." Verity whispered, an honest look in her eyes. "Tommy, he told me he wasn't looking forwards to his birthday. He said nothing ever happens." She delivered the last part with some bitterness and badly concealed disappointment.

"If no one else was going to make the time for him then I will."

She was about to take the bags off upstairs when Tommy stepped in and took hold of them for her, his unreadable and rather unfeeling expression from before having thawed somewhat.

"I appreciate this Verity." Tommy offered, standing in front of her. His blue eyes drifted to the floor beneath them. "I haven't exactly made the time I should've done for Charlie in the past."

She could sense his hurt but it didn't excuse the fact he was surely going to do it again if she hadn't of stepped in to take control of things.

"Tommy, at the end of your day – your work, your businesses – they are there all 365 days of the year." Verity pressed, a concerned look in her hazel eyes as he looked on at her with sort of subtle earnest that he was drawing it all in.

"Your son is growing up fast, he has one day every single year to feel special. Just for one day, make him your only priority." She said, her tone softening when she could see the hurt creeping in again. The Tommy that ever now and again would get in touch with his emotions and connect with other people's feelings – a side of him he probably usually ignored or withdrew from just to stand a chance of not being hurt or betrayed by those around him.

She decided not to dwell on it, it was better to push on and hope now he would make a better effort for his son.

"Could you take those bags into the study please?" she asked gently, "If it's okay? I was going to start wrapping."

Then came some words she wasn't ever expecting to hear.

"Alright, I'll help if you'd like."

She had to smile, Tommy Shelby wrapping up gifts wasn't exactly a strong image that leapt into her mind. She decided not to say anything just yet, for all she knew he could be a master of wrapping.

-

With all the gifts she had amassed strewn across the desk, floor and leather couch in Tommy's office – Verity realised she might have gone slightly overboard on the gifts.

"Fucking hell Verity..." Tommy sighed, "How much did all this cost?"

She faltered, shaking her head.

"I don't even know anymore but it doesn't matter," she said confidently, "All that matters is Charlie is getting the birthday he deserves."

She wanted to make it clear that she didn't want to get into politics about Tommy offering to pay for some of the things. The money spent was not an issue to her, she just wanted to make a young boy smile on his birthday.

Pulling out some wrapping paper from one of the bags, Verity tossed a roll at Tommy along with a small ring of adhesive tape. The blinder caught the two items and stared down at them, frown on his face and cigarette hanging precariously from his lips.

"If you could do the ones on the desk, I'll take the ones over here."

One of the presents on the desk happened to be a large stuffed Harrod's bear, and Tommy immediately frowned at it as he picked it up in detest and showed it to the singer who was secretly smirking with her back turned.

"How the fuck is anyone supposed to wrap this thing?" he remarked grumpily, but Verity found it all very funny – all he was doing was exposing himself for the fact he'd clearly not had much practice in the present wrapping field.

Pacing over, Verity prised the roll of wrapping paper from Tommy's grasp and began winding it around the oversized teddy bear, the paper crinkling noisily as it tried to contort to the shapely edges of the soft toy.

"It sometimes just requires some improvisation." Verity smiled, chewing the corner of her lip in concentration, grabbing the scissors to start snipping sections of the paper off, taping them down where appropriate.

Tommy watched in wordlessly, but he was very much in his thoughts and his feelings at that present moment. He watched on with quiet attentiveness as this beautiful woman poured all her attention, care and heart into the making of his son's party. His sea blue eyes studied her side profile, the gentle chewing of her soft red lips as she concentrated, the strands of deep brunette that fell into her face, strands that grazed her cheekbones in a way he wished his fingertips could. For a short moment, Tommy Shelby was almost able to kid himself that this had been natural – this falling into place of Verity becoming a beautiful asset to their otherwise wilting family home, but upon deeper reflection Tommy knew this just wasn't the case. He had pulled her into this for his own selfish liking, if he hadn't of so selfishly pulled her business from under her feet she wouldn't be here like this.

"Done." Verity smiled, her chirpy tones dragging Tommy up from the miry grounds of his thoughts like a brutish drunk ready to throw him some more painful punches of reality. He hadn't even noticed she had finished wrapping the teddy bear, and it looked incredibly well done. A small smile flickered upon his chiselled features.

"Made light work of that." He commented, watching as Verity placed the wrapped bear in the corner of the study where some of the already wrapped present were sitting. Tommy turned to face the desk, picking up a collection of very linear, easy to wrap story books.

"Perhaps I should stick to these." He said, his dry sarcasm rousing a small bout of laughter from the singer.

"If that's what you feel comfortable with." Verity hummed, turning back to her own little stack of presents, feeling confident she could leave the Blinder to wrap a stack of 3 books without an issue.

"About the only thing I am comfortable with." He sighed under his breath, not even the task of wrapping the well thought out gifts could pull his mind from the swirl of guilt that was becoming ever the more powerful with each passing day.

-

The day of the party was closing in, and Verity had just about finished handwriting each invite ready for the big day. It felt strange, addressing these Shelby family members on a letter in her beautiful cursive writing, when she hadn't even met them yet. She wondered what they might all be like, as she wrote down each of their names respectively before sliding the pretty invites inside of crisp envelope. She was anxious to meet them, it was very apparent to her that Tommy and Arthur could both be... manipulative and dark characters in their worst moments. There could be no possible way that this streak was absent in other family members. She had wait on bated breath for the big day to come along so she could find out.

Friday soon rolled around, and Verity had made her usual train journey down to London. She enjoyed that train ride more than she ever thought she would, it was a great expanse of free time to do as she pleased in terms of drafting ideas for songs – or just doing nothing at all, letting her brain relax for five seconds as she drank in the changing landscapes outside of the train window.

One train and cab journey later, Verity had arrived at the Eden Club in the early afternoon as she always did. She happily made her way inside, through eerily quiet foyer and to the main room which she knew would be full of raucous drunks later on that night.

Scarlett was rehearsing as usual, just with the accompaniment of the piano whilst she sang with her effortless allure and power. She clocked her best friend walking into the room, and quickly halted the pianist and hopped down from the stage, her long brunette hair spilling down her back aside from two small rabbit ear like buns on top of her head.

"Hey, we got the invites for Charlie's birthday party!" she smiled, "The invites were so adorable, not to mention your handwriting made it look even better."

Verity smiled bashfully, she often always got complimented on her handwriting but never really quite knew how to take it.

"and I was thinking on the proposition you made the other week, " Scarlett then added, Verity immediately remembered she'd asked Scarlett if she'd perform at the party.

"I would love to sing at the party, even if Polly Gray is there and she hates my guts-" she started say, laughing softly but the concern turned into a frown on Verity's face. Was this something she needed to be worried about as well? She didn't get time to think on it much, before Scarlett quickly chipped in again – this time her face filled with a seriousness.

"Oh, I need to tell you – I hope you don't mind," she started, clasping onto Verity's hands, "Arthur invited Eli to come up to the party as well, he said it would probably be a good chance for him to network with the rest of the family."

Inside, Verity was screaming. This part was about Charlie's birthday, not some fucking corporate event. She was in her right mind to go in there and scream at Arthur for his selfishness, but she controlled herself – she knew what Tommy would think of it, and she knew deep down he too would find it a good opportunity to better suss out Eli and what he wanted. She was not pleased with this news, and was frustrated in herself that even she was learning to think like the Shelby she was living with.

"No... no that's fine." Verity said a little wanly, her chest feeling as if it had been crushed by this news. She really despised the likes of Eli Valentine but what could she do? She had no say in any of this, she was just another chess piece on the board. She decided to keep her mouth shut for the sake of peace.

Taking her leave to the dressing room, Scarlett hopped back up to the stage and resumed her rehearsals, her powerful voice soaring through the expanse of the club as Verity shut herself inside the lush confines of the dressing room.

She fell to her seat with a sigh, now she could only pray that this party went on as a party, and nothing more. This was a little boy's birthday and the last thing she wanted was for it to be spoilt by the business side of things.

One more worry on her ever-mounting plate.

-

A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the delay in writing this, it felt like such a chore as it's a bit of a filler chapter again. The next chapter should be much juicier I hope x

Thanks once again for reading, I can't believe this story has 30k reads!!??