Charles Leclerc | Formula 1

Twenty Nine

I decide to I hug him tightly. Lena and Luisa watches intensely, not knowing what I would say.

"Daniella?" Charles whispers in my ear.

"I love you, I want to be with you. No one else" Charles says quietly.

Lena and Luisa looks at each other in shock. Charles was giving fully in.

"I need time to think" I whispers, with fresh tears rolling down my red cheeks.

"I understand. But please, don't shut me out. I'm here when you've had your time" Charles says and holds my face to make me look at him.

I nod and he wipes the tears away with a small smile.  "I love you, Chèrie" Charles repeats and pecks my lips softly. He didn't expect me to say it back, which was good, because I didn't want to tell him that I love him, before I had collected my thoughts.

"I will see you later" Charles says and kiss my forehead before leaving.

"Wow" Luisa and Lena blurts out as soon as the door closes.

"What are you gonna do?" Lena asks me as she hurried up to me with Luisa on her heels.

"I don't know" I say and look at her, showing how lost I am.

"Oh we gotta go, look at the time" Luisa says and I nod. We gather ourselves and Pierre drives us to the track.

I nod the girls goodbye before going to the Mercedes office. I open my door and sit down for a second.

How was I supposed to get any work done?

A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts. "Victor?" I call out confused as he opens the door slightly.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asks as he comes in. I get up and hug him.

"What happened to your face?" Victor asks worriedly and pull away.

"Oh nothing. It was an accident" I say and he nods.

"I have something to tell you, do you have time?" He asks and I look at my watch and nod.

"I have a little time, sit down" I say and gesture to the chairs, I sit beside him as we look at each other.

"Well, I forgot to tell you that, dad is here, he's gonna be at my races for the rest of the year. I just—I would like if you made an effort to talk to him" Victor says with a sigh.

"Vic, I can't" I say and shake my head. His small hopeful smile drops.

"Why not? What did he do that was so bad?" Victor asks getting defensive over the parent that stayed with him.

"It's a long story, Vic. Please, I had a rough night, we will talk about it—""—That's all you ever say 'we'll talk about it' but we never do. I can't pretend that everything is good between us. I want you in my life but I need to know why you and mom left me" Victor interrupts me.

I nod and swallow the lump in my throat.

"Victor, the reason we left, is because dad hurt mom" I blurt out and curse under my breath.

What was happening? Everything was fine. Now everything came crushing down on me.

"What are you talking about?" Victor asks me angrily.

"I realize how this sounds because you never registered it or saw it. But dad hurt mom physically. At the end of my graduation he hit me as well. When he did that, mom filed for divorce and tried to get both of us with her. She didn't want to leave you behind. Dad forced her to, she didn't want to. Believe me! She fought with everything she got. She took him to court, but he never touched you, so he ended up winning custody of you, so mom took me and left while we could" I finish explaining and Victor stares at me in disbelief.