Rêveries

Chapter 62.

Arthur kept waking me up every morning, he kind of made it a tradition whenever he was home. He wanted to be the one to wake me up and we'd go for a hike together. On Tuesday, the day before Charles had to leave for Belgium, I went on a hike with Arthur, went to dance practice and came home for lunch just like any other day.

But the second I walked through the door, Charles came at me and I knew by the look on his face that something was wrong. He was upset, worried and angry rather than sad, and the seconds it took for him to walk up to me I started fearing the worst. I don't know what I expected him to show me, but what he showed me on his phone was not what I was expecting.

Article after article with 'Verstappen' plastered over them. It was normal to see their names in articles every here and there, but looking closer you'd see there was nothing normal about the articles he was showing me. 'Inside source' kept repeating, and I know that you never want to see that in an article about you, because whatever just got out, you have to look through your inner circle of people to find out whoever would feel the liberty to give a piece of your life to the public.

My jaw fell open as I read the content of the articles written about Evie and Max's family. How their dad abused them as children, story after story about how they were beaten and neglected, even though that was far from the truth.

There is no denying that their dad was horrible to them and they're still working through what that man put them through as children, but the stories were simply not true, making it seem like he was even worse than he is. He never laid a hand on them. He'd been neglectful, but not to the exaggerated extent written in these articles, he'd been to the point where some parents may let it slide under 'tough love' even though no parent should have the expectations he had on his children.

I handed the phone back and immediately went to call Evie, knowing this is a nightmare for her. She doesn't want people to know about her dad, about her childhood in that light. It's a PR nightmare as much as it's a mentally draining nightmare to the whole family. Evie didn't pick up, she was unreachable and I guess that means she'd already seen them. I tried Max but the same thing there, so I texted Pierre trying to find out what's going on.

He told me they were having all different kinds of meetings in their kitchen. Her dad is there, they're with different PR managers and they're trying to figure out what to do about these damages. It's Max's home race, the focus is already on them enough. They're in the spotlight more than ever right now, this weekend specifically.

My heart was aching for Evie and Max, also their mother. Maybe a tiny little bit for her father because of the way he was painted in these articles. He's a horrible father, no denying that, but even I know that these articles were straight up lies. So I texted her, asking her to call me as soon as she got the time. I want to make sure she's okay. Then I packed a bag to be ready in case I just needed to get my ass on a plane over there to act as mental support.

Charles and I sat on the couch, watching everything unfold online. We were called up by Mia who asked us to stay as much out of it as possible. It's not our battle to fight and they should do it by themselves. I couldn't believe what she was asking us to do, but Charles refused to fight her on it. She knows better than us about it, so he didn't want to object. But I kept thinking that I refuse to just sit here and watch this happen to my best friend. If there is anything I can do to help, I will.

Pascale heard about it at work and came home equally as upset about it as I was, worrying about them and she kept asking if we'd heard from them. Arthur, who just landed in Germany, called me with rage about the articles. We all wanted to know who the inside source was, but it was impossible to think of anyone we know who'd do such a thing to them.