Forever Yours

Chapter 9

I look at him confused. His face is red as he breathes heavily in front of me.

"What?" Is all I can get out.

"All of it, Florence. It was a trap." He sighs in defeat. "When I got to Alfa Romeo, I met Charlotte's father. I guess after they had offered me the seat, Jace Hallaway, a guy I raced with in F2, remember? Well, his father was willing to pay a couple of million to get his son in F1 and they were trying to take my seat. Charlotte's father was in charge of the whole contract and gave me an ultimatum. She had been in a pretty messy relationship with some driver in Indy so he told me that if I dated his daughter and helped her regain her image, he would give me the seat instead of Jace. The problem was, he didn't want Charlotte to know. I was going to tell you when I got back but you were gone by then."

He looks at me with desperate eyes. "But you see? I didn't cheat on you. I did what I had to do to get the seat that I deserved."

I could not believe the words that he was saying. He and Charlotte weren't actually together then. He hadn't left me after our fight that night. I can't believe Charlotte was ok with what her father did.

"Holy shit, Charles," I say while sitting down on the bed, in complete shock. I'm still trying to process what he said. "What did Charlotte say to you when she found out?"

"What do you mean?" Charles asks confused.

"When you told her what her father made you do," I say

"I never told Charlotte." He says letting out a quick laugh as if I had just asked a stupid question.

"What?" I say hesitantly.

"God no," he says while shaking his head. "If I told Charlotte, she would absolutely kill me. Her father and I made a deal to keep it a secret."

"That was 6 years ago, Charles!" I shout at him while standing back up. "You're telling me that for the last 6 years, you have been stringing along a relationship with her that is completely fake?"

"Don't talk to me like I had a choice. It was my career, Florence! I wasn't going to let money take that away from me." He says, raising his voice again while trying to justify himself.

"Charles, are you hearing yourself right now? Forget about that stupidity. This is a woman's life you're ruining! All for what, being able to drive around some silly track on the weekends? That is absolutely horrible, Charles." I say in disgust. "What about after Afla Romeo? You're in Ferrari now, so why are you still with her?"

"When I signed over to Ferrari he threatened to tell the tabloids what happened but was going to say that I was the one who paid for my seat. I wasn't going to let him ruin my image at that point. Plus, Charlotte's no angel herself, she's been sleeping with like half the paddock for the last 4 years. Every time we go out all she does is use me for pictures and call the paparazzi on us and use my name to get what she wants. So it's not like I'm the only one who has secrets." He says

I scoff at his justification "That still doesn't make it ok, Charles. That is the most fucked up thing I've ever heard. And you really thought that me knowing this information was going to fix this?" I say while pointing between us.

"I thought you would understand, Florence." He says while closing the space between us. He grabs my hand and puts it on his heart. "I wanted to be with you through it all, Flo. I loved you-"

He gets interrupted by the door squeaking open. Jules slowly pops his head in. "Mamma?"

Charles pulls away from me and we look down.

"Hello, amore," I say with a fake smile as I get down to his level and create some space between Charles and me.

"The ice cream is melting, Mamma." He says quietly. He definitely heard us shouting. Fuck. This is all my fault.