Race for the Throne | Formula One

45. Worried

My father looked up from his papers as I walked into his study. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"I feel good, you?" I made myself a coffee from the table in the corner.

"Old," my father laughed.

I sat in a chair across the desk. "So, how was the meeting?"

He became serious. "He has been thoroughly told that a marriage between you and Jacques will never happen. He knows that pushing it anymore will make him look bad. If he decides to spread any rumors, we have measures in place to deny them. We also made him aware that if he attempts anything like this again, we will not be so welcoming. Especially after Jacques followed you to Qatar just to stir things up."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"There's something else." My father wouldn't meet my eye.

"What is it?" My stomach churned.

"We're invited to an event and I would appreciate it if you were there."

"Why wouldn't I be there?" I was confused.

"It's the same night as the Abu Dhabi grand prix." he grimaced.

"That's the last race of the season, I'm not going to miss it." I shook my head.

"Please at least consider it? It's being hosted by Nicky, so I know it would mean a lot to him if you were there," my father said quickly.

"I'm not going. You already agreed to let me go to all the final races." I held my ground.

"I could just order you to attend." He crossed his arms.

"I would find a way to get to the race regardless." I crossed my arms.

He sighed. "I figured as much. I told Nicky that you wouldn't be there but he insisted that I try. I'll hold off telling him until the actual event, that way he'll think I tried harder than I actually did. You can go now."

I stood up. "I'll see you at dinner."

He nodded, getting back to his work.

Charles had texted, saying that he was about to leave for Italy. I wished him a safe flight before texting Ines. The young woman arrived at the palace soon after.

She hugged me when she found me in my room. "It's good to see you again."

"Same to you." I smiled

We sat on my bed.

"What's bothering you?" She asked, tilting her head.

I laughed. "I'm just too happy with Charles, I think he might be too perfect."

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "I feel the same way about Lando but we've been together for not as long as you two. But that's not what's bothering you."

I pursed my lips. "I guess, I'm the youngest and a daughter in the royal family. I don't really have much of a purpose most days. I help charities and stuff like that which is really good but other than that I just go to events sometimes and that's it. Like I was just invited to a gala in France, I declined the invitation because it was the same night as the last race of the season. I have a purpose, I'm the princess of Monaco, but I was born with that. My charity work and stuff comes with my title. Everything I do is from the title essentially. The only thing that didn't come with it was Charles so now that I have him, I want to do things with him, I want to support him. So I guess, am I relying on him too much? Am I trying to make myself too apart of things?"

Ines tapped her chin. "As long as you can keep a balance between your royal duties and your relationship, I don't think there's any problem with letting your relationship be your priority. Charles also just had a crash, so I think it's normal that you would want to make sure you're at the final races. I think if you're feeling any sort of uncertainty about your relationship you should talk to him though."

"No,no,no, I'm not uncertain about the relationship," I said quickly. "I just don't want him to feel like I'm leaning on him too much. We both have our own lives outside of our relationship and I don't know. I want him to focus on racing, so I guess I'm worried that he has more to focus on than me so he'll think I'm dropping everything for him and I don't know if that will bother him? Because I'm a princess of a country, shouldn't I have more obligations to make me not be able to go to races but since I am going to them that means I'm canceling them to clear my schedule?"

"Let me get this right. You're worried that Charles will have an issue with the fact that you turned down a gala invitation so that you could go to a race because you're concerned that if you go to too many races it will annoy Charles?" Ines said slowly.

I nodded.

"Kat, I'm not trying to discount any of what you're feeling, but why on earth would you think that?" She put her hands on my shoulders. "Charles is never going to be upset that you went to a race to support you. The glow that man gets when he sees you in the paddock is insane. He might worry if you don't tell him what's going on when you decline invitations, but he's never going to be mad that you're at a race."

"I guess when you put it that way it sounds silly." I winced.

"It's not silly, but if you keep feeling that just talk to Charles. He'll put all your fears to rest, he loves seeing you at the races. And if it makes you feel any better, I took off from work for the next race weekends so I'm going to all of them as well."

"We'll be in the paddock together again, legally this time. " I laughed.

"It'll be fun, it's still surreal watching the races from McLaren."

"You'll have to come over to Ferrari some time."

We continued to chat for the rest of the day before she had to leave. I read for an hour or so before dinner. My father had already told my mother that I wasn't going to Nicky's event, she was disappointed but she understood from our conversation earlier how important it was for me to be at the races.