Race for the Throne | Formula One

46. Operation: Darth Vader

"There's nothing I can do about it. The hospital funding was my decision, I can't miss the grand opening. I'm so sorry that I won't be there by tomorrow for your birthday, Shy." I paced while talking to Charles.

"Oh ok, no it's ok, we'll just- we can do something when you get here." I could hear the disappointment Charles was trying to hide.

I pretended that the disappointment didn't break my heart. "I'm so sorry, but I'm going to lose you in a moment, going through a tunnel. I'll talk to you later, ok?"

"Yeah, I love you."

"I love you too." I ended the call.

"That was truly an Oscar worthy performance. Almost ordered popcorn." Arthur clapped.

I released my breath. "Really? Because I feel like shit for lying to him like that."

"Ok but it wasn't a lie lie, because you did have the grand opening, it was just this morning so we'll be in Texas by tonight. And you know what that means?" Arthur asked.

"That I lied when I said I wouldn't be there tomorrow and he was super disappointed for nothing?" I suggested.

Arthur threw his hands up. "Well yeah, but it mainly means that he'll be super surprised and excited when he sees us tomorrow then!"

I rubbed my hands together. "I guess I'm just way overthinking it, huh?"

"Sweetheart, I could've told you that an hour ago." My father pressed a kiss to my head as he walked past on the private jet.

"Does everyone think that?" I turned to the other passengers.

Pascale, Lorenzo, my mom, and Alex all nodded.

"Thanks for that guys!" I dropped in the seat across from Arthur.

Charles had left for Italy on Friday, been cleared, and had arrived in the United States for the Grand Prix on Sunday. His birthday was Monday. Arthur and I had come up with a plan to surprise him before Qatar. It involved me hinting that I wasn't sure when a hospital wing grand opening that I had to attend would be. There was obviously a hiccup in the plan with the accident so we considered calling it off,  however once Charles had been officially cleared to drive, we knew we had to keep the plan going. I had told Charles yesterday before he left for America that the date was announced as the 16th when it was actually happening the morning of the 15th which I had known for weeks. He and I had been talking back and forth since then, him asking when I would get there and trying not to be too disappointed and me trying to keep the plan alive when all I wanted to do was tell him the truth because I couldn't bear to hear him so disappointed. But Arthur told me it was for the good of the cause, which was Operation: Darth Vader as we had dubbed it. Operation: Darth Vader involved us flying his family and my family to the United States Grand Prix in Texas to surprise him. There had been a lot of moving parts obviously since the whole royal family of Monaco was going to the US.

"When are we landing?" Lorenzo asked, sitting next to me,

I checked my phone. "Probably around 9pm their time. The hotel is already set up. The only person who knows anything is Fred, he's my inside man. He's going to tell us where Charles is and everything and make sure that everything goes smoothly on that side. He also arranged everyone's passes so that Charles wouldn't know anything."

"You two are really treating this like an official secret agent operation." Lorenzo laughed.

Arthur raised his eyebrows. "That's because it is, Lorenzo. This is very serious."

After a plane ride which felt like forever, not because the company was bad but because we went through all the games very quickly and not everyone was happy with the outcomes. Arthur insisted that I cheated in Uno and swore to never play against me again.

"Ok!" I let out a piercing whistle to get everyone's attention once we landed. "We have a very small window to get from the plane to the car and then from the car into the hotel before the media spots us and all of this is for nothing. Operation: Darth Vader is a go!"

We made our way out of the plane and to the waiting cars. I sat next to Arthur, Lorenzo was sitting next to Alex. Mateo and Alvaro were driving our car. My parents and Charles' mom were in a second car with their security as well as two more cars of security. Something about the royal family being all together.

"I never asked before because frankly I was too scared, but why Operation: Darth Vader?" Alex finally asked.

Arthur and I glanced at one another.

He rubbed his neck self consciously. "Well we thought Operation: Surprise was too obvious so we needed something that had a surprise associated with it. Darth Vader has a surprise character reveal as family and we're surprising Charles with family so yeah. It made sense to us and that's all that matters."

Alex laughed. "I can't argue with that. But next scheme, I'm naming it."

"Fair enough," I admitted.

We drove to our hotel, we weren't staying at the same as the drivers tonight because we knew paparazzi would be out front that one from just them being there. Instead, we were staying at another one close to the track because the plan was to get to the paddock before him. Fred was going to tell Charles that there were a few measures in place due to his injured wrist that he needed to check out before everyone else got there.

I didn't breathe easy until everyone was in their suites with their security details. There had only been one hiccup which was that a couple had seen us walk in and had taken a few pictures recognizing Arthur and I. However, we had pair them generously to delete the photos. We made sure the photos were completely gone and not backed-up as well.

The night passed rather uneventfully other than the fact that I had too much nervous energy to sleep and apparently so did Arthur because he knocked on my door around 1am.

"Kat, I know I swore to never play against you again, but do you want to play Uno?" Arthur asked when I opened the door.

I arched an eyebrow. "You're that desperate huh?"
"Don't pretend that you can't sleep either." Arthur walked through the door.

"Touché."

He sat on my bed while I grabbed the cards from my backpack.

"You can't be too sore of a loser because my security team is in the other room and I don't want to disturb them." I shuffled the cards.

"What makes you think I'll lose?" he challenged.