Apex | Charles Leclerc

Bonus Chapter #2

Very short bonus chapter with some adorable characters coming your way! I promise I'll make the next one longer :)

Enjoy!

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August 16, 2033 - Italy

"NOVAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I smirked upon hearing two voices matched with footsteps that were making their way towards me.

We were currently in South Garda for today's trip during the summer break. The past few days were spent in Milan and we'd be leaving to head to Lake Como tomorrow. Naturally, Charles and Max can't sustain being deprived of anything race related for that long so they decided to go karting with the kids. They even got customized race suits for the children which they were a little too enthusiastic about.

"Mama, help please." Jasmine said as she held her helmet, unable to completely put her head in and making her look like a mushroom.

"Me too, mama." Mia added, standing beside her little sister.

"Where's your papa?" I asked them, beckoning for them to come nearer. Jasmine stepped forward first, bottom lip strutted out in a pout. She's been waiting for this day ever since Charles told them about it, enthusiastically putting on her racesuit the night before and refusing to take it off until she and I had a stare down.

"He's right here." I turned around to see Charles walking towards us, a helmet tucked underneath his arm. Unlike the two girls, he was wearing casual clothes— white linen pants and a blue button up.

"Papaaa." Mia whined, grinning when Charles chuckled and began fixing the strap of her helmet. The two had grown closer ever since we adopted Mia and it was obvious she adored her father just as much as he adored her.

As for Jasmine, well, she was a carbon copy of myself. Physically, she had my dark brown hair and an identical set of my eyes.

But her attitude and personality was all Charles.

She's the obvious racer between the two of them, eyes lighting up every time we watched her father race. She managed to sit inside the cockpit of an F1 car before she even spoke a full sentence. Honestly, I think Charles was hoping her first words were going to be lights out, but those thoughts disintegrated when the first word she said was papa.

That was the first time I saw Charles cry so fast as he held her.

The two were inseparable the same way Mia was attached to me. Her love for books only grew when she moved to Monaco, her room now housing a floor to ceiling bookshelf that was close to bursting. When we had Jasmine, we made the decision to move out of the apartment, wanting our kids to experience living in a house and not an apartment building. Our house was ten minutes away from Lorenzo's and fifteen from Pascale's. Arthur was actually moving into our old apartment, saying it was too good of a property to let go and sell to some stranger.

Mia was a bit shy when we introduced her to Callie and Marcus, but the two of them never let her feel left out. When we noticed Mia ask for Callie after a weekend trip to Paris with the family, we realized the two were slowly becoming best friends.

Marcus grew up to be the big brother of the group, especially when Jasmine came around. They both bonded over karting and I knew he would've loved to be here today but they were with Alice during the first half of the summer break.

"Don't go too fast, okay?" I told Jasmine as I patted her head. The little one was clearly adventurous, never shedding a tear even when she tripped and scraped her knee the other day. She just brushed it off and asked for me to clean it up before going back to play with the others.