What The Heart Wants (Sebastian Vettel)

71. Mollie's Debut

"Just take your time. Take a break if you need to.  You'll be fine," Britta said softly, trying to reassure Jessie. 

Seb sat down on the sofa next to his wife and put his hand on her thigh.   He squeezed it reassuringly. 

"You don't have to do this," he told her.  "We don't owe anything to anyone.  It's our business, not theirs."

"I want to do this," Jessie insisted.  "But if you don't..."

"It's not something I'd usually do, you know that, but if it's what you want, I'm in."

Jessie nodded.  It wasn't that she wanted to do this, more like she needed to. 

The speculation about Mollie had grown intense over the last few days. Everyone had an opinion on it apparently.  She'd read so many different theories. Some were right, but most of them couldn't have been more wrong.  

She was infertile.  Seb was firing blanks.   Seb had had an affair and got his mistress pregnant.  They'd used a surrogate.  The most outrageous one she'd read was that they'd  bought a baby online from a baby farm in Ukraine.

She'd never been so glad to see Seb when he'd returned home from Imola that Sunday night. He'd been her rock, holding her together when she'd been on the verge of falling apart.   He'd made her see that she had no reason to be scared of people knowing they'd adopted Mollie.  They had nothing to be ashamed of. 

They'd sat talking for hours about what the best plan of action was, and finally Jessie had decided that this wasn't something they could just ignore in the hope that it would all blow over. And that's why they were now sat in their rented Monte Carlo apartment the day before media day preparing to record a video to post on social media.

"Are you both ready?" Britta asked. Jessie took a deep breath and nodded. Heike and Norbert were looking after Mollie in the kitchen whilst they did what they had to do, so the sooner they did this the sooner they could be back with their little girl.

Seb nodded at Britta, a serious expression on his face.

"Ok, in 3, 2, 1..."

They both looked at the phone in Britta's hand and Seb began to speak.

"Over the last few days there has been a lot of speculation on social media after Jessie was seen shopping with a baby. So many ridiculous rumours have been started, along with some senseless accusations. Normally we would just ignore all the gossip, after all it's no one's business but our own, but after talking about things both Jessie and I want to set the record straight. The baby photographed with Jessie is our daughter, Mollie." He paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Now we realise it's obvious to everyone that Jessie has never been pregnant, and I can categorically state I did not have an affair. We did not use a surrogate, and we certainly did not buy her from a baby farm. We adopted Mollie.  She may not be biologically related to us but she is our daughter in every way that counts.  We love her more than words can ever express."  He stopped again, struggling to control his emotions. Jessie picked his hand up and squeezed it. He continued. "After talking it through Jessie decided she wants to tell her story, our story, to let people know that infertility is more common than people think, and that it's no one's fault, and it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Sensing Seb was struggling, Jessie took over. "I always wanted to be a mother, but during my first marriage it soon became apparent that it wouldn't be easy. I was born with an abnormally shaped uterus, which meant it would be virtually impossible for me to fall pregnant naturally.   I underwent four attempts at IVF, all of which failed, and ultimately led to the breakdown of my marriage.  After Seb and I married we underwent IVF in an attempt to have a child of our own.  It too failed.   Unless you've been through it yourself you could never know how heartbreaking, how soul crushing, it is to know that no matter what you do, how many times you try, it will never be enough."    She felt her eyes pooling with tears.   Seb leant in close and whispered in her ear.