The Bolter | Charles Leclerc

Chapter 4

The dress I wore was wine red, one of my favourite colours. The heels I had shoved on my feet were already killing me and I hadn't even left the hotel. I waited for all of two minutes before Mila pulled up in a taxi. I stumbled in and sat next to my friend.

"You look beautiful," she smiled, dark red lipstick bringing out her tanned skin and coffee coloured eyes, "as always."

"As do you," I smiled. "Now please tell me me where we're going and what we're doing."

She grinned. "It's 20 minutes away, you'll see."

I started to get nervous, I hated being nervous. I hated anything that I couldn't control. I checked my phone. Another message from Max asking how I was. As much as I loved my brother, he could be overbearing. He'd always felt the need to protect me when we were younger, when our father couldn't, or wouldn't. But even though I was now 24 years old, and could handle myself, he still saw me as his baby sister getting in trouble for talking too much or asking silly questions.

I looked over at Mila. She was typing very quickly and sighing and scowling so I decided not to ask her any questions and just take in the beauty of Milan as the sun set.

About 10 minutes later, we pulled up outside a large stone building, glowing in the sunlight. Mila looked up from her phone, grinned, thanked the taxi driver and beckoned me outside of the car. I walked towards the steps, women were dressed in red, men in black suits, of course, all designer, all very classy. I scanned the crowd trying to see if I recognised anyone as we walked towards the door.

I paused as one by one faces started to match to memories in my mind. Then all of a sudden it clicked as Fred Vasseur walked past us.

I dragged Mila to the side. "Mila is this a Ferrari event?"

She bit her lip and I could almost see the cogs turning as she tried to figure out something to say. "You could say that."

I took a deep breath as tried to control my anger. "Ok before you go all Verstappen on me," Mila held her hands up and stepped back, "this is my new job. I'm the assistant social media manager for Ferrari and I needed to work tonight and had no one to bring and I knew you'd say no if I told you. I also know you don't like F1 stuff but I promise you this is a launch party for their new sponsorship so it's not even about racing."

I blinked and tried to process all that information at once. I didn't hate F1, I was just bored of it and liked to keep my world separate. Of course I supported Max, and I went to a few races a year, but when you've grown up your whole like travelling from karting track to karting track, listening to your dad's stories about him and Micheal Schumacher for the millionth time, you could see how it would get tedious.

My problem, however, was with the Ferrari aspect of the evening. Max would kill me if he knew I was here as I had cancelled on the last 3 Red Bull events. "If I go in, no one can know I'm here. My reputation's never been worse. I can't deal with another headline."

She nodded furiously. "I run the socials, no one will take your picture, I promise."

I sighed and took her hand. "If this goes wrong, I'm coming for your head."

She squeezed my hand as we walked into the old building. It was decorated in red and blue with big chandeliers hung from the ceiling and about 20 tables covered in fine silverware and expensive bouquets of flowers. It was like stepping into an old Hollywood film and I was Audrey Hepburn.

"Wow," I said. "This is amazing."

"I know."

We wandered over to our table. I was labelled as 'guest' so hopefully no one picked up on the fact I was here. I put my bag down and took a quick scan of the room. The only people who truly knew me were Carlos and Charles. I saw Carlos stood in the corner talking with some people I didn't recognise. His eyes skimmed over mine, but didn't seem to hover for more than a second, before turning back to his conversation. Max and Carlos were never close, so I didn't really know him.

My dad and Carlos Sr did not get on, therefore neither did we. It was like a medieval family war.

"Here," Mila handed me a drink in a champagne flute. "It's non-alcoholic."

"Thank you," I smiled, looking around the room for Charles. "You haven't told me how you landed this job. It was always your dream."

"I know, I was just lucky. Right place, right time, aced the interview, now here I am," she grinned like she'd won the lottery. I was happy for her with a tinge of jealousy. She'd got her life figured out and I was like a deer in headlights 90% of the time. "In a place like this you can really forget all your problems." I nodded before immediately crashing back some to earth. "Charles, coming to your left, be nice."

She muttered and glared at me. Sure enough, the 'Prince of Monaco' sauntered up to us like he owned the place.

"Charles, so nice to see you again," Mila said politely. "Congratulations on your podium in Miami."

"Thank you," he replied, his voice low as he stared at me as if he'd seen a ghost. I pulled a face.

"Charles, this is Danique Verstappen, but I'm sure you already know that."

"Yes I do," his eyes scanned me up and down, as if he was searching for something. "What are you doing here?"

"Lovely to see you too," I huffed sarcastically.

"Dani was doing a photoshoot for Miu Miu here in Milan so I invited her," Mila jumped in, I could tell that she was desperately trying to keep the peace.

When I was 12 and Charles was 14, he was competing with Max regularly, so most weekends we would see him and his family. My dad knew that Charles was Max's main competition and because he always liked to win, he asked me to spy on what they were doing. Looking back, asking this of a preteen girl was highly inappropriate, but I did it anyway. I got to know Charles and his family. They were nice people, a proper supportive unit rather than a competitive one that I was used to.

I didn't find much information, just when he was racing and how he'd done in previous series'. But of course Jos Verstappen wasn't satisfied and eventually accidentally let slip about his plan.

What I didn't know, however, was that Charles was also using me to get to Max. Neither of them liked each other at this point, so seeing me spend so much time with the Leclerc's angered my brother.

Long story short, after everything blew up dramatically and the dust settled, me and Charles were left with a broken friendship and the realisation that nothing was real and even when you think you're safe, you've already been stabbed in the back.