𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 she is Daniel Ricciardos sister. She is the less successful, living in the shadow of her brother. Daniel races for McLaren along side Lando Norris, a man she hates, who reciprocates those same feelings towards her. First impressions...
I sigh as I wipe my hands on my black and white dress. We had to dress formal for the hearing, obviously, and I didn't pack the most formal clothes to come here since I was in a rush.
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My mom grabs hold of my hand and grips it tightly, staring at the doors to the courtroom.
"Just breathe, you'll answer a few questions and that's it. Nothing to worry about." Mom tells me and all I can do is nod. No words could form in my mouth knowing that in a few minutes I'd be seeing Taylor.
-TIME SKIP-
"Mr Taylor, do you plead guilty to the charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and attempted murder?" The judge asks as she stares at him dead in the eyes. I'm sitting in my seat, praying he tells the truth. I didn't want to relive any of that.
"No, I do not." Taylor says firmly and I can hear my mom scoff beside me. I bite down on the inside of my cheek, feeling betrayed. He knew he did those things to me.
The second our eyes meet, I can see the smug, horrible look on his face. He was proud, he didn't regret anything.
"The trial will commence in short time, please remain seated as evidence is gathered." The judge says, a few people surrounding her and placing papers in front of her.
My mom grabs my hand and squeezes it tightly, reassuring me that she was there.
The trial went on, witnesses and friends went up to testify for me, Taylor's friends of course testified against me, siding with Taylor. It made me sick to my stomach when they said I was forcing Taylor to do things to me. They knew the truth and still twisted the whole thing.
"Tomorrow, the trail will commence at 11:30am. We will have Mrs Ricciardo and Mr Ricciardo testify." The judge says as she stacks papers back on top of each other and dismisses us all. Taylor is take away through a seperate door.
My mom puts her arm around me, guiding me out the hall as my dad hides my face from the cameras that were following us. They take me to the car and I'm shocked when I see Daniel standing by my car.
"Daniel?" I call out, confused. He looks up from his phone and smiles at me, opening his arms to hug me tightly. "Aren't you meant to be racing tomorrow?" I say, worriedly.
"Don't worry, McLaren brought in the reserve driver. I wasn't going to leave you like this." Daniel sighs as he rubs my back. "Want me to drive?"
I nod as I rummage through my bag and hand Daniel the keys. He smiles at me and opens the passenger door for me before taking a seat in the drivers seat.
-TIME SKIP-
The second day of testifying was the same. Taylor denied and denied and denied. It was starting to get to me as I had gotten up to go to the bathroom at least 6 times, just to cry. I couldn't keep it in. But I didn't want to show Taylor that he was starting to get through the layers of my skin. Each time he refused to admit what he did, I could feel my heart being stabbed and my insides started to swirl around, making me feel sick. I just wanted it to be over with.
Seeing my parents testify, holding back tears as they brought up everything Taylor had done to me was the worst part. The looks on their faces was the biggest jab to the stomach. Daniel offered to testify too. He was stronger than my parents. I arrived home at 8pm, exhausted.
I throw myself onto my bed, face smashing into my pillow. Grabbing my phone, I click on the instagram app, wanting to check my notifications. That was a huge mistake. Some comments on my recent posts were saying I should lose my job for always leaving, some was supporting me and others were sending me threats, telling me I'm lying. Today, a few pictures were shown of me bruised and beaten, and tomorrow some more would be shown. It made me sick that, despite seeing the pictures of me, bloodied up, people still believed I was lying.
I couldn't take it anymore. I shut off my phone and throw it to the side, laying on my back and staring at my ceiling blankly. Tears streamed down the sides of my face, soaking my pillow which had smeared makeup on it. A sob escapes my lips as I quickly bite down on my palm, trying to muffle my cries. I didn't want this anymore. I didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to be in Monaco, with Lando and Olivia. I want to go back to before, when Taylor was just starting to disappear from my mind, when I finally started trusting a man.
I take my phone back and click on Lando's contact, instinctively calling him. He picked up almost immediately, despite the time difference in Netherlands and Australia.
"(Y/n)?" He quizzes as soon as the line connects.
"Lando." I whimper as I hold the phone close to me ear, wishing he was next to me.
"(Y/n)? Why do you sound like you're crying? Are you okay?" He asks worriedly.
"No." I whisper. "Lando I can't take it anymore." I cry. "I need you. I feel so alone." He's silent for a minute, just breathing. My heart breaks as I feel as though I'm forcing him to talk to me. "I'm sorry,"
"Hey, no." He says. "Please breathe, love. I was just texting the McLaren's pilot for the private jet to see if he could get me to Australia ASAP. I'll be there soon."
"Lando, you can't." I mumble as I wipe away my tears, feeling slightly better while talking to him. "You have to race."
"I can, actually. We've only had free practice 1, reserve drivers can substitute in at any time before qualifying. So, i'm coming."
(guys i know the flight time between the netherlands and australia is a whole 24 hours but just for the sake of the book, eff goegraphy, netherlands is 6 hours away.)
"Lando-" i start, but he cuts me off.
"(Y/N), nothing you say will change my mind. Zak offered for me to go with you when you were about to leave, but I thought it would be weird since we broke up. But, you need me. So I'll be there." He says firmly.
I stay silent, trying to find an excuse for him to not come, but I couldn't think about anything.
"I'll take the silence as you surrendering. I'm coming in a couple of hours. Get some rest."
He cuts the call immediately and leaves me speechless.
-LANDOS POV-
6 hours and 45 minutes later, I'm standing in front of her parents house, thanking the taxi driver and tipping him. He smiles at me before handing me my suitcase and climbing in his car, driving off.
I yawn as I drag my suitcase towards the door, grabbing the extra pair of keys her parents had given me for whenever I'd stay with them during summer or winter breaks. I unlock the door, walk in, shut the door, and lock it again.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, I lift my suitcase off the ground with ease and walk up the stairs, towards (Y/n)'s room. My hand makes its way to her door handle as I push open the door as quietly as possible, trying not to wake her as I see her sleeping peacefully. My heart swirls as I see her tear stained face, her makeup still marinating. This girl. I sigh as I walk into her bathroom, flicking on the lights and searching for her makeup wipes. I grab a few sheets of the makeup wipes and walk over to her, gently rubbing her smooth skin. She lets out a small hum which I respond to with a little 'sh', making her smile slightly and stay still. Once I was done removing her makeup, I saw her pillow case was stained with makeup. Of course.
I laugh lightly, making her eyes slightly flutter open. My hand flies to my mouth as I try to not wake her.
"Lando?" She mumbles in a tired, raspy voice.
"Hey." I whisper as I crouch down by her face and tuck as few strands of loose hair behind her ear. She breathes a sigh of relief and shoots out the bed, hugging me tightly. "I missed you too." She smiles into my shoulder before pulling away, going to lay back down on her dirty pillow. "No!" I nearly shout, but control my voice. She jumps a bit, giving me a dirty look for scaring her. "Your pillow's dirty, use the other one while i change the covers of this one." I say as I snatch the pillow out from under her.
She grabs the other one and falls right back to sleep. God, I missed her.
