afterglow | george russell

🏹 0. prologue

[ we dive back into the racer hearts series, i've missed writing the characters i created for this series... so this time we will be diving deeper into our very own lennon and georges story. 

hope you enjoy the prologue

x

Vi ]

─── ⋆⋅✨🍋🏹🍉✨⋅⋆ ──

The soft, rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound cutting through the tension in the room. Lennon lay on the hospital bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, but her attention was fixed on the heated conversation unfolding just beyond the glass doors. Her mother's sharp gestures and her father's clenched jaw were all too familiar. The doctor, standing between them, tried to maintain a calm demeanor, but Lennon could tell this was getting out of hand.

She sighed, sinking deeper into the sterile sheets, feeling the weight of exhaustion pressing down on her. How had it come to this? She should've known better. She should've listened to her body, to the warnings her doctors had given her countless times. But instead, she'd pushed herself harder than ever, determined to be at the top of her class, to finish her final year with honors. The stress of academics, combined with the pressure she felt from her family name, had blinded her to what her body was screaming for: rest. She hadn't realized how bad it was—how badly she was neglecting herself—until she fainted in the middle of campus.

Now here she was, back in the hospital, with her parents, who had been dragged into her mess, once again at each other's throats.

Her mother hardly ever called her father. Since the divorce, they'd made a clean break—Lennon staying with her mother, while her father was mostly a distant figure. He'd been busy with Red Bull Racing, busy with everything except her. They spoke on birthdays and holidays, sometimes exchanging a few cordial messages when he was in the UK. But that was it. She had chosen to keep him at arm's length, to act like he wasn't a major part of her life anymore.