Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

XLVI

"Hello, sweetheart," Edward greeted his daughter when he welcomed Juliette into his room. They were meeting up for dinner tonight. "How was the excursion?"

"Hi." Juliette showed a small smile. "It was horrible but fine. Everyone had fun, so that is what counts." She sat down on the bed end. "Bloody hell."

Edward frowned, but decided to stay silent. He knew her story, so staying silent would be the best for now. "But you good?"

Juliette shrugged. "You?"

"I'm good," he replied. "But what's wrong?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest, he was worried.

"Just have a bad day, but that won't ruin our dinner." She ran her hand through her hair and widely smiled. "I've been waiting for this all week long."

"Hmm-hmm," Edward nodded, it was suspicious, but he wasn't here to push her to open up. "Give me five minutes, I will do my hair." He walked back to the bathroom. "Alfie just called," he continued. "He said he wants to steal Frenky from you."

She snorted. "Adorable." Frenky was staying over at her brother's during the weekends Juliette was working abroad. "That will not happen, mate." She looked at her phone, checking some messages.

"It's funny how attached he is to Frenk."

"Alf always says he stops by to see me, but deep down, we all know it is because of Frenk. I'm happy they are best mates," she admitted.

"That's true." There was silence for a few minutes. "Julie, I want to address something." Edward walked out of the bathroom and looked at his daughter, who was looking questionably at him. "And it's totally fine if you do it, just remember it is bad for you and very addictive. But I can't give you wrong, I've done it for years as well."

Juliette slowly nodded, not understanding where he was talking about. "Yes?" She put her phone away.

"I saw you smoke again." Edward sat down on the bed next to her. "And you're a grown woman, so do whatever you want to do. However, you have a past with those things. So are you smoking because you're not feeling well or just because of why not?"

"Dad..."

"I'm not angry with you, far from that. I'm just curious. If it is because you aren't feeling well, you really have to tell me. I can't smell if something's wrong." He was scanning Juliette's face; she was hiding something. "I know that you can't see Pierre anymore, sweetheart. You don't have to hide that for the world..."

She looked away, tightening her jaw. The muscles in her chin started to tremble like a child; she had to fight against the tears. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Darling," Edward softly said and wrapped his arm around Juliette. "Don't be sorry. It's okay." He pressed a kiss on her hair.

"I had to do something bad," she breathed. Juliette's eyes quickly became glazed with a glassy layer of tears. She refused to cry; she was weak. "Without hurting someone." She instead chose to stare at the chair in front of her. "I don't understand it."

"I know..." He swallowed hard, it was difficult to see your daughter struggle as a father.

"I don't understand why everyone is making a big deal of this. We both have a million contracts with our teams, F1 and FIA, to not share anything. It seems logical to me our relationship won't do any harm. I probably would react the same at first, but there are contracts, n.d.a.'s. And if I would share information, or Pierre, we would all notice it by now." As Juliette blinked, the tears dripped from her eyelids and slid down her face. Edward nodded. "There are so many relationships between teams, more than people know. What about us?"