One last Chance

she is my daughter

*Evelyn*

I had just put Aly down for her nap when the doorbell rang downstairs. I wasn't expecting a visitor and immediately got a little nervous.

The whole thing in Greece had still left its mark on me and so I carefully crept down the stairs while calling up the picture from the front door camera on my phone. The security system was really handy for that.

I stopped in the middle of the stairs, a little perplexed.

Standing at our front door was Mella, Charles' ex-girlfriend with two men in suits and a woman. I was more than confused and was already thinking about whether I should even open when they rang the doorbell a second time.

So I made my way downstairs before they finally woke Aly and opened the door.

"Evelyn Vettel?" one of the men in the suit asked.

"Yes. That's me. How can I help?" my voice sounded strained

"Is Mr. Leclerc in?" the suit man continued to ask.

"No. He's currently in Suzuka because he's racing there in two days. Why?"

"Then Alyssa Leclerc is also with him right now?"

"No. She's here, with me. I'm Charles' life partner.", Mella's eyes flashed angrily.

"I want my daughter." she said in a clear voice "I'm not going to leave her here with an affair of her dad. Charles had promised to take care, but if he obviously won't, it's better if I take my daughter back to me. I have my living arrangements in order, as you have seen, and I want my daughter back," she said, addressing the woman who was writing something down.

"Wait a minute. You can't just show up here and take Aly. She's Charles' daughter and..."

"Mr. Leclerc is not present. He obviously doesn't care about his daughter, so we're going to return her to her mother's care," said the woman, "Mademoiselle Derou from Child Protective Services here in Nice."

"No. You can't just take Aly away from me, I...", panic shot up inside me.

"We can. They are not the child's legal guardians and you don't have custody of the girl and as long as Mr. Leclerc is not present, we will take the girl. She is better off with her mother than with a live-in partner of her father. Mr. Leclerc can sue for custody in court, but I'll tell you honestly, as long as he keeps doing his job, the chances for him are not very good. The child needs stable family relations and..."

"We have stable family relations! We live together in this house. I'm with Aly all the time, flying her to as many races as possible, but Charles and I have decided that it's better not to drag her halfway around the world all the time and..."

"He's breaking up with you again anyway! How stupid are you anyway? Do you think that just because he got you pregnant, he'll stay with you forever? Oh Evi, just look at yourself. So naive. He snaps his fingers once and you jump. How quickly do you think he'll get tired of you again? And I don't want my daughter caught in the middle. So. where is she?"

"No. You're not taking Aly away from me!", I growled and was about to slam the door, but one of the suits put his foot in between.

"Miss Vettel, be reasonable. Give us Aly voluntarily or we'll have to take her with the police. You have no authority to keep the child away from her mother. We could still charge you if you don't bring the child to us immediately. She will fly back to England with her mother. One way or another."

"No. No, you can't take Aly away from..."

I heard the small footsteps on the big staircase "Mama?".

"My darling!", Mella pushed past me, but Aly walked past her and clung to my leg, much like she suspected something was up.