Romeo and Juliet || Carlos Sainz

The heartbeat

"I don't usually take an interest in the private lives of pilots, on the contrary! But they just sent me some photos and I can't ignore them."
"What are these pictures about?"
"Have you taken a tour on social? Instangram, TikTak, that sort of thing."
"Actually no, I haven't used my phone much" Charles laughed, Mattia was such a boomer.
"Well, I'll tell you. Someone is spreading pictures of Y/n in Max Verstappen's car wearing his clothes"
Charles stood motionless for a second. It was not possible. Y/n is not naive enough to be photographed in such an ambiguous situation, they must have been mistaken, it couldn't be her.
"Are you sure it was her?" said Charles, but it couldn't not be her, she was there with Max at this very moment, actually. Could it be that she had lost her mind?
"Of course it's her, Charles, don't defend her. You know perfectly well what I thought of her and I believed you. But now this...my hands are tied Charles."

Charles' heart stopped for a moment. Mattia intended to fire Y/n and he had to stop him at all costs. She was the best engineer they'd had in recent years at Ferrari, they couldn't lose her to gossip.

"Mattia I know what you're thinking, but I swear she has nothing to do with her father. Whatever those pictures are, it's not what you think. I'll vouch for her, but don't fire her, we can't lose her."
Charles could not lose her. He had grown fond of her, she had become really important in his life and he could not allow her to be fired from the Scuderia.
"They have already called me from Maranello and they are not happy about this at all. They fear there is a lot more behind it from Horner."
"Can you try to talk to them again? I'll talk to Y/n in the meantime and get an explanation of what happened. Talk some sense into them, Mattia. I know you can do it."
On the other end of the phone, Mattia let out a long sigh, then said goodbye to Charles and ended the call.

Immediately, Charles sent the message to Y/n.

*Y/N POV*

"They saw you, actually" Charles said as he dropped into an armchair.
"What? Who? How?"
"It doesn't matter anymore. Binotto called me and..."
"and...?"
"And he thinks your father is behind it all."
"Are you telling me he thinks I'm a spy for my father?"
"Not a spy, Y/n..."

Spying had happened in Formula 1 before and everyone in there knows how it ended. To cut a long story short, it didn't end well at all.

Y/n turned pale, began to break out in a cold sweat. She saw her whole career pass in front of her, all the news about her, a career destroyed, years of studies and sacrifices thrown to the wind, and then the suspicions, the trials and God knows what.
She felt her legs give way, her vision begin to blur.
"Y/n! Y/N!" shouted Charles, who grabbed her by the arms to prevent her from falling to the ground.
She woke up after a few moments, she was on Charles' bed as he held her legs up.
"You need to take it easy, y/n. I'm here to defend you. I've talked to Mattia, you'll see we'll work it all out. I promise."
Charles looked at her and smiled the sweetest smile she had ever seen. She slowly sat down on the bed, then hugged Charles tightly and he gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"I have good news for you," he said putting a lock of her hair behind one ear. "Caco called and said we can visit Carlos whenever we want."
Actually that was not good news. That is, it was, but not under those circumstances. The 'relationship' with Carlos was certainly not exclusive, but Carlos had always been suspicious of her and Max and she knew it. These damn pictures would have confirmed Carlos's suspicions and destroyed everything they had managed to build up in recent times. A sandcastle far too unstable to withstand the first gust of wind.

"Do you think we should go?" asked Y/n now resigned.
"In my opinion you should. You were about to lose him forever. We'll get out of the hotel's inner car park and make sure we're not seen."
"I don't deserve a friend like you, Cha" Y/n looked into his eyes and felt serene, as if they had the power to relieve her of any suffering. Those blue eyes were so deep and full of kindness, it was like God painted his eyes choosing the most beautiful shape of blue that exists.