"Miss Horner, you can come in now" said a nurse as she came out of the room next to her. From there Y/n could already see her father lying in bed.
She quickly greeted Max and entered the room. The very strong smell of disinfectant and medicines entered her nostrils and immediately she was reminded of all those days spent in the hospital next to her mom.
During her mother's illness, Y/n had always been close to her, together they played with dolls but also with RedBull models that Y/n would sneak from the shelves of her father's office. Doctors and nurses allowed her to stay there all day, until her dad came to pick her up. She remembers that when Christian came out of the room, he would immediately run to his wife, kiss her on the forehead and sit beside her. They talked for a while, while the nurse distracted Y/n with her toys.
Christian would never want to leave there either, he held her hand, smiled at her, looked into her eyes that gradually faded but were always as beautiful to him as the first day he had seen her.
Y/n watched them from afar and with a child's eyes convinced herself that sooner or later her mum would get out of there, that they would be a normal family again.
Instead, the illness worsened, Y/n could not see her every day anymore, and when that damn day her father came back from the hospital and told her that her mum was in heaven with her grandparents, Y/n ran off to her room and stopped talking to anyone. She was just a little girl, a little girl who no longer had her mum. There would be no more of her warm hugs, no more of her cakes, no more of her stories, no more of her sweet and gentle smile.
From that moment on, it was Y/n and Christian, who, from the start, did not live up to the situation. He was always at work and felt terribly guilty about it.
He had never been able to fill the immense void that his wife's death had created. He had not even been able to fill it for himself. Had never remarried, had never thought of meeting anyone else. He had totally devoted himself to work, which had drained all his energy, all the free time he should have spent with Y/n.
The relationship between father and daughter had always been complicated, impossible, difficult, silent. Yet Y/n was there, beside him, defying all the disagreements, all the spitefulness done by her father. After all, he was all she had left, and even Christian, deep in his heart, knew that Y/n was the only thing he had left in the world.
"How are you?" asked Y/n coldly, looking at all the little tubes connected to a machine next to the bed.
"I'm good, it's this place that makes me feel worse" he said, looking around. The memory and the resulting pain were the same for Y/n and Christian. For the first time in a long time, the two were closer than ever to each other.
The two remained silent for a while
"No one can put a Horner in the corner" Christian said, smiling. That had been their motto since Y/n could remember. His father used to repeat it to her. He tried to help her by prodding her, but she sometimes just needed a hug, to be understood and listened to.
"Yeah," replied Y/n smiling a little, imagining how difficult it was for her father to deal with all that pain as well. "You need to rest now. Other people can take your place for a while."
"No one can handle the team, they need me there"
"What did the doctors say?" Y/n pretended not to hear her father's words.
Christian didn't answer right away, he huffed, rolled his eyes and then said "they said my job is stressing me too much" those words were almost impossible for him to utter.
"You should listen to them, then"
"When you broke your ankle playing, you didn't want to stay in the hospital even for a day, remember?"
"I was only 11 years old. Besides, this place reminded me of..." she held back tears.
"...mum" Christian completed the sentence. His eyes were red too. The two looked at each other and found they felt the same feeling, the same pain at the same time. Y/n realised that she should no longer insist on making him leave, that the pain of a lost true love cannot be cured, and her dad's pain was, still is. Suddenly her father squeezed her hand. She stared incredulously, saw his wedding ring still there, on her left ring finger. He would forever be married to his wife, and all the mistakes he had made towards Y/n were the mistakes of a man who could not process grief, of a father who could not cope even with the grief of his only daughter he had from love with his only wife.
Y/n withdrew her hand, almost out of instinct.
"I was just dropping by to see how you were" she pulled up with her nose at the tears "I'm leaving now"
"Thanks for coming" Christian said smiling "you look tired, do you need anything?"
"No thanks..."
"Do you want some water? I'll have someone bring it to you"
"I'm fine, thanks. Bye..." she couldn't say the word dad. She couldn't, not after what he had done to her. He looked into her eyes, understood perfectly what his daughter was thinking and felt like a failed father.
"Bye Y/n"
Y/n closed the door behind her and saw Max sitting in front of the door looking at his mobile phone. As soon as he heard the door close, Max looked up and stood up to walk towards her.
"Were you able to change his mind?" asked Max referring to some healthy rest for Christian.
"You know better than me that's impossible."
"I've never seen a man as stubborn as him."
"You, for example?" the two smiled and the air thinned a little "I'm going now, Max. See you."
"Shall we have coffee? You slept here after all.."
Y/n remained silent, hesitated for a moment to answer, and when she was about to say something....
"Hey guys!"
Max and Y/n turned around. It was Checo, who had also arrived to visit Christian.
"Checo!" Y/n approached him and the two embraced. Checo holds her tightly to him, like a father would.
"I missed you a lot!" he said with his Mexican accent "do you want a coffee?"
"Yes, thanks!" perhaps that answer sounded too quick compared to the one not given to Max. Y/n felt she needed to talk to Checo, she knew she could only trust him now.
*CHARLES' POV*
"So? How did it go on the boat with Y/n?" Arthur had just hit Charles on the back with his tennis ball while his brother was distracted
"Ouch!" Charles threw the ball back at Arthur.
"We're curious," Lorenzo, the older brother, urged.
"...It went well, yes..." said Charles clearing his throat and becoming serious
"You don't exactly look happy. Did something go wrong?" asked Lorenzo
"...he went out with his best friend, what did you expect?" replied Arthur, a little know-it-all.
"Can we play, please? I have practice with Andrea later" Charles cut short, as if they weren't really talking about it.
The three Leclerc brothers played in silence and for a while no one touched the subject of "date with Y/n".
But then Lorenzo became serious and asked his brother again what had happened on that yacht last night.
"Nothing, everything went as I hoped."
"So what?" again Lorenzo, while Arthur stood there listening to them
"I don't want to talk about it" Charles smiled, as if to hide the discomfort that conversation caused him. He hit the ball with his racket and resumed playing but Lorenzo caught the ball with his hand and stopped the game.
"I'm sure we can help you..."
"I don't know if we are doing the right thing."
Those words echoed in his brothers' ears. No one expected such a cold response from Charles, but it was as if it came out of him on the spur of the moment.
Then, feeling the pressure of his brothers' stares, he continued to speak, trying to defuse the tense climate: "and I feel terrible because she is fantastic"
"I think it may seem strange at first. You've always been best friends. But it's only a matter of time, you'll get used to it"
"I was thinking the same thing, but after she left because of the issue of her father I was left alone and there I got to thinking..."
"Did you tell her?" asked Arthur who had finally spoken.
"Of course not. She was already quite shaken by the news about her father. Besides, I'm still too confused to tell her anything. I don't want to make her suffer further and unnecessarily."
"Did you...?" asked Arthur with a sly nosy manner.
"I'm not telling you that, little brother! This is grown-up stuff" the two began to nudge each other good-naturedly.
For a moment things seemed to have loosened up, but it was Lorenzo who got them both serious again.
"You need to think about how you feel about her, Charlie."
"Yes" Charles stopped joking with Arthur "I just want her to be happy. She has suffered too much in life"
"it's normal you feel that way. You don't want to ruin your friendship, right?" even Arthur was back in earnest.
"that's right, but maybe you're right" he turned to Arthur "maybe it's just our friendship I want to preserve. I don't want to lose it, of that I am sure."
"Have you heard from each other today?" asked Arthur, placing his racket in his rucksack. It was almost afternoon now and Charles was supposed to train with Andrea later.
"No, I don't want to bother her" Charles wiped his sweat with a towel.
"You should write something to her" Lorenzo suggested.
"Lorenzo is right, don't disappear" Arthur shouldered his backpack and together with the others headed for the exit.
"I think this is a very delicate moment for her. She will be with her father now, I don't want to intrude" Arthur and Lorenzo looked at each other, deciding not to push it any further. He would write to her when he felt more comfortable.
In fact, later that afternoon, after training with Andrea, Charles had placed himself on the couch to rest. He took out his mobile phone and, although he was not so sure what he was doing, he texted her.
He deleted and changed the content of the message a million times. He didn't want to be intrusive, he didn't want to text her how her father was doing, he didn't want to ask her how she was doing herself, not in a message. He felt like he was walking on broken glass. He was beginning to feel unsure of what to ask her, how to ask her. It was as if he had suddenly lost all spontaneity towards Y/n.
Do you feel like coming this race weekend? We'll be in Miami.