Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

XIX

Two laughters filled the room; it was the laugh of a toddler and the laugh of an adult. Juliette was walking through a house and followed the sound of the laughter.

"Mummy!" The toddler shouted between the laughter. His dad was tickling him, which caused the happy laughter.

"Hello, darling," Juliette said and shortly laughed.

Pierre looked at Juliette. "Hey, love," he said and widely smiled. "How was work?" He was lying on the sofa with the toddler sitting on his stomach.

She placed her bag on the table. "It was a good day, we made progress," she satisfied said.

"Daddy, when can I meet my baby sister?" The toddler curiously asked and laid down, placing his head on Pierre's chest. "It's taking so long." The toddler was highly convinced it would be a girl, but it was too early in the pregnancy to confirm that.

Juliette looked down and noticed a small bump, confirming she was pregnant. She walked over to the sofa and gave Pierre a kiss. The toddler sat up again, also wanted a kiss. Juliette sat down next to Pierre.

"It's gonna take a while, buddy," Pierre answered the toddler's question.

"Why? I want to meet her now!"

"Because the baby needs to grow in my belly," Juliette answered and fixed the toddler's hair. "You will meet the baby soon, I promise." She looked up, facing her mother, who was standing in the kitchen; Juliette hadn't noticed her before.

Claire locked her eyes with Juliette and was copping some vegetables at the same time. An evil smile grew on her face. "You're a bad mother, Juliette," she said. "A bad mother," she repeated and waved around with the knife. "You will never be a good person."

Although Juliette wanted to react to the comments, her muscles and mind were frozen. In the corner of her eye, she was Pierre and the child cuddling, it seemed like they didn't hear this. Juliette wanted to pluck every perfect styled hair one by one out of Claire's head.

"You're a coward, Juliette, you will always be a coward. I'm still wondering what Pierre sees in you."

☐

"Uhm," Juliette mumbled and looked around. The break was about to begin, the final lunch break before the race would start. "Let me get back to you in a minute," she said." Of course."

Juliette walked away from her garage, towards the Red Bull garage. She muted the phone call. Could she interrupt Red Bull? She had to, this person had been calling her for the millionth time, and he was on a deadline, so was Juliette on this project. She was standing in front of Pierre's garage; her dad was talking to some people.

"Dad," Juliette said when she thought Edward looked in her direction. She waved at him. "Edward." Saying his actual name, instead of dad, sounded a bit uncomfortable to her.

A mechanic walked over to Juliette. "How can I help you, miss Mercedes? You're entering the dangerous territory, you know that, right?"

Juliette pressed a fake smile on her face and looked at the mechanic. "Yes, I know, mister Red Bull," she uninterested said. "But I need to talk to Edward."

"Edward Reynolds or Edward Sloan?" The mechanic raised his eyebrows.

"Reynolds."

"Aha, Reynolds. Be right back, miss Mercedes."

"Thanks."

The mechanic walked into the garage, tapped on Edward's shoulder and pointed at Juliette. Juliette gave her dad a smile and waved at him. Edward looked surprised; he and his daughter agreed they wouldn't meet up during a race weekend, if so, not at day time. He excused himself from his colleagues and walked to Juliette, taking her to the race wall.