His eyes roam the paper he'd just stumbled onto, and he grips it tighter, almost tearing it apart.
"What the hell..."
The air gets knocked out of his lungs. Surely, he's reading this wrong. This can't be. There's no way Mia would have done this behind his back, right? Not after she'd badgered him for weeks about it and he'd explicitly told her no. So why is he holding a press release about his break-up with Emily? He reads it again. And again, until the words are imprinted in his mind.
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He doesn't know what's worse. That he didn't know anything. That he didn't see it coming. Or that it's dated June 18th, today's date. Or maybe, just maybe, it's the way it's been written, like he had approved it beforehand when this was the very first time he's seeing it. The words are dancing in front of him and he's having a really hard time keeping his breathing under control.
The decision was mutual. The whole thing sounds cold and impersonal, and not at all like him. It doesn't openly blame Emily, but the fans would most definitely be reading between the lines and pointing the finger at her. Which is exactly what Mia is hoping for. She's setting them up, and if he hadn't come across the document on her desk, she'd probably plan to publish it right after qualifying.
"Oh, you're early for once!" She's all smiles as she enters her office and sits down behind the desk. "Great, I wanted to talk to you about that interview you have with SkyNews tomorrow morning."
He stares at her for a moment, long enough for her to cock her head and frown.
"Is everything okay?"
He slams the document on the table, and she blanches when she recognizes it. "Care to explain this?"
Some stupid, naive part of him really hope he's got it all wrong, that she didn't stab him in the back, but the way her face hardens is all the confirmation he needs.
"Well... Since you didn't want to do it yourself, I thought I'd give you a little push." She fucking shrugs, as if he's blowing it all out of proportion.
"I told you, I don't want any announcement," he says firmly.
He had refused to communicate publicly on Emily and him four months ago, and he wasn't about to do it now. He hadn't even released a statement when his father had died, so she's barking up the wrong tree.
She sits behind the desk, all professional and stern. "We need to get in front of this before she talks and ruins your reputation. I've seen her with a lot of other drivers' girlfriends and you know news travels fast around here. We can't risk her bad mouthing you in front of the journalists, and we can't afford any bad press right now."
"We?" He grits his teeth and raises an eyebrow at her in challenge, but she doesn't back down.
"You need to be focused on the championship, not on that 'Emily situation'."
