Lap 16

malicious

"Are you willing to make any comment on the alleged cheating rumors?"

Dev turned to Abby, she didnt understand. Abby jumped in front of her and started to push her away.

"We will not be making a statement at this time."

Abby turned her back to the media and led Devlin away by pushing on her arm. Once she had been guided out of the media pen she turned to her manager and long time friend.

"Abs, what cheating rumors?"

"Let's get back to the garage. We didnt want to tell you before qualifying.

Abby walked away towards the garage. She looked over her shoulder back to the media pen and could see Charles get peppered by reporters. His manager started to jump in as well. He looked at her through the crowd. His eyes told her that something serious was being thrown around.

She jogged after her manager. Once they got into the garage, the whole team's attitude was stiff towards her. She reached her driver room and Abby locked the door behind them.

"You're going to want to sit down for this."

Devlin sat down on the small couch there. She was utterly confused. Cheating rumors?

"There were some pictures leaked of Charles with a girl in Monte Carlo and the media is running wild with it. Someone tipped them off that the scars on the girl's hand were comparable to yours."

Devlin just shook her head.

"Show me these pictures."

Someone had taken pictures of them in Monte Carlo for sure, but they were from January.

"Those are old pictures from January! That's when we went to the masquerade themed club night."

"Yeah I know. But someone also leaked these photos after the initial leak."

She turned the phone back to Devlin. It was pictures of her and Charles when he was leaving the club in Bahrain. That was the night she told him it would never work.

"Okay so? He just got a little close to me! He asked to me to basically see him again but I told him that I have a boyfriend- fuck does Kaden know?"

They had gotten into a fight before they went out in Bahrain. She didn't really want to go out and she just wanted to go out with Lewis and Checo. Kaden insisted that she went out with them. She declined until he made her feel bad about not spending time with him. It was something she struggled with a lot during the first few races but as the season went on there were no issues with it, they made time for each other if they could. After her conversation with Charles, she went back to the boys, shared one drink with them before turning in early. She went back to the hotel by herself, perhaps it didn't look great on her end.

"I mean the whole paddock knows."

"Fuck."

She jumped up and raced to unlock the door. She wasn't even out of the Mercedes garage when she found him. He had been looking for someone, not her but Lewis.

"Kaden, please listen to me."

He shoulder right by her as he made his way back towards the drivers rooms. His height made it impossible for her to get him to look at her. She grabbed his arm and gently sunk her nails in a bit.

"Please listen to me, it's just a huge misunderstanding."

He took a breath and whipped his head down to face her.

"A misunderstanding? You seemed to understand Charles pretty well in those pictures."

"The pictures from Monte Carlo were from January, I swear. Ask anyone when that masquerade themed night was. It was before we met!"