Unbreakable Ties: An Arthur Leclerc Story

Chapter 12

When I got back to the hotel after dinner, I was a mess. 

Thankfully, Arthur and Lorenzo were still out, and I'd crawled under the covers, crying until I was fast asleep. 

I had stirred slightly when Arthur got back, but pretended to be asleep, even when he wrapped his arms around me, holding me close as he spooned me from behind. The tears felt like they were going to fall again, but I managed to hold them in until I fell back to sleep.

The blaring of my alarm woke me up in the morning and I grumbled as I turned it off, rolling back over into Arthur's arms.

"Morning pretty girl," Arthur sighed in my ear, placing a kiss on my cheek.

I burrowed in closer to him, seeking out his warmth. "Morning my love."

"How was dinner? You were out cold when I got home," Arthur asked softly, gently running his hand over my back.

I paused, thinking of how to approach this. My gut told me to tell him. I'd been living with the guilt for weeks and waiting for the shoe to drop had been killing me. 

But that tiny voice, one that had been getting louder since the night before, told me he'd never believe me.

"It was fine. I wasn't feeling great, so I came home not too long after you both left," a half lie.

"Oh really? We ran into Charles in the lobby when we got back and he didn't mention that," Arthur said, sitting up slightly and looking at me.

"Oh, umm, that's strange," I mumbled, not meeting his stare.

Arthur was silent for a moment, looking at me intently, as if he was searching for something.

"Is everything okay Em?" he finally asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"

"You just seem off. You know you can tell me anything right?" He tried again.

"I do!" I said, trying to be a little more upbeat. "I'm just not feeling great, must be jet lag or a cold or something."

He didn't look convinced.

"Come on," I finally said. "We need to get ready to go to the track."

Arthur sighed, but nodded and got out of bed, heading into the bathroom.

I took a deep breath. Come on Em, shake it off.

+++

ARTHUR'S POV

Something was wrong with my girl. Very wrong, I'd say. And she was shutting me out.

We'd rode to the track with Lorenzo, Charles and Andrea having left earlier in the morning, and Em hadn't said a single word. 

We were chatting about potential race strategies for Montreal and what we expected from the other teams, this being a track that Hamilton typically dominated at, and normally, Em would be all over this. She hadn't binge watched 10 seasons of F1 for nothing, and these days knew just as much about the sport as we did. 

So, the fact that she hadn't joined in on the conversation was weird.

But she'd been weird for weeks. 

When we got back from Milan, I thought she was just tired and overwhelmed, rolling from a race weekend right into Sophia's birthday celebrations. And while there had been glimmers of my Emmy, particularly when we were in Germany, she seemed stressed more often than not.

I could tell that she was trying to hide it from me and pretend she was fine, but I knew her better than that. I knew that something was bothering her and had been spending most of my free time trying to run through possibilities.