Mr. Arrogant ✞ Carlos Sainz Jr

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 27

♪ Thought you'd hate me, but instead you called
And said, "I miss you", I caught it ♪

Carlos Sainz POV

I knew that her dad went to speak to her. Only he knows how badly he took all of what happened. Ricardo had a minor stroke when the video was sent, it was minor because her mom was fast on calling the ambulance. The right side of his body was paralyzed for weeks while he underwent physiotherapy to regain his mobility, which was temporarily damaged.

He has been worsening but I think his mental state is what made him so weak over the years, he has been in the hospital a few times, he took his own body to the extreme, I think it was his way of dealing with the loss of his daughter, he always wished he had done more. 

The moment the truth came out, I was worried sick about him. As soon as Elena and him got home, she had to call an ambulance. His heart gave in, he was pronounced dead a couple of times before he was successfully stabilized. The only words he had said to Elena when he felt the tightness in his chest was not to tell Sofia.

We stood by his decision, he felt that he didn't deserve her sympathy, he didn't have a right to make her feel bad. He could do this alone if it meant that she wouldn't find out. But he is done running the business, he was advised to not stress himself more. Yesterday he felt that pain in his chest again but it was a false alarm. It was enough to scare him.

"I'm stepping down. I have my daughter now, I can't afford to lose her without making up for the shit I've done to her" 

Those words he told me yesterday showed me how much guilt he felt, how much guilt he is carrying around. Are we all feeling the same? The more we love her the more guilt we feel for failing this hard to protect her. 

I knew she wouldn't take this news well, if he didn't stop he could die at any moment from all the weight he is carrying around. She will live in fear that her dad can die at any moment. I told him to talk to her yesterday but he said he couldn't, he needed to do this first or he would back out from the guilt of dropping this information on her.

"Did you know?" I hear her voice while the door to my office opened and I look up at her, her eyes were red and the tears streamed down her face with no intention to stop.

"I'm sorry, but he will be fine. He is being followed by the best doctors in the world" I say getting up from the couch.

"You knew! You fucking knew my dad could've died and you didn't tell me! How would I have lived with that? He is my dad, he can't die without me by his side. He can't die this soon. I should've known" I watch as she dropped to the floor.

She was destroyed and I couldn't do shit once again. I sat on the floor and held her in my arms and I silently cried with her. He isn't my dad but he is my godfather and he treated me like his son. I don't feel her pain but I feel something similar.

"He won't die, he is okay now. There is no source of stress and nothing else to trigger him. He will be fine. We would've told you if it got to that point. Your mom was begging us not to call, she said that was his wish. If he woke up and you were there I think he would be disappointed in himself once again. No one knows what to do but all of us are trying to lift everything we can off of you. You've been through enough, we don't want to make it worse once again"

I tried explaining to her, but I know I could never make this easier, no one could.

"I'm sorry darling. I don't know what to do to make it up to you" I hear Ricardo's voice from the entrance of the office and we both look up at him.

"Please, just- Don't die. I have forgiven you. I now understand it was as hard for you. I know you were heartbroken, but you don't need to be anymore. I am here, I am your daughter. Don't leave me again" She implores and I see the tears in his eyes. 

"I won't even leave you again. Not if I can stop it. What I did can't be forgiven but I truly do love you and I wouldn't repeat it, I fucked up. Badly" He says as joins us on the floor. 

"It can be forgiven, I forgive you but I can't forget it. I can't be excluded, I can't be discarded like trash. I need to know these things, what else haven't you told me?" She asks fearful and he shakes his head.

"That was all. We've told you how these years were, I just left my health problems aside because you have too much on your plate already. I needed to have some courage to tell you the truth or I would keep running from it. Don't blame him, he was a pain in the ass. Always bothering me so I would tell you" Her dad says as he lets out a laugh.

"I was about to fire myself to make him suffer" She says as she wipes her tears away and I get up from the floor.

"Was it before or after flooding my office?" I ask as I help her get up, Ricardo is faster than the help I was about to offer him.

"Fuck off Carlos. I want the rest of the day off" She says crossing her arms and I nod.

"Do you want the year off? I will give it to you" I smirk as I see her almost killing me with his eyes.

"I want to be off until Friday, can your company survive without me?" She was challenging me.

"I can make it happen, don't worry about it. Be with your family" I was determined on giving her any time off she needed.

"Gracias mi tesoro" She says kissing my cheek before leaving with her dad. He looks back at me and gives me a thumbs-up. She hasn't called me that since the charity gala.