High stakes - part 3

ACT 2 - four

The next day was pretty hard. It was race day and I was watching it inside the Mclaren garage.

A lot of people obviously didn't want to see me here, they didn't trust me. They thought I wanted to mess them up, to take revenge on Lando.

If they only knew that their team was pretty messed up already. I didn't need to do anything to see them burn to the ground.

The car wasn't performing great, the drivers were pretty frustrated by that and so were the mechanics.

But how could the car be good if you fire your best engineers? It just wasn't possible.

"I found some talented engineers and mechanics who left Red Bull and Ferrari" Juliette whispered as she sat down next to me.

"Reasons why they left?"

"Budget, some of them also wanted a change in their life" she explained as she was going through her notes.

"Okay, contact them and you know what to offer them"

She nodded and got up again. "On it"

She didn't think it was a good idea to be Mclaren's co-owner but she was as passionate and motivated as me.

She worked very hard to take Hilton to the top again and she was gonna do the same thing for Mclaren.

We were a pretty deadly duo.

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Even after the race, most of the people didn't talk to me at all.
I expected it to be difficult, but never this much.

I just wanted to get out of here and I probably wasn't gonna get back very soon.

They would probably talk about me as soon as I turned my back.

Max Verstappen was walking next to me as I wanted to get out of the paddock.

"You okay?" He asked. "It's fine" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Are they shutting you out?"

Even he noticed it and he wasn't even a part of our team.

"Pretty much yeah"

He nudged me a little. "They don't know how lucky they are to have you. I would much rather have you on my team"

Did I make a mistake? Should I just have taken my money and left? Maybe.

But I couldn't do that to Lando. No matter how much he hurt me, I would never want him to drive in a shit car, because of me.

"Chin up Rae, they would kill to see you fall" he said before brushing his hand against my back and walked to his car.

I looked at him for a second, because he was right, they all wanted to see me fall, but I wasn't gonna let that happen.

"Forgot how to drive?" I looked at Oscar, who was leaning against his car. "Forgot the keys, my trainer is searching for them now"

I chuckled, walked up to him and leaned against his car as well. We didn't talk, I think we both needed a moment to ourselves.

Until Lando walked passed us, he gave us one quick look before getting in his car.

"You don't deserve to be taken for granted. You don't deserve to be cheated on. You don't deserve to be put second" Oscar said pretty quiet.

I turned my head to him, I wasn't expecting this at all.

"You are amazing Rae, I always thought that and he's a fool if he doesn't see that" he turned his head to me and smiled.

"Thanks Oscar" I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him so tightly. "I really needed to hear that"

"I really mean it, I'm not just saying this because you are the boss"

He brushed his hand against my back and for a slight minute, we were looking at each other and I could see he meant everything he told me.

It felt good to have some people in my corner, I didn't necessarily need it, but it gave me a reason to smile again.

"I guess he found my keys" Oscar said as he nodded at his trainer. "I'll see you next weekend"

I nodded, even though I wasn't sure if I was gonna be there.

Oscar definitely gave me a reason to come.