Page 49 of Faster

Chapter Thirty-Five

Cece looked at the boats along the Quai Jean-Charles Rey as she walked along Avenue Albert II to the coffee shop near the apartment she’d shared with Ethan.

Despite their statement to the press about remaining happily married, Ethan had stayed away from their shared apartment after Zandvoort.

She wasn’t sure what that meant. Did it mean he loved her enough to give her up?

Or did it mean he’d realized he wasn’t in love with her enough to blow up his entire life?

Just thinking about it made her dizzy. And thinking about where she should go made her nauseous.

Monaco was probably the best place for her at the moment—given that there weren’t paparazzi leaping out of bushes—but she couldn’t afford to stay here long-term.

Ethan had assured her that he wasn’t going to kick her out, but his largesse would run out eventually.

And there were still the racing fans who made pilgrimages to the principality, calling her a whore and snapping pictures on their phone.

For the past few weeks, since she’d left Zandvoort, she’d left her apartment during the day exactly once for a walk through the Princess Grace Rose Garden.

It only took a few Bendetto fans calling her names while streaming live on TikTok to stop her from going out.

That, and the fact that it reminded her of where Ethan had proposed in the English garden on his parents’ estate.

Being shouted at while crying was a sad contrast to being an honored guest at an anniversary event there a few years ago.

But this was early in the morning. She needed the fresh air, and Paola had asked her to meet.

Her curiosity about what the other woman could possibly want outweighed her good sense.

It couldn’t be for anything good. Now that she’d caused a scandal, no one in the racing world would want anything to do with her—or so she’d assumed.

She walked into the anonymous little café and stopped cold. Micaela Cartwright sat at a table with Paola. They were facing the door, as though they were waiting for her to come in. The young racer looked like she’d been up all night crying. Though Cece could relate, she wondered what had happened.

Paola stood up when Cece got to the table and gave her a half hug and a kiss on both cheeks. Micaela just hugged her so tightly that Cece was about to lose her ability to breathe. What the hell was going on here?

They all sat, and Paola folded her hands in front of her as though she was about to pitch her on a multilevel marketing scheme. “You’re probably wondering why we’re all here.”

“I’ll say.” Cece was glad the other woman wasn’t beating around the bush. She knew she’d always liked her for a reason. “I’d also like to know why Micaela looks ‘rode hard and put away wet,’ as my one Midwestern grandfather used to say.” Micaela’s nose scrunched up. “I’m sorry, but it’s true.”

Micaela shook her head. “No. It’s fine. You’re right.”

“I think we have a common enemy,” Paola said.

“What do you mean?” The only enemy Cece had was the person who gave or sold photos of her, Luca, and Ethan to @WAGsandSLAGs.

Paola looked at Micaela, seeming to wordlessly ask for permission to continue. The racer nodded.

“Some anonymous finsta sent me a DM yesterday that the same Instagram account that broke the story about you and your—two men is about to break a story about Micaela’s relationship with Liam.

” Cece didn’t say anything, so Paola continued.

“I don’t think it was at all fair for you to have to leave in the middle of the race weekend as though you’d done something wrong. You’re all consenting adults.”

“You’re in a relationship with Liam?” Cece was still trying to process that part. Micaela had always seemed like she had a good head on her shoulders, so she was a bit shocked.

Micaela nodded. “I was in a relationship with Liam. But he got scared that Brent was going to find out, and then he figured it out anyway when Liam gave me Brent’s chassis.” The racer pushed a hand through her tousled blond hair. “And now the whole world is going to find out.”

Cece’s mind was racing, and the silence between the three of them felt tight and constricting.

A server came to take their order while Cece collected her thoughts.

If there was someone in the paddock leaking salacious stories about people’s private lives—across two teams—it had the potential to destabilize the entire grid.

She reached a hand across the table to cover Micaela’s. “I’m sorry you got your heart broken.”

“It’s that obvious, isn’t it?” The girl truly sounded miserable. “Everyone’s going to think I’m a pathetic dum-dum.”

Cece had to try not to laugh. What she’d said was funny, but the situation wasn’t. There was someone—or someones—spreading personal secrets beyond the paddock. Whoever they were, they were cracking open the glamorous facade of this sport and spilling all of the not-so-pretty guts.

The information ecosystem in this sport was more delicate than one liked to think.

Traded information, even gossip that was unrelated to anything that happened on the track, was valuable.

Assuming it was the same person who’d leaked both stories, they must have a goal other than chaos.

So, the question of their identity was burrowed inside what that person could possibly want.

“What do we know about the person behind this account?”

Paola’s shoulders dropped. “I’m surprised that I didn’t have to convince you that I’m not some sort of conspiracy theorist.”

“You could be, but we’ve both been around long enough to know that rumors in this sport never surface for no reason.”

“I don’t think it’s Brent.” Micaela rubbed her eyes again.

The poor girl needed to sleep. She had to race in less than two weeks in Baku.

Cece had tried to avoid anything related to motorsports since leaving the Netherlands as though the devil was on her tail, but she hadn’t been able to resist watching Luca and Ethan every second she could at Monza.

It was her favorite race of the year. Her heart ached watching from afar, but just seeing their faces fed something in her.

She was still hopelessly addicted to them both.

Watching the previous race weekend also meant she’d seen Micaela’s crash and the fallout.

She didn’t see Brent in the garage after he’d been ousted from his car.

Given Micaela’s devastation about what had happened between her and Liam, she couldn’t imagine what might have happened behind the scenes.

It was entirely possible that Brent had shared with someone who shared with someone who shared with the ghoul behind @WAGsandSLAGs.

“I know what you’re thinking, and he didn’t tell anyone. He was so embarrassed.” Micaela was indignant about it. “And I don’t think he knew or cared about your—thing—with Ethan and Luca.”

“Maybe it was more than one person feeding information to this asshole?” Cece didn’t know Brent that well. He didn’t seem like a gossip, unlike some of the drivers, but she couldn’t know for sure.

Cece looked at Paola. There’d been whispers around the paddock that she and Brent had taken their professional relationship into very personal realms, but nothing confirmed. Cece raised a brow. She’d thought that Paola was smart enough not to get snowed by a pretty face.

She’d thought that of herself until the beginning of the year.

“I didn’t see him before he left.” Paola looked haunted. “I packed up some of his things. He rushed to the airport so quickly.”

“Have you spoken to him at all?” Cece asked. “How can you be so sure that he wasn’t impulsive enough to blow up the team entirely?”

“I’ve asked myself the same questions, but I just don’t think he’d want it public that his ex-girlfriend and his dad were having an affair behind his back.” Micaela flinched at Paola’s words. It did sound terrible when you put it like that.

Cece felt a twinge in her chest seeing Micaela’s pain. Even if it turned out they’d been targeted by two different people, they were in the same boat. “You’re the only person who can understand what I’m going through. I can’t believe this is going to come out, and we’re not even together anymore.”

“It sucks that the worst part about all of this going public is that we don’t even get to be with the people we love.”

“So, you love them?” Paola asked. “It was never just a sex thing?”

They were being really honest, then? Cece didn’t have any reason to hide anymore.

Her pride wouldn’t be preserved if she denied loving them.

“I do love them. I think I have from the second that we met. The issues in our marriage—they weren’t caused by the fact that we weren’t involved with Luca all along.

But something was missing without him. We didn’t communicate the way we should before him. I’m not sorry it happened.”

“Did they send you away in Zandvoort?” That was what some of the blogs had speculated. It made Cece feel cheap to even think about that possibility.

“No, I insisted on leaving. I knew that if I took myself out of the picture, things would calm down.”

“But they haven’t,” Micaela said.

Cece’s heart sunk. “What do you mean?”

“They are getting harassed by fans who want to replace you.” Paola shrugged. “It turns out that you were living the dream that a lot of fans didn’t know they had.”

“I would not want to be involved with two drivers.” Micaela shook her head. “One team boss was enough.”

After a beat, they all grinned at each other.

True to character, Paola went right back to business. “Who has something to gain from two different teams in chaos?”

Micaela shrugged. “Anyone who doesn’t have a seat. Silly season is over, so there are a couple of desperate guys on the grid.”