Chapter 225
aurélie
Loving her was the easiest thing I’d ever done. –Cal
Anightmare race.
The heat was suffocating—even at night—and my race drink stopped working halfway through. Every breath felt shallow, every corner a fight. I pushed anyway, the way I always did.
I made it through most of the race before I clipped the wall. It was just enough to damage my suspension. It meant DNF’ing the race.
My first in a long while.
I sat in the car longer than necessary, helmet still on, hands locked around the wheel like letting go would make it real. When I finally climbed out, the lights were too bright, the noise too loud. I carried the failure with me.
I didn’t talk to anyone. Not the team. Not the press. Not even Ivy.
That night, the city buzzed outside our hotel like nothing had happened—neon and music and celebration bleeding through the glass. Callum found me curled inward on the bed, still wrapped in the quiet.
It had been a good race for him. Another win, but he didn’t lead with that. He just crawled in beside me, pulled me close, like we’d done a thousand times before and he knew this was what I needed.
Later, when the world had gone soft around the edges, he flattened his palm over my stomach and murmured, “One race doesn’t define you.”
I didn’t answer. I just let him hold me until the words stopped feeling like pity and started feeling like truth.
And even then, the loss stayed with me.