Chapter 19 #2
“I don’t really know. I was so angry with him that when I asked if he knew, I didn’t give him a chance to explain and walked out. Mark was his friend; he must have known something.”
“Ok, your job today is to speak to the survivors. We aren’t hiding this. Mark must pay for what he has done. I’m not sure what I should do about Lizzie. I’m going to think about that, and then I’ll come back to you for advice.”
As Ingrid was leaving Jonathan’s office, she bumped into Erik. All she said to him was, ‘Not now.’ Erik had her ring in his pocket. He had to find a way to speak to her somehow. He went into Jonathan’s office.
“Jonny, you have to speak to her for me.”
“Erik, I have more important things on my mind than how you’ve fucked up your relationship with that phenomenal woman. She’s going to save this team’s ass because of Mark and Lizzie’s monumental screwup. I also hope you had no part in it.” He looked at Erik sternly.
“I didn’t, and that’s what I need her to know!” Erik pleaded again.
Erik never thought that a woman would impact his driving.
He messed up FP3 and qualifying, only getting P5 for the race the next day.
He knew he should have been on pole. Ingrid left the circuit before he could speak to her, and he didn’t find her at the hotel restaurant.
Erik didn’t want to get his mother involved, but he knew it was his final weapon. He called her to his room.
“Mamma, you have to speak to her and explain for me,” he pleaded.
“I’m only going to do this for you, my son, because you two are perfect for each other, and I believe you didn’t know about what was going on,” Freja said.
Ingrid, meanwhile, was peeing on a home pregnancy test for the third time when her phone rang. She ignored it because she thought it was Erik again. When she eventually looked, she saw it was Freja.
“Mamma, if this is about Erik, then I don’t want to hear about it.”
“I know you don’t. I would be angry too. I know my son, and he genuinely didn’t know what Mark was up to this year. He knew about a short fling last year with another staff member. He also knew that Mark had what he called ‘certain proclivities’, but that’s it.”
Ingrid started crying on the phone. She was pregnant and felt so alone at that moment.
“Oh, my child, what’s the matter? Give me your room number, and I’ll come there.”
Ingrid gave Freja her room number on the promise that it would just be her. She soon knocked on her door, and Ingrid let her in. She gave her a long hug.
“What’s the matter, child?” Freja asked.
“At first, I thought I was just tired because of all the travel, and then late because of all the meds, and the stress of the travel and the championship. No, it turns out I’m pregnant. And I can’t even look at the father right now,” Ingrid said calmly.
“Oh, but Ingrid, this is wonderful news!”
“Mamma!” Ingrid exclaimed, “Did you not hear the part where I said I can’t even look at the father right now?”
“Oh, we can fix that. Come, let’s sit down and talk.” Freja put her arm around Ingrid and guided her to the bed. “Now, what are you angry with Erik about?”
“He knew Mark was up to all this shit.”
“I can tell when my son is lying. He didn’t know more than what he told me. And you know what we’ve been through as a family. He wouldn’t lie about this, and, after what you’ve been through, I wouldn’t allow you anywhere near him if I thought he knew Mark was capable of this.”
“I think I just needed to be angry at someone and blame someone for all this. He was closest.”
“Maybe,” Freja said. “You have been through a lot this year, Rookie, and now you have raging hormones.” She laughed.
Ingrid laughed with her. It did explain some of her reactions to the situation. She didn’t allow Erik to speak, and they had become better at that.
“Are you going to tell him?” Freja asked.
“Not yet,” Ingrid said, “I think we need to fix us first.”
“Ok, good, I said I would bring you back upstairs with me.”
“How did you know?” Ingrid looked at her, surprised.
“You two love each other too much.”
Ingrid went back to their room with Freja. She felt anxious because a part of her knew she had been in the wrong for not hearing him out and for keeping the pregnancy secret from him.
“Here, I told you I would bring her back.” With that, Freja left.
“Ingrid…” He ran up to her and took her in his arms. She couldn’t help but return the embrace. “I’m so sorry. I have been trying to tell you what I knew. If I had known that he had hurt anyone else, I would have said something.”
“I know,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“So, you forgive me?”
Ingrid looked up at him, their clear blue eyes finding each other for the first time in what felt like days.
“There’s nothing to forgive. I’m the one who should apologise for not hearing you out. I jumped to conclusions because of the Lizzie part in all of this.”
“I think I can explain the Lizzie part. It was Lizzie who Mark had a brief fling with the year before, and I knew about that.”
“Oh my god, that explains it all…”
Ingrid started to think about how and why it all fit together. She started pacing.
“You’re thinking or angry. I can’t tell which right now.”
“Both,” she said.
“Ok, but Rookie, I really would prefer to hold you in my arms again. It turns out I’m a bit of a mess without you now, and we have a race tomorrow.” Erik gave her his best puppy-dog-eyes look.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, you know I can’t resist that. I have other things to sort out.”
“And one more thing, will you take this back?” Erik held out the engagement ring.
“Yes, I was so silly to have left it behind. Probably could have bought myself a new flat with it!” She laughed.
“V?lva!” Erik took her in his arms, kissed her, and then picked her up and put her to bed.
???
The next day, Erik and Ingrid walked into the paddock as a team again. He was ready to fight his way back to a podium finish. Ingrid kissed him goodbye as she went to find Jonathan.
“Morning Jonny, I think I know what happened with Lizzie,” Ingrid started.
“Scone?” He asked. “These ones are really very good.” Jonathan had a thing about eating scones everywhere they went. Ingrid was feeling hungry, so she agreed and sat down. “You were saying about Lizzie?”
“Erik told me last night.”
“Oh, good, you’re on the mend,” Jonathan said. “He’ll drive like a champion again today. Sorry, you were saying.”
Ingrid was getting slightly irritated by how easily he was distracted and made a mental note that she would have to deal with this going forward.
“Erik said that Mark had a brief fling with Lizzie last year. Either something happened to her during that time with him, or Mark convinced her not to report him to you.”
“Both options sound plausible. I don’t want to ruin her career as a TP before it has even started,” Jonathan sighed. “It still won’t look good when all of this comes out.”