Page 76 of Racing Hearts
The shrill ring of Georgia’s phone cut through the quiet living room.
“That’s odd. Why is Nora calling?” Georgia answered, putting it on speakerphone. “The interview went fine, Nora. So nosy.”
“Georgia, is Luca there as well?” Nora’s voice was low and serious, instantly killing whatever buzz we had left.
“Yes. You’re on speaker,” Georgia said nervously. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve had some bad news. We’ve just been told that theDaily Reporteris working on a story about us. Fortunately, I went to university with one of their journalists, so she called to give me a quick heads-up.”
Georgia’s face went still. “Wha-what do you mean? What story?”
“They’re going to publish an article at the end of summer break about your relationship with Luca. Our guess is they’re going to accuse Valkyrie and Hermes of conspiring together, possibly by trading secrets, but we aren’t sure.”
“That’s bullshit!” Georgia yelled.
My phone buzzed violently against the table. Dozens of texts from Matteo. This wasn’t some absurd rumor, it was already moving. Georgia’s hands were trembling, and I intertwined them in mine.
“We don’t know who their supposedsourceis, but we’re working hard to find out. Isabelle has retained a crisis manager, a close friend of hers who works in London. We’re to meet at the Valkyrie Monaco offices tomorrow, we’ve booked you a flight first thing. Luca, Matteo is booking you a flight back to Hermes HQ. With any luck, it’ll be a nonsense story that’ll blow over after the Austrian Grand Prix.”
I exchanged a glance with Georgia, and for the first time all evening, her confident blue eyes were filled with dread. Her jaw clenched, lips parted, like she was still trying to form the words to fight back. Georgia said a quick goodbye to Nora before hanging up the phone.
“My F1 career is going to be ruined,” she sobbed, her voice cracking with every word.
I cupped her cheek, letting my thumb swipe away the tear trembling on her lashes. “No, it won’t, Georgia. I’m here for as long as you want to keep doing this. I promise you that. Whatever is going to be said about us, we can fight, prove them wrong.”
“Even if we break up at the end of the season, everyone is going to accuse us of this being a PR stunt! I can’t force you to date me forever.” She continued to cry into me as I kept rubbing her back, trying to soothe her tears.
“Georgia Dubois, I promise you, I don’t care how long this takes.” I wiped away a tear with my thumb, gazing deep into her exhausted eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Georgia
The flight back to Monaco was a special kind of hell. Sleepless, stuffy, and silent, except for the anxious loop playing in my head. By the time we landed, my neck was aching, my eyes were burning, and my stomach felt like it had been through qualifying laps of its own. Isabelle had reached out earlier this morning, reassuring me that her friend from London was the top expert in handling such situations. While the article hadn’t come out yet, we knew we had to get ahead of this—and fast. So far, only the few individuals who were directly involved in the relationship between Luca and me knew about the crisis firm’s involvement.
By the time I arrived at the Valkyrie factory, my nerves were practically vibrating. The fluorescent hallway lights felt extra aggressive, like they were daring me to have a meltdown under their glow. I made my way to the main conference room and paused outside the door. Through the glass, I could already see Nora scribbling frantically in her notebook, occasionally nodding at a woman I didn’t recognize. When I entered the room, I cleared my throat and the three of them stopped their private whispering, and Isabelle waved for me to come in.
“Ahh, Georgia, good morning. This is Deborah. She’s been retained to help us.” Deborah was a staunch, grey-haired woman whose dark-rimmed glasses framed her large green eyes, which sat on top of an incredibly tense frown. It was hard to imagine her ever smiling, although if my entire job was to fix the mistakes of politicians and celebrities, I don’t suppose I’d smile much either.
I shook Deborah’s outstretched hand while Isabelle introduced the two of us. As I plopped down onto the old wooden conference room bench, the Hermes team’s faces appeared on the large TV screen. Lily entered the room a moment later, offering a quick apology for being late.
“Thank you for joining us. I know this is your midseason break, and that you are about to go on holiday, so I will keep this concise and to the point. While we aren’t entirely sure who leaked this information or what this article is going to say, rest assured, my firm is discreetly working on it. However, until we figure out how this was rooted out, we must continue to be a united front. It’s business as usual. Georgia and Luca, I hear that you have a nice trip to Mallorca planned. After some discussion with Isabelle, I think it would be best to add Henri to the trip. Lily, too, if she’s up for it. A strong show of unity before this goes live means we’ll have some fun social media posts and footage to share when thistabloiddrops the nonsense about your relationship.”
When I glanced at the large conference room screen, I could have sworn I almost saw my brother smile on the other end of the camera.
Did he want to come on this trip with me and Luca?
“Now, Georgia and Luca, we need to get some social media posts of the two of you going. The teams will work with you on what photos are best to share with the caption. I’ve sent some ideas over to Nora. Our strategy boils down to the following: we need everyone to believe, without any doubt, that Georgia and Luca are in love. Any potential accusations of cheating or PR stunts need to feel ridiculous whenever someone looks at these two. Now, any questions?”
A dark chuckle escaped my lips, much to Isabelle’s annoyance. To be fair to theDaily Reporter, if the article was about Luca and my PR relationship then they’d written a truthful story. And yet, somehow, as I sat in the Valkyrie conference room staring at Luca’s face on the screen, the insinuation that weweren’tactually dating didn’t really feel truthful either, because as each day passed, what Luca and I had was starting to feel…complicated.
Deborah’s loud voice pierced through the air, dragging me out of my lull. “Obviously, it goes without saying, you’ll need to extend this relationship timeline. Isabelle said the original arrangement was to potentially break up at the end of the season or when some sponsorship deals were made, but let’s make sure it’s pushed out to the start of next season at the earliest. Give us some time to weather this article.”
“Oh noooo,” Luca’s face popped up on the screen as he interjected sarcastically, feigning annoyance, “another couple of months dating the mostbeautifulwoman in the paddock, what a bummer for me.” My cheeks began to burn as they turned a bright shade of red.
“Don’t be silly, Luca,wearen’t dating,” Lily teased. Such a flirt. “Well, I think this sounds great. I’ve been dying to get onto Luca’s yacht, so any chance to sneak in a visit to Mallorca is fine by me.”
Deborah nodded at Lily as she motioned towards me, her painted fingernails now pointing my direction. “Any questions, Georgia?”
