“We always knew she would,” I responded.
Because the girl we all believed in?
She fucking did it.
I wiped at my own eyes and laughed under my breath, heart breaking open all over again.
I had known for a year that I wanted to give her a proper wedding, but in this moment, it wasn’t about vows or public declarations.
It was abouther.
Her fire. Her grit. Her rise.
Tonight she didn’t need a pedestal or a partner. Shewasthe victory. Shewasthe dream.
And tomorrow—she’d wake up as a world champion. I’d take her hand quietly and casually, give her a pale pink dress to wear for unknown reasons.
Then I would walk her into the surprise reception I planned behind her back. She thought I’d forgotten, that maybe I’d wait until our five-year anniversary to do anything formal. But I’d been planning this for months.
Everything she ever said she wanted—every little detail, even the ones she thought I wasn’t listening to—was waiting for her. The flowers. The music. The food from that tiny bistro in Monaco that we both loved. A candlelit terrace, champagne, the people who mattered most. Marco. Ivy. Kimi. Étienne. Our teams. My parents. Her family. Everyone.
All of them already knew.
Because I didn’t need to say my vows again. I just needed to show her—like I always would—that I remembered.
That I built something for her.
That I made space for her name to live on, not just in the history books, but in every corner of my fucking life. In this sport. In our marriage. In me.
This wasn’t another wedding.
It was a promise, already fulfilled.
Because she was already mine. And I had always been hers.
But that was tomorrow. Tonight, I let the whole world fall in love with her.
Just like I did.
Since Spa.And now we’d have forever, too.
Both as legends in this sport, but most importantly, as the winners of each other’s hearts.
1 YEAR LATER
The world didn’t end when I crossed the finish line.
It exploded.
Light. Sound. Heat. A blur of fireworks bursting above the circuit. My own breath hitching on a half-sob, half-laugh, because the radio was screaming, “YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT! AURÉLIE, YOU’RE WORLD CHAMPION! A WORLD CHAMPION!”
Everything became fractured. It was all bright and loud and unreal, my mind barely able to keep up with what was happening after the intense focus I’d had since the second the race started.
I heard my own laugh crack out loud, breathless and disbelieving. “I did it. Oh mon Dieu, I did it.”
I remember my own hands leaving the wheel for a moment, hovering in disbelief, becauseI had done it.I, the girl who’d oncestood on her toes in Spa just to see the timing screens, had just won the World Driver Championship.
I remember seeing Kimi’s helmet in my mirrors, waving his arms and swerving like he was celebrating behind me.
