I wear the mask. The mask does not wear me.
He lifted his foot and tapped the brakes at the perfect moment, and when Tilney should have. As Tilney struggled with his grip, Clarke shot past him.
But Tilney was right behind him. And Tilney was driving a faster car on a straightaway.
Could Clarke keep him behind him? Could he keep it all behind him? And leave it there?
He could see the checkered flag up ahead. But something was different.
It took him a moment to realize what it was.
The flag wasn’t waving back and forth against the sky. It was the sky. It was just up ahead, on the horizon. And it was all he could see.
Chapter Forty-four
Clarke
Drenched in champagne, Clarke stepped off the podium and walked through a crowd of people cheering, congratulating him, and taking photos.
Roxanne was suddenly by his side. “Let’s head over to the FIA post-race press conference.”
The press conference was always held immediately after the podium celebration. The top three drivers from the race were required to attend.
He felt hands slap him on the back as he passed. People around him were talking, but all he could hear was a steady humming. Until two voices slipped through that humming.
“Mr. Rivers, are the rumors true? Is your daughter going to leave her position as team principal and return to driving? And if so, will she be signing with one of your teams?”
“Huh?”
“Your daughter.”
“My daughter? Why are you asking me about her? Leo Clarke just won his eighth championship trophy.”
A moment later, Clarke felt a hand on his shoulder. He swung around.
Hank Rivers.
The man held out his hand. “I want to congratulate you on a phenomenal win.”
Clarke stared at the hand. He’d never refused a man’s hand. Not even when he didn’t like the man. If a man offered you his hand, you shookit. That was just basic manners. Basic decency. And then he thought of Ceci. The things she said. The things she did. And he thought,Sometimes being indecent is the most decent thing to do.
He met Rivers’s gaze.
“I’m not going to shake the hand of a man who makes his own daughter pay for something she had no control over, for something that’s not her fault, for something that’s caused her more pain than you’ll ever experience in your life. Because she’s had to live with it. HER. WHOLE. LIFE.”
Am I shouting? I am. I’m shouting. And I don’t give a fuck.
“And not only that. She’s had to do it as a kid, with no father to lean on.”
He could feel people turning and suddenly going silent, watching and listening. And he didn’t give a fucking damn.
He poked Rivers in the chest. “You are a fucking idiot. Maybe I should soft-soap it, maybe you just don’t know any better, maybe it has to do with how you were raised and you’re hurting too. But none of that changes the fact that you are a FUCKING IDIOT. Do you know how many men would give their right arm and more to have a daughter like Ceci?” He lowered his voice so that others couldn’t hear. “She loses her mother and her twin sibling in one fell swoop, and from the day she’s born gets stuck with YOU. My God, it would be enough to make a person go insane or quit life altogether. But not her.”
Rivers opened his mouth as if to speak, but Clarke didn’t give him the chance.
“Not only does she pick one of the toughest sports on the planet, but one that is pure male because that’s all you see at every level in this sport—men. And she becomes the ONLY female team principal on the paddock. You do know there are only twenty F1 teams. That makes her one of twenty people. ON. THE. ENTIRE. PLANET.
“And as great as she is as a principal—damn, she kicked my ass last year and almost did this year—I hope she does go back to driving. Because her driving is a thing of beauty. Have you ever even seen her race?
