The next morning, Celia woke up earlier than her alarm. She felt nervous because it was the day of the press conference. Celia knew they'd ask her tough questions, questioning her skills in replacing Checo. It wasn't easy being the only female driver on the Grid in 2016, and it wasn't going to be easy now either.

But she'd broken down barriers before, 5 years ago, when it was even harder to break into such a male-dominated sport. This time, she had more experience and confidence. She also had more motivation—her daughter.

Celia wanted to show her daughter that nothing is impossible if you try your best, and being a woman wasn't a disadvantage, no matter what the rest of the world tries to tell you. With that in mind, she got up, freshened up, and headed towards her daughter's room.

As Celia approached Harper's room, she heard giggles from the other side of the door. Curious, she opened the door and saw Harper and Max cuddling on the small bed. Max had curled his feet to fit, and they were talking softly about something. When the door opened, they both looked up at Celia, and Harper exclaimed, "Mama! Why are you awake already?" in an annoyed tone.

Celia frowned and replied, "I have to go to work soon, baby." Harper sighed and sat up, pouting, "but Dada said you would wake up after an hour. We were going to surprise you!"

"What surprise?" Celia asked, confused. She walked to the bed and sat on the corner, where there was barely any space left. Harper crawled over to Celia, laying her head on her mother's lap and stretching her legs over Max's stomach, who was lying opposite them on the other side of the bed.

"She wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed before the conference," Max explained as Harper continued to pout, disappointed that her plan had failed.

"Aww baby, that's so nice of you, thank you," Celia cooed, kissing Harper's forehead gently. "I'm sorry I ruined the surprise."

"It's okay, Mama," Harper sighed. "Since you are up, can we have family time?" she asked, excited to have both her parents with her.

Due to their busy schedules and Max's constant traveling, they rarely had the chance to be together as a family of three. Both Celia and Max prioritized Harper and made sure to spend time with her every day, but it was uncommon for all three of them to be together at the same time. Whenever this happened, Harper called it her 'family time,' as it was special to have her family with her.

"Sure, Mi ángel," Celia nodded with a fond smile. "Do you want to freshen up first? I will make us breakfast while Dada helps you?"

"No, I want to stay here more!" Harper whined as Max laughed at her antics.

"Okay, we will stay here," he agreed. "Do you want to play a game?"

"No, I want storytime!" Harper exclaimed excitedly. "Tell me the story of how you two met."

"You already know the story, baby-"

"I want to hear it again!" she insisted. Celia sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue. Harper loved hearing stories about their old racing and karting days.

"We were babies when we met," Celia started. "Just a bit older than you are now."

Max smiled fondly as he listened to Celia, thinking back to that day. He still remembered it so clearly.

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** It was a particularly windy day as Celia sat in her booster seat in the back while her dad drove and her mom sat in the passenger seat.

Celia didn't quite remember where her love for karting or racing began. It might have been from watching it on TV, from that one time she went karting with her cousins but was too young to drive, so she had to watch from the sidelines, or from meeting Michael Schumacher after he won his 2004 championship, when her parents were invited to his private celebratory dinner.

As soon as she turned 8, Celia asked her parents to enroll her in a karting cadet academy. At first, they thought it was just a phase and took her karting occasionally. But her passion only grew stronger, and she kept asking to go karting every day. Her parents then realized it was more than a phase and finally agreed to enroll her in the academy.

That's where they were headed now. Celia couldn't wait to learn karting from experts and move up the ranks. Even at her age, she knew everything about karting—terms, requirements, and rules. Instead of playing with toys and other kids, she had spent the past year reading about karting and motorsports.

Her parents had always assumed that because they were both involved in filmmaking, she would also show interest in it. While she enjoyed seeing how movies were made, she always found herself drawn back to cars and motorsports at the end of the day.

So Maximo decided that if this is what his daughter wanted, he would give her the best shot at pursuing her passion. He asked for advice from Michael and found the best karting academy he could, flying down to Belgium and getting Celia all the things she would need for her karting practices.

Funnily enough, Michael had given Maximo the number of his close friend, Jos, whose son was also karting in Belgium. Michael had requested Jos to help Celia get accustomed to karting, liking the passion the girl had for the sport, at her young age.

As they arrived at the academy, Maximo parked the car and Lucila got out of the car to unstrap Celia from her booster seat. The three of them walked in and sat at the reception as they waited for Michael's friend.

A few minutes passed before the reception's door opened and two people walked in. Celia immediately recognized Jos from the pictures.

Jos smiled as he shook Maximo and Lucila's hands before crouching down in front of Celia, smiling as he reached out to shake her hand too. "Hello there," he said as Celia smiled back, "I'm Jos Verst-"

"I know who you are," Celia interrupted as Jos raised his brow curiously, "I saw pictures of you in the magazines."

"You did, huh?" Jos laughed, "One day they'll have your pictures on magazines if you train hard, you know."

Celia giggled at his words, daydreaming about having her picture on a sports magazine one day too.

"I will train hard and become World Champion one day!" she exclaimed as the adults laughed, admiring her enthusiasm.

"That's the spirit!" Jos encouraged. Before he could say more, the door opened again as a lady and a young boy of her age walked in.

"Oh," Jos said, standing back up as he took the young boy's hand, "Celia, meet my son, Max" he introduced, "he will also learn with you."

"Hi Max," Celia smiled, waving as Max only mumbled back a response, not really interacting with Celia, which made her frown a bit.

But she quickly dusted it off as her parents engaged in a conversation with Jos and his wife, Sophie.

They sat and discussed all the schedules and arrangements. Since Maximo and Lucila were both busy with multiple filmmaking projects, they were unable to stay with Celia in Belgium. They had thought this would make her reconsider going to this academy but she didn't hesitate for too long before agreeing to stay at the academy's hostel with the other kids.

Now, as they sat in the reception, planning it all, Lucila couldn't help but get emotional at the thought of leaving her daughter alone in a whole other country. Sophie, understanding the mother's sentiment, reassured her, "don't worry, Jos will take good care of her. And every weekend, she can spend with us at our place. She won't be alone, she will have us with her."

As the parents planned, Celia sat, excitedly swinging her legs back and forth, ready to start this new chapter. Beside her, Max sat quietly, staring at his feet and stealing glances at Celia every now and then. **

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"Dada! Why did you not talk to Mama?" Harper frowned, interrupting the story, not liking her dad's behavior towards her mom.

"I didn't know her well, Schatje," Max tried to reason but Harper shook her head.

"But Mama was nice to you," Harper pointed out as Celia grinned, liking that Harper would always defend her on this.

"Your dad has always been grumpy, even as a kid," she chimed in as Max looked at her with a betrayed look.

"That's a lie," he rolled his eyes, "I was nice to you later when you came over to our place for the weekends!"

"Only because Sophie would scold you for not wanting to share with me," Celia reminded as Max rolled his eyes again.

"Gramma Soph is also on Mama's team," Harper grinned. Max playfully glared at Harper, trying to look upset but actually knowing Harper and Celia were right. He had no reason to be mean to her or ignore her. He didn't know why he did it either. Maybe because as an 8-year-old, it was weird to have your classmate come over at your place every weekend, or maybe because Victoria would always tease him as the weekends arrived, talking about 'his girlfriend' - what Victoria would call Celia behind everyone's back, liking how worked up it would get Max if she called her that.

"Mama?" Harper then asked after a few seconds of silence as Celia hummed, "do you think when I'm big, I can go karting too?"

"Sure, baby, if you want to," Celia nodded, smiling at the thought of Harper taking up karting as well one day.

Suddenly, Harper got up from where she was laying on her mom's lap and excitedly jumped on the bed.

"Do you think I will also meet a boy at karting like you met dad?" she asked, giggling as suddenly the smile fell from Max's face. Celia let out a short laugh, seeing Max's expression change at Harper's words as he now turned to glare at Celia for laughing.

"Karting isn't about meeting a boy, Harp," Max said, trying to sound stern.

"But Dada, I wanna be like Mama!" she cheered as Celia smiled fondly, "and and, I want my boyfriend to be a Champion too, like you, Dada." she said as Celia laughed again.

"Dada wasn't a Champion when we would kart, you know," she said with a smirk as Max rolled his eyes at her, "he would often lose to me."

Harper laughed, finding it funny that her dad, who was pretty much undefeatable to others, would somehow lose to her mother.

"That rarely ever happened," Max countered and now it was Celia's turn to roll her eyes.

"Oh, don't lie," she dismissed him, "after I got the hang of it, you would lose to me at every karting practice. I remember how mad Jos used to be with you."

"Why was Grandpa mad?" Harper then asked, curious.

"He wanted Dada to be the best." Max explained, "he helped me train hard and that made me so good now. Hard work always pays off, Harpie."

"Right," Celia scoffed, hearing Max talking fondly about Jos to their daughter. It was no secret Celia didn't like Jos. In fact, if he ever visited, she would suddenly have to go out of town 'for work', to avoid having to meet him and act civil with him in front of Harper.

Of course, she would never let Harper think there was anything wrong amongst her family members but having to tolerate Jos' presence was where she drew the line. Thankfully, it wasn't that difficult anyway as Jos would rarely ever visit, in the first place.

It was almost funny, and definitely sad, how within a year of karting, Celia had gone from admiring and looking up to Jos to being terrified of him and hating his guts. And ever since then, for the last 18 years, Celia's hatred for Jos only grew as time went by. But she wasn't going to let that show to Harper. She couldn't.

It was Max's decision to still keep Jos around in his life as his mentor, his Chief Advisor. And by letting Max be a part of Harper's life, Celia had unwillingly agreed to, by extension, let Jos be a small part of Harper's life too. No matter how much Celia had tried over the years to show Max how cruel his father was to him, Max would always disagree. And now, Celia knew better than to try anymore. She didn't have any reason to.

When Celia and Max were together, Jos was still a part of her life because of Max. But now, the only connection between her and Jos was the small thread of his being her daughter's father's father.

Since Jos, himself, wasn't keen on being a part of Harper's life, it made things simpler for Celia. She didn't have to worry about that awful man influencing her daughter the way she had seen him affect Max over the years.

She watched helplessly as he took away every shred of happiness from Max's eyes, constantly telling him what he was doing wasn't good enough and that he would never amount to anything good in life unless he worked harder.

Suddenly, Celia felt a gentle tap on her shoulder, bringing her back from her thoughts about the past.

"Where were you lost?" Max asked, now standing beside her.

Celia glanced around and heard Harper's voice from the washroom.

"I was...thinking about the conference," she said, though she was lying. She sighed and stood up. "I'll go make breakfast."

Max nodded slowly, noticing her sad smile. He knew she was lying; he could always tell. But he didn't understand why she'd be lying. He wondered what she was really thinking about that had made her so glum suddenly. Was it something he had said again?