With a flourish she turned on her heels, and looked straight into her father’s eyes who was stood next to Prince Albert. Her father did not look shocked, he did not look surprised; his face was totally impassive. With another smile, she winked at her father, did a quick curtsey for the Prince, and walked off the dance floor towards where Michelle was waiting. ‘And on that bombshell darling,’ she spoke into Michelle’s ear as she linked arms with her and walked towards the door, ‘I think it would be a good idea to leave!’
‘I think that would indeed be a very good idea!’
*
The next morning Sally was up early, just after dawn. She had not slept well, not because she was upset, but because she could not get the glorious image of a wine soaked Prince out of her mind. From her bed, she watched the sun rise and with another smile she leapt out of bed, put on her bikini and headed to the pool for a refreshing swim.
Discreetly he watched her from the bar as he sipped a fresh orange juice. He was impressed with her technique and speed, and thought that she could have made a good swimmer but persuading his daughter to get up at five in the morning for swimming training would have been a futile exercise.
Eventually she stopped at the far end of the pool and spent some time looking out to sea. As she turned a look of surprise flashed across her face as she noticed her father sat at the bar. With a few powerful strokes she powered to the other end of the pool and lifted herself out of it, her shoulder and arm muscles flexing as she effortlessly left the pool. With a couple of steps she was by his side and kissed him lightly on his cheek. She then took the towel and wrapped it round her body then sat next to him at the bar. For a few moments neither of them said anything until he broke the silence. ‘Do you want to talk about last night?’
She smiled at him, and the early sun caught her red hair and lit up her green eyes. For a moment, he thought he was speaking to his wife again, young and beautiful, full of life. ‘Not really daddy, no.’
‘I suppose you remember the status of the person whose face you threw wine into last night?’
‘Of course I do. We were in his country with him last year.’
‘And you begged me to let you stay there for some retail therapy and an extended holiday? You stayed in the Burj Al Arab hotel. I know you did because I saw the bill. You stayed in a suite, for a month, at about, if I remember rightly, three thousand five hundred pounds a night.’
‘Before we go on, ask yourself after what you saw last night whether you want to know the real story?’
‘I don’t, but I’m intrigued as to the reason why you threw red wine into the face of a Prince, a Prince who is in control of numerous contracts that we are bidding on and numerous contracts that are currently ongoing which I’m now expecting to be cancelled.’
‘I stayed with him at the palace for a month.’
‘He’s engaged.’
‘Yeah, you could have told me that before I stayed with him for a month!’
‘Well, if you had told me the truth I would have told you!’
‘You probably would have, and I would have been on the first flight back to London.’
‘True. So what happened? In fact, I take the question back. I can imagine what happened. She found out?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you were only in Dubai for a month. So where did you go afterwards? You told me you were doing some volunteer work in Africa?’
‘Not exactly. I was in Thailand on my own crying my eyes out.’
‘Oh Sally. I’m sorry. I had no idea. What a slimeball taking advantage of my daughter like that!’
‘We didn’t sleep together daddy.’
‘I didn’t need to know that, nor would I have asked. What an absolute… Well, I’m not going to give him the chance to cancel the contracts. I’ll cancel them all this very day!’
‘No daddy, don’t. They’re worth a fortune to you!’
‘And you think in a situation like this I care about the money?! To be perfectly honest, I’m absolutely furious! He should know better than to have done that!’
‘It is your choice, but don’t think you have to do this for me.’
‘I’m doing it because he is clearly an unethical idiot!’
‘Well, I can confirm he’s an idiot.’
‘I’m going to call James now to set the ball rolling. How dare he treat a member of my family like that!’
Without saying anything else, he stormed off into the yacht and Sally resigned herself to the fact that she had probably just cost her father about five hundred million pounds. With a sigh she walked over to the Jacuzzi, picking up a copy of Vogue to read while she soaked in the hot, bubbly bath. Soon Michelle joined her and they spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool until Mr. Gallagher told them that the qualifying was about to start.
They watched this from the comfort of the yacht, all of them cheering as they saw one of the cars from the team he was sponsoring go flashing by while sipping from a seemingly endless supply of fresh fruit juices. After about an hour and a half Mr. Gallagher let out a loud shout of joy as he saw on the big screen opposite the yacht that both of the cars were on the front row of the grid. ‘Yes! Now that makes the sponsorship worthwhile! Lots of television coverage, lots of media coverage as a whole! I wish I had a bigger section of the car now!’
‘Well done daddy!’ Sally shouted, planting a kiss on his cheek.
For a few moments they watched the replays on the screen and they all celebrated again. Soon after this Mr. Gallagher was approached by a member of the crew. ‘They’re ready for us on the track!’
‘That was quick!’
‘Well, it’s not just us who have this honour. Quickly! You’ve got five minutes before the car leaves to takes us round!’
The young women ran off to their cabins, both of them quickly getting ready. Within the allotted five minutes they were back by his side and they all scampered off the yacht to the waiting car. It took them slowly around the track to the pits where they were greeted by a professional driver who explained the plan for the next hour.
Mr. Gallagher went first. The driver took him around the track three times before pulling back into the pits and they switched places. With a roar and a squeal of tyres the powerful Mercedes SLR supercar powered down the pit lane. The girls stood on the pit wall screaming every time there was a flash of silver whizzing past them and a roar of the engine. After five laps he pulled back into the pit lane. The girls ran over to the car and helped him out of the car. ‘Wow! That was an experience!’
‘If I can have Michelle next please,’ asked the driver.
‘Oh Sally, you go next.’
‘No, it’s okay darling. You go. Enjoy yourself.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes! I’ll enjoy watching you. Go on!’
‘Okay!’
Michelle climbed into the passenger seat of the car and again after a few laps she swapped with the driver and she thoroughly enjoyed her drive as she blasted round and one lap was even completed in a faster time than Sally’s father. ‘Younger reactions is the only reason you were quicker!’ Mr. Gallagher joked as Michelle learned of her times.
‘I can’t believe I went that quickly!’
‘You know,’ said the driver, ‘that’s actually a quite impressive time considering that was done on only your fourth lap around here.’
‘Impressive or lucky?!’ jokingly replied Michelle.
The driver laughed and asked Sally whether she was ready. Sally nodded and clambered into the car. Her three demonstration laps were quickly over and she took the wheel of the six hundred horsepower, two hundred and eight miles per hour supercar.
Sally safely navigated the infamous Sainte Devote corner and blasted along uphill through the kinks of the ‘straight line’, and round the famous Casino corner. She quickly negotiated the Mirabeau Haute and blasted round a few more corners to the slowest corner on the circuit, the Grand Hotel Hairpin. After a couple more turns she entered the
tunnel section of the circuit and she loved the sound and roar of the engine as it reverberated around the enclosed track. Her speed increased rapidly as she accelerated ferociously through the tunnel and then without warning the steering wheel started to judder. As they exited the tunnel Sally was dazzled by the sunlight and without warning the car broke right, clipping the wall as it approached the Nouvelle Chicane.
With all her skill that she had honed on the tracks driving her father’s supercars, she caught the car before it ploughed into the wall on the left, but as she corrected the car it unnaturally broke right again. Realising she was in deep trouble she slammed on the brakes, but this time the car broke hard right and hit the right wall with enough force to set off the car’s airbags. With a screech of tyres and brakes the car careered across the chicane, all four wheels lifting off the track as they flew over the kerbs and with a force that drove the air out of Sally’s lungs, rammed into a wall and came to a smoking, shuddering halt.
*
With smiles on their faces Michelle and Sally’s father looked down the track waiting to cheer Sally as she flashed past at high speed. Slowly though when the car did not appear the smiles slowly slid off their faces as they realised that something had gone wrong. ‘She should have been here by now Mr. Gallagher.’
‘I know Michelle, I know.’
With a look of concern etched on his face, he jumped down from the pit wall and jogged over to the garage with Michelle following close behind. As soon as they entered the garage they knew something had gone wrong. ‘What’s happened? Where’s my daughter?!’
‘Mr. Gallagher, I’m sorry. There’s been an accident further down the track. It looks like the car has crashed although the reports we are getting from the marshals are sketchy at the moment.’
‘If anything has happened to her I’ll, I’ll…’
‘Mr. Gallagher, may I suggest we drive round. We’ll get some more news as it gets radioed in.’
‘Right, let’s go, now please.’
They both climbed into a Mercedes saloon and with no-one saying a word they proceeded slowly around the track, through the tunnel. As they exited the tunnel and their eyes adjusted Michelle gasped. ‘Oh my God! Mr. Gallagher, the car!’ The right hand side of the car was crushed and crumpled against the wall, but Michelle quickly noticed that there was no-one in the smashed vehicle.
Before the car had stopped, Mr. Gallagher leapt out of the vehicle and jogged over to the battered Mercedes supercar with Michelle following. He looked around for any evidence of his daughter and then he saw her, sat on the floor leaning against a section of the wall, her crash helmet on the floor next to her. He ran over to her. ‘Sally! Are you okay? Please tell me you are okay?’
At first she did not reply, and as they approached her they could see she was clutching her ribs and tears were coursing down her face.
‘Oh my! Are you okay?’ With obvious difficulty she took his hand and managed to nod. ‘Where’s the driver?’ As he spoke they both noticed each other, and the driver ran over to them. ‘What the hell happened? Is she okay? She can’t speak!’
‘We’re both a bit shook up, sir. I’m more used to it, but it’s really took the wind out of Sally.’
‘Is that it? Is she winded?’ He looked down on her and she nodded. ‘Well, thank God for that!’ He leaned over and said to her to breathe to which she nodded again. Slowly, with effort, her breathing returned more to normal and she accepted some water from one of the marshals. ‘Can you speak now?’ asked her father.
Hoarsely, she managed to say, ‘Yes.’
‘What happened? Can you remember?’
‘Yes,’ she paused, and took in some more air, ‘but not sure what happened. Car broke right, clipped the wall, I caught it, braked, it broke right even more and I couldn’t catch it. Hit wall and slid to here. Don’t… don’t make me... speak anymore.’
‘Okay darling, breathe, breathe deeply.’ He turned and confronted the driver. ‘And how the hell did you let this happen?!’
‘Sir, I’m sorry, it happened in a flash. And if I’d reached over to grab the wheel it would have made things worse, a lot worse.’
‘Well what the hell happened?’
‘I agree with what she said. The car broke right, she managed to catch it like a pro after it clipped the wall, but then when she braked it broke right even more. From my experience, I think we got a right front puncture which made us move right the first time, and when she braked hard the tyre shredded forcing us hard into the right hand wall. I’m sorry, but it was over in a flash. There was nothing I, or either of us, could have done.’
Turning back to Sally he took her hand again and he asked her a few times whether there was anything he could do. Michelle hovered around them looking very concerned.
‘Daddy, can you help me up now?’
‘Of course sweetheart. Come on, up you get.’
Slowly and gently he pulled her to her feet and for a few moments she leaned against the wall, catching her breath again. From along the tunnel there was a roar of another engine and they all turned to look. Being driven quickly a car approached them, with orange lights flashing. As soon as it stopped the Team Principle leapt out of the car, quickly followed by another man. ‘Mr. Gallagher! I’m so sorry! What on Earth happened?!’
The driver answered. ‘Blow out. Nothing either of us could do.’
‘This is the race doctor. He needs to examine Sally.’
The doctor approached Sally and led her away from the rest of them towards the car.
‘Where’s he taking her?’ demanded Mr. Gallagher. ‘Michelle, go with them.’
‘They’ll go to the medical facility where she’ll be examined.’
‘Michelle, go now please. Stay with her. I need to speak to the Team Principle about this.’
*
Gingerly Sally lowered herself into a rear seat of the Mercedes with the doctor sat next to her and Michelle took the front seat next to the driver. Very sedately they proceeded around the track until they exited the track near a building which they entered with Sally being supported by the doctor and Michelle.
Michelle was told to wait outside the examination room and Sally was gone for half an hour and in this time Mr. Gallagher had joined her. Anxiously they sat in silence, until after what seemed like hours the doctor came out of the examination room. Mr. Gallagher leapt to his feet. ‘How is she? Is she going to be okay?’
‘Yes, she’s fine. She’s shaken up, a bit beaten up and in slight shock. We’ve x-rayed her chest and I’ve given her a thorough examination and she’s fine apart from some bruising. It can be quite frightening when you get the wind knocked out of you like that and you feel like you are unable to breathe, but she’s fine now. I’d still like her to stay in overnight so we can keep an eye on her and examine her again in the morning.’
‘That’s fine. Thank you doctor. Can we see her?’
‘Of course. Please.’
The doctor stepped aside and let them pass into the room. Sally lay on a bed, now wearing a hospital gown, looking very pale, and she was clearly still shaken from the crash.
‘Darling. How are you?’
‘I’m okay. Just, well, you know, a bit beaten up, but fine.’
‘You will be sweetheart, you will be.’
‘Is anywhere hurting? Do you want some painkillers?’
‘No, honestly, I’m fine. Just a bit sore. I’m just thankful we were in a Mercedes with good safety features.’
‘Me too. Nothing I can get you?’
‘No, not for now. What happened? I don’t really remember. Was it my fault? That expensive car…’
‘Now stop that straight away! Don’t you dare think that the car is more important than your health! It wasn’t your fault. In fact, the driver said that you handled it like a pro, until the tyre shredded and then there was nothing any driver in the world could have done.’
‘Oh, is that what it was, a blow out?’
‘Yes, definitely
. There was nothing you or anyone could have done in a situation like that. I spoke to the driver and he said that you hit the wall at quite a speed so it’s no wonder you’re shaken up a bit.’
‘Right, okay. No wonder then. Can we go back to the yacht now?’
‘No, we most certainly can’t! The doctor wants you to stay in overnight and I agree with him.’
‘But, but, we’re going to the Casino tonight.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous Sally. You’ve just been in a serious car accident. You’re staying here tonight, and that is quite frankly non-negotiable!’
Mr. Gallagher was expecting more of a fight from her and he was surprised when she said, ‘I was looking forward to that, but I suppose you’re right.’
‘Good. Glad to see you see sense. Is there anything you need from us or the doctors?’
‘No, nothing, I’m fine. To be honest, I just want to have a rest for a while.’
‘Of course darling, of course. Let me help you.’
Mr. Gallagher reached for the electronic device that controlled the bed and lowered Sally to a horizontal position. He plumped up her pillows and tucked the blankets around her, muttering that she needs to rest and that she will feel better in the morning. When he was done, she smiled up at him and thanked him for looking after her.
‘Sleep now sweetheart. Michelle and I will return to the yacht, get some of your things and come and see you this evening. Michelle, can you look in Sally’s bag and make sure her mobile is there. Put it somewhere she can reach it.’
Michelle followed his instructions and said to Sally, ‘Hey you,’ she leaned forward and placed a light kiss on Sally’s forehead, ‘your phone is there. Call either of us straight away if you need anything, right, and we’ll be here straight away. We’ll be back later.’
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