Harrison reached for Solarius’s door, intent on dragging Selene out of the car himself.
A cluster of staff immediately stepped in, forming a barrier between him and Solarius.
“Mr. Vaughn, the race is about to begin!”
“Please, Mr. Vaughn, don’t interfere with Luna’s preparations.”
Harrison snapped, “Selene is the one in Solarius!”
“She can’t possibly be Luna!”
Yet as he spoke, it was more to convince himself than anyone else.
The car door slammed shut. Selene, behind the wheel of Solarius, guided the car toward the starting grid.
“Out of my way!” Harrison barked, shoving past the staff with the kind of strength earned in years of training. He sprinted to the edge of the track, his eyes never leaving Solarius.
Selene kept the engine running hot, but she didn’t step out. The moment Solarius rolled into view, the grandstands erupted in wild cheers.
“Luna! Luna!”
Thousands of racing fans, the most faithful believers, watched as Solarius glided toward the starting line—many unable to hold back tears.
Why wasn’t Selene getting out? Where was the real Luna?
Harrison scanned the crowd, searching desperately. Where was the true Luna? The race was about to start—why hadn’t she appeared?
Meanwhile, sitting inside her own car, Felicity spotted Harrison at the edge of the track. Instinctively, she reached to lower her window, eager to catch his attention.
He could’ve been watching the race from the plush VIP suite, but instead he’d come down to the track. To Felicity, that meant only one thing: Harrison was paying special attention to her.
A smug little smile danced across her lips.
She rolled down the window, waving excitedly. “Harrison!”
Her voice was muffled by the helmet, barely escaping to the outside world.
But Harrison didn’t even glance her way, not once.
“Felicity, why are you opening your window?! The race is about to start!!”
Vincent, standing at the control console, nearly had a heart attack when he saw Felicity suddenly rolling down her window. His blood pressure soared.
“I’m not tailing Luna! Stop nagging me!” Felicity snapped, switching off her comms in a huff. She had no intention of listening to a word from Luna Racing Club’s crew.
None of these foreigners believed in her skills. But she was more than prepared.
To avoid suspicion, Felicity had arranged for tiny insects to be slipped into the helmets of four or five of the worst-performing drivers. During the race, the bugs would crawl into their hair, even up to their faces and eyes, sending them into fits of distraction.
Just a little contact, and those drivers would be thrown off their game.
That was how she, currently dead last, planned to claw her way up the rankings.
Of course, she’d made sure Luna’s helmet had a few bugs, too.
It was pure spite. If Luna faltered in this race, her reputation as Aldonia’s top female driver would be in shambles.
Felicity grinned, the sly curl of her mouth reminiscent of a crocodile lurking in the mud, waiting for its prey to trip up.
“She shut off her comms! That arrogant woman!” Vincent shouted, slamming the radio onto the table in frustration.
Another engineer hid his face, unable to bear watching the humiliating crawl of Felicity’s car down the track.
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