My Navigator Fiancée Misled Me on Purpose, Making Me Guilty

Before the Continental Cup rally even began, the group backing my rival threw down a challenge and made us sign a wager agreement.

This wasn't just racing anymore. National honor and interests were on the line.

I had to win.

My fiance was my navigator, and together we set out on the run.

For three years she'd navigated for me, and we had never lost. I believed this time we'd bring glory to the country too.

I trusted her without question. The instant she called a line, I turned the wheel.

"Kenneth Odom has cancer. This is his last race. He wants to win."

"I'm sorry"

Her voice was small, but it hit me like thunder.

Which meant the line she'd just called was wrong.

She sang while the country burned, and never heard the grief on the far shore.

How could this be?

I couldn't believe my own ears.

Before the race, the higher-ups had come to me and said they wanted to assign someone as my navigator.

I was the one who fought to keep Olivia Shepherd.

I knew Olivia and Kenneth had been classmates, but she was my fiance. I trusted her.

I trusted that when it truly mattered, she'd know right from wrong.

Besides, her standing was beyond question. She was the daughter of a great family.

Her family would never allow her to make any other choice. Winning was her only option.

If we lost, her family would share in the disgrace.

Never in a thousand years did I imagine she'd feed me a wrong line on purpose.

"What's going on?"

"Why is Walter Perry's car off the route?"

"Is he trying to cut a shortcut?"

"That's no shortcut. It'll only lose him the race."

"Walter Perry, report your situation. Why have you deviated from the set route?"

Mission control was on me at once.

"Walter Perry isn't following my calls. He changed course on his own. I'm trying to reach him."

Before I could get a word out, Olivia had already made her report.

Now wasn't the time to argue.

My car had already fallen behind, and Kenneth was my old rival.

His skill behind the wheel was almost unearthly. With him in the lead, overtaking would be like scaling the sky.

I ignored Olivia, still talking to mission control. Even if it was like scaling the sky, I was going to try.

This race wasn't about personal glory alone.

Olivia couldn't be trusted. She couldn't do the job of a navigator. The road ahead was mine to run alone.

This race mattered too much, and before it started I'd burned the route book into my head, every line of it.

Hit the gas. Go!

The gap wouldn't close. The lead I'd carved out on the last corner was gone.

If I wanted the overtake, the third corner was the one chance that counted.

But

The third corner was special. Not just because it was hard. I'd crashed on a corner like it once, and it left its mark on me.

No buts. National honor was on the line. There was no room for buts.

Go. Give me everything!

"Walter Perry, have you lost your mind?"

"You take that corner at this speed and the car will fly off the track."

"No one takes this corner better than you. Just drive it clean and no one will blame you."

Olivia's face was cold. "Walter Perry, everyone makes mistakes. I'll admit my communication with mission control had problems. You didn't change course on your own just now, you cracked under pressure and slipped. I'll explain it for you."

"Bring your speed down now. From here just drive it clean. It's fine even if we lose."

"Someone's going to die. Slow down, now."

Mission control had been watching my situation the whole time.

"What's his speed?"

"What are the odds he can make the corner at that speed?"

"Walter Perry, mission control calling Walter Perry. Slow down now. You can't take that corner at this speed."

Six years of racing. I know losing is part of it. I know nobody wins forever.

But today's race had only two endings.

Either I win.

Or I die on the track.

"Walter, think about me. If you want to die, don't drag me with you. Grow up."

Olivia's voice had gone shrill.

I had no time for her. I couldn't afford to lose focus over her now.

If she really died, she'd have it coming.

Because she fed me the wrong route on purpose.

A traitor like that deserves no mercy.

Throttle welded to the floor, tearing straight ahead.

The instant I hit the corner, I finally completed the overtake.

Kenneth wasn't worried in the slightest. He knew what happened when you took a corner at this speed.

No one can take a corner at this speed.

Mission control fell dead silent.

Their faces were grim.

I was racing all wrong today.

First the wrong route, and now an overtake pulled off like this.

This kind of driving was dancing on a knife's edge.

The people up top picked me for this race because I was steady. As long as I drove steady, the odds of winning were high.

But today there was nothing steady about me, and I'd chosen this reckless, all-or-nothing line.

I had no choice. This was the only way to win.

Engine screaming, I held my eyes wide, every muscle locked tight.

Both hands clamped on the wheel. In a situation like this, one slip and it was over.

If I died, fine. But if I lost this race, I'd be a criminal for the ages.

You can do this. You will.

A voice roared inside me.

Tap the brake, hit the throttle, tap again, throttle again.

Small, precise inputs to steer the car's line forward.

"Beautiful!"

A cheer came through from mission control. I'd made the corner.

Made it alive!

"Insane!"

Around the track, the roar shook the air.

The moment I cleared the corner, my car shot out, and two full seconds passed before Kenneth's came flying out behind me.

I was still flooring it.

"Are you insane?" A dozen seconds later, some color returned to Olivia's face, and she glared at me and shouted.

"Kenneth's practically dying. Why are you taking this so seriously?"

"Would losing one time kill you?"

I didn't answer. I had one goal now. Win this race.

"If you win today, I'm pulling the medical team treating your father."

Her voice had turned so cold it was like a stranger's.

When my father fell gravely ill, she was the one who brought in the best medical team money could buy.

"Focus on your racing. I've got Uncle Perry covered. Nothing will happen to him."

And now she was using my father's illness to threaten me into losing.

"Six years. Dozens of races. You've won every single one, and Kenneth's always come in behind you."

"He's dying. Would it kill you to let him win, just once?"

I was a driver the Shepherds had made. Olivia Shepherd wasn't only my navigator and my fiance. She was my boss.

Everything I had, I owed to her.

I was grateful. But this race was different.

Any other race, if she'd told me to lose, I'd have lost to anyone without so much as a frown.

Not this one.

I stayed silent, and my foot pressed down harder, and the engine roared louder for it.

Cross Olivia, and this would be the last race of my life.

Cross Olivia, and my father would never again get the care of that top medical team.

But I knew what had to be done here.

When the nation is at stake, no man stands aside.

The moment my car crossed the line, Olivia's face went cold beyond anything I'd seen.

She stepped out with a face like ice and went to say something to the people at the command center.

I sat in the car, soaked through with sweat, so drained that even lifting a finger felt like too much.

I had nothing left.

Before long, a staff member came walking toward me.

I was called into an office before the medal ceremony. The air inside was grim.

"According to Miss Shepherd, you deliberately steered off the track to let Kenneth Odom pass you, just so you could show everyone that even after handing your opponent the lead, you could still reel him back in."

"What did you think this race was?"

"A game of make-believe?"

"Before the race, weren't you told there was a wager agreement, that national honor was on the line?"

"You think winning makes you some kind of hero?"

"Sabotaging your in-car telemetry, grandstanding for personal glory. Do you have any idea what that is?"

"If the Shepherds hadn't cleaned this up for you, you'd be going to prison, win or no win."

I said nothing. I didn't defend myself, not with a single word.

The car I'd driven was supplied by the Shepherds. And since the official had just mentioned the monitoring being destroyed, there'd be no evidence left inside the car.

Olivia's word against mine, and which of us they'd believe, that didn't take any guessing.

My word meant nothing.

When I left the office, Olivia was waiting outside.

Her face was still cold. "You're stubborn and full of yourself. It seems the two of us need to reconsider where we stand."

I looked at that face, once so familiar, now a stranger's, and I couldn't help thinking of what she'd said to me before.

"Walter, you know what I admire most about you?"

"Your courage. The way you're decisive when a choice has to be made."

And now I was the stubborn, self-righteous one.

The Shepherds had been good to me. I'd carry the blame for today.

I looked at Olivia calmly, and gave her my answer to reconsidering where we stood. "Fine."

Back home, my father had already been thrown out the door, and my belongings had been dumped on the ground.

I'd won the race and lost my marriage, and worse, lost the guarantee that kept my father alive.

"Dad, I'm sorry."

My father handed me his phone. A news story was on the screen.

Driver Walter Perry too stubborn and self-righteous. Shepherd Group terminates partnership with Walter Perry.

The comments beneath it were nothing but abuse. No one cheered my win. They all said I'd nearly thrown away the victory with my arrogance and grandstanding.

"Your dad knows you're not that kind of person." He gripped my hand. "Son, I know you're a good son to me. But real devotion isn't keeping me alive in pain. There's no quality to my life anymore."

I was about to speak when another news alert popped up on the phone, and my heart clenched with a sudden, sharp pain.

He lost the crown but won the girl.

The article was about Kenneth Odom.

He and Olivia had raised their glasses together, arms linked, drinking to their engagement.

I turned my phone off without a word. Whatever came next for Olivia had nothing to do with me anymore.

I'd just checked the balance on my bank card. Sixty-two events over six years, big and small. Every one of them a win.

Winning the Shepherd name its glory had brought me my own money too.

The medical team Olivia had lined up needed connections I simply didn't have.

But the money in my account was enough to cover my father's ongoing treatment, enough to give him a better quality of life and buy him more time.

My dad fought me hard on continuing the treatment. He told me to keep the money and build a good life for myself.

"Dad, you'd really close your eyes for good without seeing me married with a kid of my own?"

"You little brat."

He stopped arguing after that. I took him to the hospital.

But when I went to check him in, they told me my bank card was frozen.

I called the bank in a hurry. The Shepherd Group had filed to freeze my assets.

On what grounds?

I called Olivia. She didn't pick up.

I got the Shepherd Group's legal department instead.

"During the race you ignored Miss Shepherd's instructions and tampered with the onboard monitoring system. These actions are already in breach of your contract."

"In light of that, the company is legally seeking damages. The matter is under investigation. Once the investigation concludes and the damages are settled, your assets will of course be unfrozen."

I'd already taken the fall for Olivia. I never thought she'd try to finish me off entirely.

I opened my phone again and found the article about Kenneth Odom. From the photos, I worked out which club they were at.

I went straight there to find Olivia.

I wanted to talk to her alone. But I couldn't even get through the door.

"Miss Shepherd wants me to pass along a message. Know your place."

"When you screw up, you own it. Without the Shepherds behind you, you're lower than a dog."

"Just like this threshold right here. You've got no right to cross it."

For one thing, I hadn't screwed up. I'd been willing to carry the blame to repay what I owed Olivia.

Now that she was doing this, I wasn't going to keep swallowing it. I went straight to find the officials in charge.

I was going to report that Olivia had tampered with things during the race.

I was still on the road when an unknown number called.

"Is this Walter Perry? Your father jumped into the river. He's already been rushed in for emergency care. You'd better get over here fast."

My mind went blank. I don't even know how I got to the hospital.

By the time I arrived, my father was already in the emergency room, and the hospital was pressing me to pay the deposit.

Ten thousand. My take from a single event was a hundred grand at the low end, over a million at the high end.

And now this ten-thousand deposit was the last straw breaking the camel's back.

I called my friends. Not one of them would help. They were afraid of crossing the Shepherds by doing it.

Just when I was out of options, Olivia showed up.

She came with Kenneth Odom.

"Had too much to drink today, feeling good, and now my stomach's acting up. Olivia was worried, insisted on coming with me."

Kenneth looked at me, his eyes full of smugness.

Olivia didn't even glance my way.

"Olivia, I was wrong. Can you have the bank unfreeze my assets?" I stepped in front of her and knelt down, looking into those cold eyes.

"My dad's in emergency care. I'm begging you."

"If you really cared about your father, you wouldn't put me in this position." She looked down at me. "This, right now, is the punishment you deserve."

I watched her turn and walk away without hesitation, and I slapped myself hard across the face, twice.

In that moment, every tie between us was severed.

She could make me take the fall. She could pull the medical team.

But that money was mine. I earned it. Taking it away, she'd crossed the line.

As long as I'm alive, I'll make sure every last person knows the truth.