My fingers tightened suddenly.
A navigator is someone a racer entrusts their life to on the track.
I had wanted, countless times, to be Tucker’s navigator.
For his one sentence—I trust you—I learned routes, wind speed, track rules. I stayed up late memorizing maps, running simulations again and again.
But every time I brought it up, he only refused.
“It’s too dangerous. Don’t get involved,” he’d say.
Now, Kelsey—who knew nothing—had easily taken that seat beside him.
She even rode with him into a rollover, nearly costing him his life.
And no one blamed her.
“Verity, I really didn’t mean to hurt my brother,” Kelsey cried, her voice breaking. “You love him so much; you must be angry, disappointed. Please don’t blame him. It’s all my fault…”
She sobbed softly. “How about… I’ll kneel and apologize to you?”
As she spoke, she actually lifted the blanket, starting to kneel.
I froze for a moment and didn’t react in time.
The next second, a strong force yanked me aside.
“What are you doing?!”
Tucker almost instinctively pulled Kelsey behind him.
Our brothers immediately stepped forward, one on each side, holding her up.
“Kelsey, don’t.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
They didn’t even wait for me to speak.
Their expressions hardened as they looked at me.
“Verity! What right do you have to blame Kelsey? You don’t even care about Tucker, and you still let him take our sister to do something that dangerous. We haven’t even blamed you for not keeping an eye on your own man!”
“If anyone’s to blame, it’s the one who spread those rumors. We’ll handle it. Kelsey, you don’t owe her an apology.”
Tucker stood between me and Kelsey, clearly protecting her.
“Yes. This is on me,” he said. “I chose to race. I know what I’m doing. I just didn’t expect someone to set me up. This isn’t Kelsey’s fault.”
I steadied myself, feeling how absurd it all was.
Why did they think I would go after Kelsey?
I was the one more seriously injured.
None of this was my fault.
Yet standing here, I felt like the guilty one—like a vicious woman who needed to be stopped before she did something unforgivable.
I raised my hand, cutting off Tucker before he could keep explaining.
“I’m not mad.”
I looked at him and spoke slowly.
“Tucker, if you want to die, then go die. It has nothing to do with me.”
With that, I turned and walked away.
Behind me, he called out once.
“Honey—”
But the next second, Kelsey let out a soft cry.
“Ah… it hurts.”