' swear to God I'll choke those chickens if they don't let me sleep a bit more' Valeria mumbled, turning around in bed. It was 6 am and the chickens Seb had decided they needed to get were as loud as ever.

'You're definitely not a morning person, are you?' he teased her, with a loving smile.

'Not since my husband decided to get bloody chickens. Who's going to take care of them when the season starts again?' she asked, watching Seb throw a tee shirt on to go feed the animals .

'If' Seb corrected her. 'by the way, we're announcing it today.' He showed her the statement he and Britta had prepared to announce his divorce from Ferrari.

'damn. Twitter will be on fire. What time?' she asked.

'Some time this morning. I'll go feed the chickens and I'll make you breakfast. Don't get up' he told her, kissing her forehead as she let herself fall on the bed again.

Valeria smiled, watching her husband walk out of their room. She rested her head on the back of the bed, resting her hands on her belly which had slowly started showing. Her gynaecologist had been really helpful and had replied to all her silly questions , Seb had found a way to persuade her to do home visits and Valeria was due a check within a month or so to find out the sex of the baby. They had decided to tell certain people, once the visit had happened, especially the people at Ferrari who needed to know in case Valeria went into labour on a race weekend, if those were ever going to happen again.

She played with her rings on her left hand, lost in thoughts she had only just realised how hard her pregnancy was going to be once Seb had started travelling all over the world again.

'that bastard chicken bit me again' Seb huffed. He walked in with breakfast on a tray for her. Valeria could see he had tried to bandage his finger as best he could.

'this is why I wanted a cat. Instead... you got me chickens!' she joked. 'come here, let me see that' she told him. She grabbed his hand, trying to fix the mess he had made with the plaster.

'You have many talents, Mr. Vettel, first aid is not one of them.'  she got up to go to their en-suite bathroom to grab some disinfectant. She lightly pressed a pad on his finger, making him wince a bit.

'all done' she smiled. She had wrapped his finger in one of the Princess tattoos she had got for when his nieces were around.

'Martha is not going to be impressed with you when she finds out I got to use one of Tante Valeria's special plasters' Seb reminded her.

'nah, she loves me. She'll understand you deserved it because you've been a good boy.' Valeria joked, kissing his hand where the chicken bit him. Seb couldn't contain a smile, having been able to spend a couple of months at home with her had been amazing. Never had he been worried that a full lockdown would strain their still fairly new relationship. Any day with her had been like a new adventure. They had started baking and cooking together, they had taken walks around their house, spent lots of time sunbathing and gardening. Spending that much time together had felt like a bliss.

The couple sat on the bed, having breakfast. Valeria was keeping an eye on Ferrari's social, to see what would happen once the announcement went live.

'Hallo?' Seb picked up his phone 'yeah, that's cool. No, don't worry about that. Valeria is bored and she's already on twitter. Sure. Thanks, Britta. Hopefully we'll see you soon. Yeah' he stopped and switched to English'Britta says hi and she hopes you're well and that I'm not driving you insane' he told Valeria.

'she knows you are. Have you told her about the chickens?' Valeria shrugged.

'Oh yeah, we got chickens' he continued in German to his assistant.

'He got chickens. I didn't agree' Valeria corrected him.

'Yeah it was my idea. But Vale is not complaining when I cook the eggs.' Seb huffed, as he moved Britta to loudspeaker.

'you guys are already an old married couple' Britta laughed.

'blame Seb, he's old. What sane 32 year old gets chickens?' Valeria laughed. Seb gave her a little pout.

'you married him, Vale.' she reminded her 'I am glad to see you're both keeping well. I'll talk to you soon!'

'Bye, Britta' they said together.

'The announcement is going live in about an hour.' he told her. 'before that I have got a couple of zoom interviews later on today.' He updated Valeria.

'that's cool, don't forget Doctor Ghirardelli is coming later on for a check up.'

'it's on my calendar, babe. I'd never forget that' he gave her a sweet smile. 'if you don't need anything else, I'll just go get ready.'

'I'm good, thanks Bärchen' she let him kiss her lips, before he walked into the bathroom to take a shower. Seb changed into his Ferrari shirt, ready to join an interview with Sky. Valeria watched him and couldn't stop herself from frowning a little. She had got so used to see him in red, she couldn't believe 2020 was going to be his last year in the Scuderia.

She took a quick shower herself, changed into her lockdown outfit of yoga trousers and a tank top and she walked downstairs. She felt her phone buzz, her twitter mentions were going insane.

EVERYONE STAY CALM. Seb has a wedding ring on. Did he and @proiettivale get married?

Excuse me? A wedding ring? @proiettivale someone had tweeted, with a screenshot of Seb's interview where the gold band was visible.

Valeria chuckled, people were exploding for a wedding ring, what would they do when the announcement went out?

She scrolled through the social a bit more until Seb joined her in their living room.

'Look what you've done' she teased him, showing him the tweets. 'so much for your love of privacy' she joked.

'Damn, people really take an interest in our lives.'

'you're gonna break their hearts in about 10 minutes, though'

'I guess most of them will be alright with it' he shrugged. He had taken his Ferrari shirt off already and changed into a plain black one.

'I bet there will be an uproar.'

'we'll see' Seb smiled, sitting next to her on the sofa. Valeria rested her back against Seb's chest, letting him embrace her. She felt him kiss her hair, before moving it from her back so not to pull on it.

'here it comes' Valeria whispered, as she received a ping from her phone that Ferrari had tweeted something.

She read the statement once more, she could feel Seb's gaze on her screen as she scrolled through it. People had already started flocking the page, especially as soon as Charles posted a quite nice and heartfelt message to the German.

Valeria read it out loud for him and pressed on the little heart to like it.

What the fuck does "not having the same goal" mean? Seb wanted to win in red. Does this mean Ferrari never wants to win again? Someone had commented on the announcement.

'Told you' Valeria smirked.

Is this why @proiettivale left? Someone else tweeted.

'yeah but look, someone there said: finally, he's too old and he makes too many mistakes' Seb read from her screen.

'Seb, Bärchen, even Lewis who is a 6 time WDC has haters.'

'you seem to mention Lewis a lot' Seb teased her.

'it's cause I have a mad crush on him, babe' she joked, opening instagram. 'look at that' she chuckled, as she went on the Brit's profile.

'Talk of the devil' Seb said, as his phone buzzed with a facetime call.

'morning' Valeria chirped, as the driver's face appeared on the screen.

'you're leaving Ferrari??' Lewis asked, shocked.

'yup.' Seb said, simply.

'you? The biggest Ferrari fan I ever met?' he joked.

'Yeah, they didn't really want me around anymore.' Seb sighed. 'I think they already have my replacement prepared'

'Already?' Lewis seemed even more shocked.

'yeah, Vale met him at winter testing'

'Vale, sorry. I just realised. Hi, how are you?' The Brit asked, apologetically.

'I'm all good, loving unemployment and lockdown, you know? But yeah, that's why I left'

'she means got fired' Seb corrected her.

'Yeah, thanks' she chuckled. The three had a lengthy chat about the situation, what had happened between Valeria and Mattia and concluded it by talking about their wedding.

'congratulations, guys!' Lewis beamed 'and Seb, please stay. The sport needs you' Lewis concluded.

'Thanks, mate. I appreciate it. I'm still weighing the options'

'I'll see you both soon, hopefully'

'get me a paddock pass, if you wanna see me because I don't think I'm allowed in the Ferrari garage' Valeria joked.

'will do!' he laughed 'stay safe guys'

'you too, Lew' Seb replied before hanging up.

'You see why we all ship you two?' Valeria laughed.

'Ship? To where?' Seb asked confused.

'Ship as in a couple. The fans call you Sewis which I find adorable'

'oh god, how can we make them stop?'

'You can't!' she laughed. 'The same way you can't stop the shitstorm Ferrari has just created on socials. Look at this' she showed him even more angry comments. 'I also have a way to sort out my announcement' she told him.

Two days later

Carlos Sainz will replace Sebastian Vettel at Scuderia Ferrari for 2021. Formula1 tweeted. Valeria pressed retweet. It was the day she was going to tell the world what she thought of the whole situation. She had agreed with Seb and Britta the way she was going to phrase it as she didn't want to create any animosity towards her husband. She cheekily changed her twitter handle to @vettelvale and started typing.

OMG this is brand new information! She wrote on the first one. Be prepared, this is a thread. She added.

As most of you know, I am no longer an employee of Ferrari. After just over a year of representing their views and ideas, I left once I found out about this. This is NOT an insult towards Carlos, to whom I wish all the best, but instead it was a decision I took, rather impulsively, when I realised all of this was happening behind Seb's back. He wasn't given a chance to fight, an opportunity to demonstrate to them and you he is one of the best drivers on the grid. I hate backstabbers and I hate seeing Seb unhappy, so I decided that me leaving was for the best. For us as a couple and, maybe, for the team as whole. To all of you who have asked questions and supported both of us in the past few months, we see you. We thank you. We read all your letters and emails and they fill our hearts with love and joy. We would love to be able to get back to each of you individually, but we simply can't, which just shows the sheer amount of support you all have for my husband. He appreciates it, a lot.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. V&S Vettel.

She hit send and put her phone by the side. The internet was going to explode, but it didn't matter. She could finally be herself and finally be by her husband's side.