The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

SEQUEL - Chapter 02

"I guess I'm here to be closer to him, to understand what kind of man he was," Joanna said while she allowed her glance to wander through the room. It was a magnificent place her father had chosen as a refugium. Hidden away from the world, a secret only a few ever knew about.

"Does it work?" Mark wondered out loud, causing Joanna to give him an amused smile.

"No." She answered. "I guess there are just things I will never understand. I was always full of grief, but it turned into rage a long time ago. What does that make me?"

"Human. Don't you see that people would rather have a woman full of rage than a woman who's hollow?" The Australian wondered.

"Maybe I'm both," Joanna said as she pulled her knees up to her chest, the bottle of amber liquid still hanging from her delicate fingers.

"The only thing you're for sure is overdramatic, mate." The ex-driver snorted, before taking the bottle from Joanna to take a big sip. The lambs judging eyes following him.

"I'm a Lauda, we have a tendency to overdramatic madness but sometimes people mistake our madness for greatness. Half of my family was locked up in psychiatric hospitals and the other half is world-famous. I was never sure which part I really belonged to."

"Oh, I know which part of the family you belong to," Mark said which caused Joanna to give him an unimpressed look, but he shook his head.

"The moment I first saw you, I knew that you were trouble, but I also knew that you were born to achieve great things," Mark admitted as he reached out to take Joanna's hand in his.

"You walked in with these big dreams and unreachable goals, and I knew you were something else. Even though I tried to stamp on your light for quite a while, I always knew that this isn't a place for you, Joanna. Don't make me leave without you." Mark muttered but Joanna had turned her head away to face the fire again.

"Why couldn't they leave me be? Why did they send you to come and get me?" Joanna wanted to know and yes, Mark understood the question. He had asked himself as well why it had to be him, but even to his own regret, he couldn't tell her why people thought that he would reach her.

"I would have returned on my own in due time," Joanna said right at the moment as Mark spoke up, speaking over her.

"Because a lot of things changed very suddenly, and you started to pull away from everyone." Mark tried to explain but he knew Joanna wasn't having it. He saw it on her face, the expression she carried on her porcelain features.

"That doesn't answer my question. Why you and not Seb or Jenson?" Joanna pressed the topic, but Mark knew how he could successfully change the topic, so he did. He wouldn't sit here and try answering questions he didn't know nor wanted to know the answer to.

"What happened with Verstappen?" Mark muttered, causing Joanna to give him a sharp look, leaning against the backrest of the couch, she took another swing full of the amber liquid.

"Stopped kidding myself," Joanna answered with a shrug after a long while. Mark hadn't expected her to answer at all after this long period of silence.

"You know me, Mark. I'm not good with relationships. So, I let him go, it was really the only thing I could do to protect him. It was the sensible thing to do." Joanna explained, but Mark could read in the way she knotted her fingers together that she wasn't telling him the whole truth. There was something else.

"Do you really think that? Piquet now has her claws in him. Do you really think for one single moment that she's better for him than you were?" Mark wanted to know. His eyes were on the beautiful Austrian, which looked up to meet his gaze.