The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

SEQUEL - Chapter 44

The Dutchman was a rising star, it was just a matter of time for him to become a champion himself and Joanna knew that much. She was aware of the fact that she was with someone who would be able to protect her in a time of need, someone who held power in his own right.

The moment Kelly would try to marry a Formula One champion or champion in the making people would protest and call her a gold digger, no matter if she was richer than the guy or not. It was what people believed to be a power imbalance. A champion in the making and a daughter of someone, because that was all she was. She never had the chance to be more, to be a champion herself. With Joanna it was different, they were on the same level for the public to see, a driver and a driver. A champion in the making and a champion. It was a match. Kelly would never be able to match that.

Joanna Lauda was an insult to every daughter of a former F1 champion or driver. Before her, only the boys were pressured to follow their father's footsteps but then a skinny Austrian with long limbs and sadly enough for Kelly not her father's teeth, came into their world and turned everything upside down. Since Joanna, no one of them was good enough anymore.

"You shouldn't look at that." Junior said, walking up behind his sister to look over her shoulder at her phone only to see what he already knew she would be looking at. The picture of Max Verstappen and Joanna Lauda holding a tiny bundle in their arms, both smiling delighted looking back at him while he knew without looking that his sister was frowning.

"In the end, no matter what, she has the titles, the guy, the house, the money and now also the baby." Kelly muttered. "She wins, every fucking time."

"Don't think too much about it." Her brother told her again, but Kelly leaned back in her seat before reaching for her glass of red wine.

"I hope her child looks like her father." Kelly then mumbled before taking a sip from her wine. She needed something stronger actually, but that would do for now.

"Wow." Junior muttered under his breath which Kelly promptly ignored.

"She might have won for now, but they have no idea what is coming for them. Who is coming for them." Kelly told her brother before looking up to gaze at him. Junior always looked clueless, no wonder Joanna snatched away his seat only to win the championship twice in the car her brother should have been driving. He had been such a fool, a sheep. The Lauda family wasn't the only one where the women were far brighter than the men.

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He should let him sleep. Let him rest in his little bed next to his mother and go home as the nurse had told him hours ago, Max knew, but then it had begun to rain, and he found another excuse to stay.

There was something about November rain in Austria. Something about it felt unreal, as if it came straight from a fairy tale. The clouds weren't as dark and gloomy but a soft light grey, appearing fluffy like a lamb's wool. Lightning zapping through it, big raindrops steadily falling somehow more soundful than the month before, more melodic than the months to follow.

This was Henry's first storm. The first rain drops he ever witnessed, which is why Max couldn't leave him to miss it all, couldn't leave him to sleep the storm away. Not with Joanna deservingly asleep to recover her strength and no one else to show him.

Max had picked him up, made sure the tiny blanket was still wrapped around him for warmth, before gently readjusting him in his arms, so he could lay there, before he stepped over to the window and leaned against the wall there. He knew that Henry won't actually see the rain and think of it as such, but this was still one of many firsts his son would experience and Max knew that he will be absent for a big part of them due to work, all the more reason why he did not wish to miss the opportunity to be there for his first storm. And a mighty storm it was.