The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

SEQUEL - Chapter 50

"We've been poking a sleeping bear with a stick for years now. It's awake now and hungry there is no different perspective about this." The cold realism or rather scepticism which was swimming in Joanna's veins came out to play.

"A bear?" Max asked, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice, which caused Joanna to swat at his arm, that was tightly slung around her middle.

"What?" She asked annoyed. "No Brazilian animal came to my mind so quickly." She added before looking over her shoulder at Max, who barely could hold his giggles in.

"Stop laughing! This is serious." The Austrian ordered him, herself too unable to keep a stern expression. Her porcelain features were cracking up in an involuntary smile.

"Does it have to be?" The Dutchman wondered out loud after they had spend a while in comfortable silence, the sound of soft laughing subsided some time ago.

The Austrian waited for a moment, before she leaned forward in Max's hold so she could turn her upper body around far enough to face him for a moment before she spoke again.

"What do you mean?" She wanted to know, her eyebrows raised once more.

"I mean that the Piquet family tried to steal control from your father for decades by now, but it somehow always returns to you. The people like you in charge of the FIA. They liked the changes your father made, they liked all the safety measures and that they can lay trust into your name and what it meant. Maybe they need to be reminded of that." Max told his fiancée, which stunned her into silence for a long moment.

She was about to disagree, to protest, that her family had worked way to hard for this. That she would rather die than allow all of it to fall into Nelson Piquet's greedy hands, but then she remembered the Brazilian's greed. As so often, Max had a point. He was growing finely into his role at Joanna's side, which she needed to appreciate and acknowledge more. He might be the one turning the table for them after all.

"What do you suggest we do?" The Austrian asked instead of disagreeing with her Dutch fiancé right away. Max's plans were mostly clever and daring, sometimes a bit naïve when looking at how things worked, but Joanna knew that, and she could still work with it. Maybe it didn't need a Lauda to defeat the Piquets once and for all, maybe it needed a Verstappen.

"We do nothing but live our life. Raise our boy and enjoy being a little family." Max added as he realised that Joanna wasn't about to disagree. "The FIA you created never meant to lay the power into one pair of hands anyways. It was supposed to withstand corruption and be something to look up to."

"Your plan is to simply take a step back and watch as chaos unfolds." The Austrian concluded, because she was sure that was what was about to happen, when she would hold still. Maybe the best plan was to not have a plan at all. To let things just happen and work with the outcome in the end.

"Let nature set things right again." Max advised her and deep-down Joanna knew that her father would have never followed a plan like this. He would have never allowed power to slip from his grasp, but if she wanted to be the one standing after all of this went down, she couldn't act like her father would. Nelson knew her father. He knew how Niki would fight teeth and nails to keep what was his and Joanna was sure that the old Brazilian wouldn't be able to imagine that Niki Lauda's daughter wouldn't do the same.

It could work, but it could also ultimately mean the downfall of the Lauda dynasty. It could make her a relic of a long bygone era more than she already was. A dinosaur in the midst of mammals.

"And if that doesn't happen?" Joanna wanted to know, the worry back in her voice as she leaned back to rest against Max's chest once more, so he couldn't see and read her face. She wanted a honest answer and knowing her soon-to-be husband, she didn't have to wait long.