The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

SEQUEL - Chapter 55

"I didn't betray you." Joanna told Max, as she moved to sit down on the couch next to him. Not ready to apologise for giving a child a life when no one else was left to do so, but then Max huffed, which caused anger to boil in Joanna's veins. How dare he. Reaching out, Joanna grasped his jaw and forced him to look at her.

"I didn't even know you back then. Don't make everything about yourself." She warned him, before letting go of his jaw again, with a little push maybe. Not that it was intended, but it did happen, nevertheless and if Max's look was anything to have a guess by, he hadn't enjoyed it one bit. No he was fuming with barely concealed frustration which would turn into anger quickly if Joanna kept pushing his buttons.

Joanna had sat back, her back resting against the arm rest, one leg pulled up to her chest, the other flatly buried in the soft carpet while Max sat on the other side of the couch, his back against the backrest, his left leg thrown over his right, his ankle resting on his right thigh just over his knee while he held the crystal glass in his right hand, his long fingers around the rim. He was starring at the liquid as if he considered if this was worth a fight with their son sleeping down the corridor.

"Have you been dying to tell someone? To let someone know what a good person you are?" Max asked her, before emptying his glass and putting it on the coffee table in front of them. He was glancing at Joanna, challenging her to say something, to do anything at all, but there was a dangerous glimmer in Max's eyes which let Joanna pause from saying what she normally might have already thrown his way. Something told her that it was a warning not to overstep now, but Joanna never cared much for warnings in the first place.

"Where is the girl?" Max asked her, only for Joanna to realise what that fool had been considering since the moment he heard that there was an orphan out there. Joanna, hurt by his plan, wanted to mock him. To ask him what he was doing hording strangers children like a creep, but she bit her tongue. Denying him to know her whereabouts would end badly enough as it was.

"You won't need to know, because she stays where she is. We won't welcome every stray dog into our family." Joanna warned him, which caused Max to look over at her for a brief moment. The were starting right at each other. She knew that what he was about to say would hurt, even before he had let her hear it. Joanna had seen it in his expression. She knew her own fiancé well enough to know when he intended to harm.

"That's rich coming from a stray dog." He let her know, only for Joanna's expression to change to one of hurt. She had been prepared for a lot of things. But not this. She wasn't expecting Max to ever say something like that. But her hurt morphed into anger quickly. Anger she threw at him mercilessly, coloured in frustration and mockery.

"Well, that stray dog overthrew every legitimate heir and got the big prize. All the money, and the fucking house you live in, princess, so shut up." She warned him, causing Max's gaze to snap towards her.

Only to then reach for her ankle, his fingers closing around it, before turning his body to kneel on the couch and pulling strongly, until Joanna was laying on the couch before him, her hands coming up to prop her up, but Max was quick to lean over her, his left arm coming around her shoulder, before reaching for the back of her neck.

They were both so cruel if they wanted to be. The knife right between their teeth. Sharp silver tongues. Training to hurt and injure. To cut deep and make it last.

"Don't fucking call me that." Max warned, as they pushed and pulled at each other.

"What are you doing?" Joanna snapped at him, pushing her hands against his chest and as she realised that wasn't working, she pushed one of her hands into his face like siblings fighting over some shit would do, but other than what normal people would have done Max didn't try to pry her hand from his face, he moved his upper body to lose her hand in his face, causing them to tumbled down onto the carpet. Right into the narrow foot space between the coffee table and the couch.