Holds on to his mother, keeping his face in the crook of her neck. Soundlessly sleeping in his mother's arms, he had been excited to see such an race up close and now he is here.
Anouk had been dreading this day for years now, she always knew that max would one day want to meet his son. Would want to see her again and apologise to her. Well the last was what she had been hoping. That there could be closure for her.
She sees max waiting by the entrance of the garage, Kelly next to him while she types on her phone. A displeased look on her face as she wasn't happy about the fact that max wanted to meet the woman he has a child with.
"Why max?" Kelly asks Max.
"Because she's the mother of my child. I owe it to her!" He answers back.
Anouk adjusts Luke in her arms as she stops in front of Max and Kelly, who puts away her phone and glares at the other woman.
"Tasha." Max says.
"Max." She replies back to him.
Kelly just rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as she looks at Anouk. Kelly already hates the girl that seems to have max wrapped around her finger already. Even if Kelly notices that the girl doesn't know.
"Let's go to my drivers room." Max suggests.
Anouk nods, letting max guide the three of them to his drivers room. She passes a few people, a few of them are Victoria, Jos and Sophie. Anouk waves at them and almost bumps into christian.
"Natasha! What a surprise to see you here." Christian says.
"Hey christian!" She replies back.
Max pulls her along with him, knowing that he doesn't have much time between practice 3 and qualifying. She waves at christian the man she had worked with a couple of times and was also a partner in setting up karting tracks in Austria.
Max pulls her into his drivers room. Really eager to speak to her and make up for how he had treated her back when they broke up.
"So...?" Anouk asks.
"It killed me." Max blurs out.
Max looks at the girl in front of him, tears gather in his eyes as he looks at how much it had killed him. But he couldn't change anything.
"What?" Anouk questions.
"I'm sorry for what i did to you!" Max said.
Anouk notices how he plays with his fingers, looking nervously down. It was always something max did when he was either a nervous wreck or was trying not to break down crying.
"I tried to protect you..." max looks down.
"What do you mean?" Anouk asks.
Confused of what is going on. She looks at the man in front of her, who has tears rolling down his cheeks. From what she can understand, is that max feels guilty for kicking her out.
"Before we were together my dad told me that he would make sure, regardless how. I'm not allowed to be a parent until I'm thirty." Max tells her.
"But Kelly has a child." Anouk points out.
Max nods his head, looking at the floor. He remembers the shouting match his father held when he told him he was dating Kelly.
"He was not happy about that, nor is he now." Max says.
Luke is still completely passed out on his mother's lap, who is still hiding his face from everyone. There is only one thing Anouk doesn't know where he gets his shyness from.
"When you told me that you were pregnant, it felt like i was standing on the edge, watching how the world ended. We were kids, Anouk. I panicked and i knew there were only three outcomes." Max tells her.
"What outcomes?"
"Three outcomes in which i would lose the baby either way one is where you wanted to abort the baby, two was where I didn't kick you out but we would still have lost the baby thanks to my dad and three..." max sniffs.
It dawns on the young mother, looking at the man in front of her. He had made sure his father, wouldn't touch their baby. He had kicked her out to protect the baby.
"Three is where you would lose both of us..." Anouk answers.
"I knew that if I didn't make you hate my guts, i would have tried to go to you so many times. But i had to let you go and raise our kid." Max says.
"Why did you kick me out? I could have gone out of my own protection to my grandparents. I would have kept you updated on Luke!" Anouk says.
Max smiles sadly at her, looking at his own son who is slowly waking up in his mother's arms. He never knew just how much he could miss someone.
"Because my dad would have found out." Max rubs the back of his son.
"You missed so much! His first word, step and even his first round in a go kart!" Anouk tells him.
The door opens and Kelly walks in, sitting without uttering a word next to max. Placing a hand protectively on his thigh. To show Anouk that max is taken.
"Is he good?" Max asks.
"He is worse then you! He won't get off the go kart! Not if it rains, snows or windy, cold, hot!" Anouk tells him.
It feels to her as if she has one of her best friends back, the way she can go rant about racing to him was something she really missed. Luke taps on his mother's shoulder.
"Hey dropje." Anouk says to her son.
"Who are they?" Luke points to the other people in the room.
"Well that man is your father and that is his girlfriend." Anouk tells Luke.
Anouk never told Luke anything about his father as she didn't want to tell what he had done to her and he was too little to understand most things anyway! She seeing how excited Luke is about meeting his dad makes her happy.
"Papa!!" Luke yells, flinging himself onto max.
"Yeah, that's me." Max says.
"You're my fav driver!" Luke tells him.
Anouk never watched f1 since the break up, but she would always put it on just for her son. She loves him with her entire being so if he wanted to watch the man that broke her heart race, then she will endure that pain.
"Am i?"
"Yes!" Luke yells.
Max looks at Anouk for a second, he wants to ask her about sharing Luke but he is scared she doesn't want to after everything that has happened.
"Can we share custody?" Max asks.
"Yeah of course, i suggest we do that after Monza. You will have to travel to Birmingham." Anouk tells him.
"Thank you." Max says. "But uhm how come the internet has not blown up about him looking like my child copy?"
"Because i never showed anyone that he looks like your child twin. I only show his face on my private account." Anouk tells him.
Max nods, smiling at the boy on his lap that looks like two droplets of water like him when he was that age. He knows just how much he is going to spoil this boy rotten.
