I Fall Apart ♢ Max Verstappen

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 2

♪ She fooled me twice and it's all my fault, yeah
She cut too deep, now she left me scarred, yeah ♪

Max Verstappen POV

After last year we finally all met at the pre-season testing in Bahrain, no girlfriend came so we were all chilling at a bar, in the VIP section.

"So are you all ready?" Daniel asks and takes a sip of his drink.

"If we weren't we wouldn't be here. This season looks promising" I say and they seem to agree.

"How were the small vacations? You all have to stop getting girlfriends" Lewis says and we laugh.

"Find one for yourself, it's less lonely" I say and they look serious at me.

"You are dating Kelly because it's less lonely? So romantic" Pierre says and laughs.

"I'm an endless romantic, you should know it by now" I say ironically.

"Maybe when you pass the 5-year mark you will get over it" Daniel says and I wanted to kill him in that moment.

"Oh, the legendary 5 years. Mia wasn't it?" Leclerc says and Daniel nods, half of them didn't even meet her.

From what I remember only Lewis, Carlos, Daniel, Checo, Vettel, Alonso, and Valtteri did. Daniel and she spent a lot of time together because their sense of humor was the exact same: lame jokes and dad jokes.

"Let's change the subject" I say and drink what I had like it was a shot. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.

"We will drink with you" Carlos says and drinks his shot of tequila and they all drink what they had.

"Who is calling me at 2 am?" I ask when I see my phone ringing. I see that it was Victoria calling me and I quickly pick up.

"Hey. Is something happening?" I ask worried.

"Somebody called me from back home, Maya. She said that someone looking like Mia was in the local hospital. Did David or someone else contact you?" She says and my mind goes blank, she came back to Maaseik?

"Hm.. No, no one called me. It's been 6 years, It's not my business anymore, I moved on"

"I'm sorry I just... I thought you should know. I prefer that you know it from me than other people" She says and I nod even though she couldn't see me.

"I know, don't worry. I don't need to know anything more about her, that's the past. Go get some rest, it's like 1 am there"

"Love you, I will go now. Good luck this season"

"Love you too, send a hello to Tom too. Bye" I say and hang up.

"Is everything okay?" Pierre asks and I nod.

"Yeah, it was nothing important. I need more drinks" I say and get up and when I get back they stop talking. "Don't let me stop you, go ahead"

"You don't need to lie to us, your face went completely pale when you were on the phone" Charles says and I look at all of them.

"Looks like my ex decided to appear back to where we lived. Or at least someone similar to her appeared at the local hospital" I say and drink one shot.

"6 years later? I didn't expect her to come back at all" Daniel says and I roll my eyes even though I agree with him, when she disappeared I waited for her to comeback and it never happened so I started to move on, or at least try.

"Why would someone break up with their long term partner and disappear? Her parents moved cities or something?" Lando asks confused with the situation.

"Nope, they still live in Maaseik, they filled a missing person's report but police said she wasn't a minor and clearly left of her free will. Nothing was done. We looked for her, called everyone, she just vanished. She had it all planned" I say looking at the table, I don't like talking about this, I usually don't talk about it but sometimes they ask. They tell me about their lives too so it's fair to get out some weaknesses.

"Maybe it wasn't her, or she came back out of necessity, I don't think she would come back just because she felt like it if she made all that effort to simply disappear" Lewis says and I nod.

"I don't think it's her, it's a small city, they like to speculate and create drama. I will go see my dad after tomorrow and he will tell me the truth, I just want to know if she disappeared of her free will or if something happened to her. If she comes back nothing happened to her."

"Do you want company?" Daniel asks and I shake my head.

"Nah, this is probably completely fake, I will just spend a few days with my dad and my siblings"

"Drink a bit more, you need it" Charles says and we all laugh and they change the subject. I'm grateful for them, they are cool guys to be with.

The next day I got some rest and when I woke up I went to my jet and decided to fly to Maaseik, my dad still lives there with his 3rd wife and my youngest siblings. When I got to the Maastricht Airport, which is the closest to Maaseik, I called my dad but he didn't answer. I called a taxi and it came, it's 12 miles from Maaseik so I wasn't really gonna walk there anyway.

I got there and knocked on the door and my stepmother opened it, and she looked surprised.

"Max! Your dad didn't tell me you were coming" She says with a smile.

"It's a surprise"

"But he isn't home, he's at the neighbor's house" She says a bit disappointed.

"Which ones?"

"The Bakker's" She says and I froze and looked to my right and took a deep breath.

"Thanks, I will go there then" I say and she nods with a smile and closes the door.

I looked at that house where I spent so much time and felt my heart racing and I had that nervous feeling on my stomach, I don't like this. Every time I came to my father's house I wanted to be with her, when I moved here she would always help me, she came to all my races, and my dad always brought her with us. She would let me sleep there when I and my dad fought. She was my safe place, until she wasn't.

I was finally able to get to the front door and knocked and I hear the steps inside.