Pretending | Max Verstappen

- 41 -

Max

Two weeks, more than fourteen days had gone by and there was no sign of Zoe. I had waited that day for her to return with the milk, but she never did, she never came back. After an hour or so I had out, running the way over to the store.

Half way I saw the milk on the floor, dropped, but not a single sign of Zoe. Of course I immediately called the police and of course I blamed me, why had I forgotten the milk. Every single day since then I blamed myself.

Christmas went by and I didn't really wanted to celebrate but my family came over as soon as they heard and also stay over the holidays. Even my father was there, apologizing for his behavior and I was so broken I didn't made it hard for him, I just accepted his apology.

The police hadn't found her and as I heard from Christian, that Ricky was out of prison for almost two months now a cold shiver had ran down my back. Zoe's ex and then man who made her past a hell was free and she was gone, it must be him.

But as he was a free man the police saw no need to find him and so I had lived with pure anxiety and the worst thoughts of what could have happened to her. This was also the reason why I didn't really celebrated new years.

Starting this new year without her didn't made any sense and I even played with the thought of calling Christian. If there would be no sign of her in the next days I might call him, ending my career, or at least pausing it.

Life didn't made sense without her and I was so fragile and weak, I wouldn't survive in a car. It was crazy how my mind changed about racing. One year ago there was nothing more I cared about than F1, even though I was being in a relationship.

Now Zoe was my number one priority and I would give my own life for her, I loved her more than any thing else, even more than racing, which I ever thought was impossible. Surprisingly my father understood that.

Because of all that I had been laying awake very long yesterday, on new years eve and then when I finally managed to fall asleep, a couple hours later the bell of my front door woke me up.

"Christ, what idiot is that?" I mumbled and stood up, walking over to the door of my apartment.

With the anger I felt because this someone had woken me up I opened the door.

"Charles?" I asked surprised as I found the Monegasque in front of my door.

Yes, he had been an asshole during this season but he said sorry and really tried to help me finding Zoe in the last weeks. He was there for me as a friend and I was glad about that because Lando was spending his winter break with Carlos in Spain so these two weren't here in Monaco.

"Max! We found her."

I froze whilst Charles squeezed himself pass me into my apartment. Slowly I closed the door behind him, before turning around.

"What do you mean 'we found her'?" I asked, my voice started shaking.

"A friend of mine might have seen her."

The tension went from me and I sighed, how often had someone in the last weeks 'seen her'. It always turned out to be fake or some person who looked similar to Zoe. Charles noticed my thoughts and quickly shook his head.

"No, not like that. This time it's way more likely to be her, unfortunately."

He mumbled the last word and looked down.

"What do you mean with 'unfortunate'? Where is she? Is she okay?" I blurred out, grabbing Charles's arm so he looked up at me again.

The Monegasque though didn't say anything, he just gestured me over to the sofa, where we sat down. Then he took a deep breath before he started talking.

"My friends of course know the story and also have read it in the media."

"Yeah no news there." I interrupted him, because he was taking his time with the words.

"Yesterday one of my friends was invited to a very exclusive new years party in a, let's call it bar, in Nice. A friend of him knew the location or something like that. You have to understand this 'bar' is very exclusive and you can't just walk in there, not even if you are famous and have money."

I swallowed and starred at Charles, a weird feeling was building up inside me.

"So they were there and in this 'bar' there were so called exclusive girls, women who walked around and flirted with the guests. My friend even said they sometimes took the men further into the building and he believes that there are rooms, for certain activities."

 "You mean prostitution?" I said, my voice fragile and shaking with each word.

"Maybe, yes. But my friend said they only were drinking something there, some of the friends had girls on their lap but nothing more happened with his friends."

"A... And she... she was there?"

Charles saw how I was shaking and carefully took my hand, showing me that he was there for me.

"She wasn't with my friends friend group but he said he saw a blonde girl at the bar with other man."

"Zoe isn't blond." I immediately interrupted him.

"I know, but my friend said the hair looked colored. He works in the hair industry with models and stuff like that, doesn't matter, but he said the might be changed, because the statue and everything was exactly how I had described it to him."

Charles explained further how his friend had noticed the face lines and stuff like that, also because working with models and all that stuff. As he then told me how his friend had seen a man, looking like this Ricky (Zoe had described him to me once and I had told Charles and he must had told his friend) I nearly started crying.

"But why, why was she there and what was she doing?" I cried and looked at Charles, hoping for an answer I was sure he didn't have.

"As they left my friend quickly tried to talk to her but the big man in the whole 'bar' are looking everywhere and you really don't want to be suspicious there. But, he said she didn't look well, she seemed lost and maybe on drugs."

"What?!" I yelled, jumping up from the sofa, running over to my door, "Tell me the address, I need to get her, now."

"Charles was quick to follow me but held me back.

"No Max, you can't just walk in there, like I said you need to know someone who knows someone."

"Then call your friend." I still yelled, grabbing my car keys.

"I can't. Look, he was just invited by someone from a job from modeling and someone from their knew someone who knew someone, okay? This is not possible."

"I have enough money, then I will paid them to let me in."

"Max!", Charles grabbed my arm and stopped me from opening the door, "What do you think will happen if they see you there, if Ricky sees you there? Do you think this will help her? Even if you call the police, these 'bars' have their people everywhere and when the police arrives there, Ricky and Zoe are long gone."

I broke down and started crying, falling down in Charles's arms.

"But what can we do then? We need to get her out of there, I need her, please."