SO AMERICAN | max verstappen

two.

"Liefje, wat doe jij hier?." (Love, what are you doing here?)

Daddy.

Shit.

How did I forget he had a kid? I think I remember Charles or Lando mentioning her before, but only in passing.

The little girl was the spitting image of him.

I watched as a woman around our age came running after her, calling for the little girl. She looked mortified.

She pouted at him, "Je was de hele dag weg! Mevrouw Julie is saai." (You were gone all day! Miss Julie is boring.)

Fuck me for not understanding Dutch.

"Lili, alsjeblieft." (Lili, please.)

She rolled her eyes, turning around and stomping back to the woman who had now stopped a few feet away.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Verstappen, we were on a walk and she saw you and ran." The woman explained.

I raised my eyebrows, on a walk? That had to mean he didn't live far from here. I can't imagine the woman would've taken the small girl very far.

Max brushed her off, telling her he'd be home shortly to relieve her.

His attention returned to me when the two walked away and he scoffed at my bewildered expression. "What now, Evans?"

"I forgot you were a dad."

He rolled his eyes this time, "You know, if you had continued reading the contract after it mentioned the song you would've seen a line about her." Oh, he's got a point, maybe I should've read the whole thing. "It mentions that you help look out for her during race weekends since I have full custody now."

"Now?" I question.

Did he used to not?

"I guess you should probably know the backstory since I'm being forced to let you into both of our lives." He grunted, running a hand over his face. "Liliana, Lili, is 5 - turned it last month. I got my girlfriend at the time pregnant, she had Lili a few months after I turned 19. She - Serina, decided after she gave birth that she didn't want a relationship with me. Things were going well for the first few years, we'd managed to figure out how we were going to co-parent. Serina lives back in the Netherlands and she had Lili for the majority of the time, I'd take her during my off weekends and my breaks." Max wouldn't dare look in my direction, "And then toward the end of last year, things got weird. She... in the middle of one of my weekends with Lili, I got a text. A fucking text from her Mother saying that she'd decided she no longer wanted custody of Lili and would have court documents sent over to transfer full custody to me."

I think I felt my stomach fall to the ground in shock at his confession.

I can't believe she did that, to that little girl.

"So, I've been a full-time Dad for a few months now and this transition into also being a full-time driver has been rough. Lili's used to a very specific routine that we formed during break and has been flipping out since we got back from Barcelona a week or so ago. I think it is also starting to hit her that her Mother isn't coming back."

I didn't know what to say, I don't think there is anything to say at this point.

"Do I get to meet her soon?" I gestured toward the sidewalk where she'd left with her nanny.

Before Max could respond, both of our phones vibrated. We took them out to see a groupchat with us two and our managers. Taylor was the one who had texted.