Forbidden

Epilogue: Max

For Max, it served as an unbearable irony that Olivia would leave her sun necklace behind right before she left. The necklace with the engraving 'you will always be here' laid on the table as she disappeared. 

She didn't leave a note, she wouldn't answer his texts or his calls. Eventually she stopped receiving them all together, his calls wouldn't go through and the messages were not being received. Did she block me?  Max asked himself.

As the days passed and he kept not receiving an answer to his calls or texts, the realization that Olivia might be gone for good settled in, and it was soul crushing for him. He had fucked up, he had known that for months, he just hoped to be able to make it right before it blew up on his face. 

He couldn't blame Olivia for going away, he was honestly impressed she hadn't come up to him and punched him in the face before leaving. He wished she would've done that though, at least he would properly remember the last time he saw her. 

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That night after the last race in Abu Dhabi, after Max ran from the garage he went straight to the hotel as he started dialing Olivia. She wouldn't answer. He called her again until suddenly it would send him straight to voicemail. He got to the hotel a few minutes later and he rushed to her room and knocked on her door. There was no answer either.

After a few minutes knocking with no response he hurried over to the reception "Olivia Perez, have you seen her please?" he asked desperately to the man in the reception desk. The same one who had given him the letter a few days before.

The man looked startled as Max seemed distressed "I.. Yes she left about 15 minutes ago Sir".

"Well do you know where she went? Or when she's coming back? Did she say anything?" insisted Max.

"I don't think she's coming back sir, she had her bags with her" said the man looking terrified of Max. 

So that night Max flew back to Monaco, thinking Olivia might have gone back to her place and hoping to get her to listen. Thankfully he still had the key to her apartment and he barged in calling her name, but found the place deserted. It was clear she hadn't been there either, the place had that feeling of being abandoned for a while. He never stoped trying to contact her. Trying to get her to listen to him, but it was useless since she wouldn't receive any of his calls or texts. 

The days passed and Max started to crumble into a vegetative state. He would mostly lay in bed or in the couch all day and then spend hours on the sim until it was the middle of the night, not sleeping much at all. He would not spend a second apart from his phone, just in case it rang and it could be Olivia. 

He hand't called or texted Checo to ask where Olivia was, simply because he was too embarrassed to explain his own mistakes. And after everything they had gone through before, Checo probably hated his guts once again. 

After a week of being miserable on the couch, his sister Victoria traveled all the way to Monaco to get him back on track "Common Max, get your ass of the couch" she demanded immediately.

"I don't want to" Max said simply. His hair was messy, he was wearing old sweats and looked like he hadn't shaved since the last race. 

Victoria sat down on the floor in front of the couch, defeated "What happened Max?" she asked concerned "Where's Liv?".

As she said Olivia's name Max's eyes flashed in Victoria's direction and away from the TV before being glued back to the screen "I don't know where she is, she left" he said with a hollow voice.