Start Again | Forbidden Book 2

35. (Alternate) Thin Walls

On Hungary Max went back to his winning ways. If there was something that truly impressed Liv was his ability to come back stronger every time he was knocked down. It was incredible. 

By the time it was time for Spa however, now it was Olivia's turn to hold on, because Max's mother was visiting the paddock for the race. 

Olivia and Sophie hadn't talked at all since the whole Brazil incident, and even though Max had apologized for it, Sophie hadn't. At least not to Liv, and not to Checo. 

Max loved his family though, Olivia knew it was important to him for her to get along with his mother. Olivia loved Checo too though, it was hard for her to give in when Sophie had hurt him. 

"Should I be nervous?" asked Max as they got ready for dinner on Thursday.

"I don't know, should you?" asked Olivia wanting to know Sophie's stance on things. 

He let out an exasperated sigh "I think I am. Please play nice" he said turning to her and holding on to her arms. 

She looked into his blue eyes and there was no way of telling him no "I promise I will" she said. Max smiled and leaned in to kiss her lips softly. No matter how many time had gone by and how many times they had kissed, it made her heart soar. 

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The dinner was polite and slightly awkward since the very beginning. And they hadn't even made it past the entrees. Olivia could not muster the strength of going through an entire dinner like this. 

"Why don't we adress the elephant in the room?" said Liv with a smile as she looked from Sophie to Max. 

Max closed his eyes with a pained look on his face while Sophie stood up straighter. 

"Let's just talk about it and get past this alright?" she said "So let's talk, Sophie that comment you made about my brother's marriage? Way out of line" she said remaining calm. 

Sophie was taken aback for a moment but then she said "Well they were attacking us, attacking Max.."

"They were attacking me too" Liv cut her off, her tone was stronger this time "I didn't go and talk shit about other people, much less other's people's marriages. You shouldn't mess with things like that" the more she remembered it, the angrier she got. Still her voice remained steady.

"You hurt my sister in law, you hurt Checo. Therefore you hurt me and by hurting me you hurt Max" Liv stated after Sophie remained silent. 

Sophie turned to look at Max. 

Max's eyes went slightly wide as he nodded slowly "Yeah, that's true" he said looking at Olivia instead of his mother. He remembered how their flight had completely blown up after Olivia got that call from Carola completely horrified. It had been so awful. 

The one thing Sophie would never do, was hurt her son. She was trying to fight back the haters when she did that comment. Of course, she did it in the worst possible way imaginable, but she tried. And by doing that she ended up hurting her son even more. She didn't want that and she was realizing that just now. 

She looked to the side as she gathered her thoughts before she said "I'm sorry" the words struggled to come out of her mouth but they were honest "I shouldn't have made that comment. I didn't think it through, I was just so mad at what the people were writing!" she said getting angry remembering the hateful comments on her son's Instagram. 

"They were horrible" nodded Olivia reaching out with her hand and placing it on top of hers "They were so cruel to Max and all of you, all of us. But we can't join them" she shook her head with her brow slightly furrowed.