Broken Speed | Verstappen & Leclerc

04 | rival's car

-|- Bahrain -|-

I starred at the message longer than on any other one over the last few weeks. Under normal circumstances I would have ignored it like any other text, like any other call. I didn't want to talk to people, to bother them with my life, my problems, my struggles.

But I knew how much Luka and Lio would love me for that, for making their wish of seeing the red car come true. And seeing the sparkle in their eyes was doing so much to me, it made me proud and even a bit happy, knowing that they, in that moment, were glad to have me.

And maybe this whole weekend here was a chance for me to make it up to them, for all the last weeks that had been a mess. Maybe they needed this weekend here to life their, to be happy again.

Of course they were happy in Monaco, or at least I hoped that, but this was such a new and exciting experience for them. I owed it to them.

"What's wrong Maxie?" Luka asked as he was done eating his pasta.

I looked up for a moment, looking between them, with their cute mouths, covered in tomato sauce. I owed it to them.

"We can go and look at the red car if you want." I then said, waiting for their reaction.

The older boy immediately jumped up from his seat, running around the table and climbing onto my lap, trowing his arms around my neck.

"Yes! You are the best!" he beamed and also Lio tried to stand up, needing some more time than his older brother.

But once he reached me I also picked him up, putting him in my arm on my hip so he could also hug me.

"Thank you Maxie." he babbled and even kissed my cheek, that surely had a red spot now.

It made me smile and a little stone fell from my heart, knowing that for once I made the right decision. I then cuddled them for some minutes before Luka jumped back down from my lap.

"We go see Ferrari!" Lio laughed as he also was back on the ground, running over to his seat again.

I smiled after him before I quickly texted Charles back. The first message that I send in probably weeks, excluding the ones to Christian.

"Are you done with eating?" I then asked the kids and they nodded their head, happily beaming as they jumped up from their seats.

Quickly I brought back the plates before I took Lio's hand and we stepped back into the paddock. Luka was running ahead and I let him as by now there weren't many people in here, especially all the media people were gone.

And while walking over to the Ferrari garage, it was the first time in weeks, that I felt something. I wasn't sure what it was, probably joy for the kids as they were beaming with so much energy and happiness.

They deserved being happy, and maybe, only maybe, one day we could all be happy together, accept what happened and life a normal life. But at the moment that was as far away as anything else. At the moment it was unthinkable.

Once we got closer to the red garage, I saw the Monegasque already waiting, sitting in front of the hospitality in a chair, his legs crossed over each other on another chair. But as soon as he saw Luka, who was running in front, he packed his phone away and stood up.