What Is Love? ∞ Max Verstappen

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 1

Warning: First of all thanks for reading. English is not my first language so there may be some mistakes. There are some swearing words along with sexual words and scenes. I might make some mistakes because I'm new to Formula 1 and I tried to research everything before writing but some things are hard to find (I accept any help you can give me tho).

Every character and name are merely representative and I do not mean to insult anyone, but someone will be the villain (or not) so if it's your idol I'm sorry. Some family names/birthdays are made up because there are pieces of information that are, obviously, not made public. Some facts and results may be changed to better fit the story.

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♪ There is a swelling storm
And I'm caught up in the middle of it all ♪

February 2nd, 2022 - Monaco

Claire Leclerc POV

"I can't believe you got the apartment right by Max's side. When we do parties we can use both of your terraces, it will be huge" Charles says while I showed him the apartment and I roll my eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to be rivals?" I ask confused by the dynamic.

"We are friends above it all" He says and my three brothers go outside to look at the view.

Don't get me wrong, I love this apartment and I love living alone for the first time. I got a penthouse in the same building as Max's. He has the other penthouse, so the last two floors of the building are ours.

I don't talk to Max much, we just greet each other and that's all we've been doing whenever I go to watch a race. I've been completing my degree so I haven't seen him in a while. I know he won last year and I congratulated him, he invited me to the after party but I said I couldn't.

I am not in on all the gossip but this year I will be because I'll be giving Charles and Arthur my full support which means the paddock will definitely be my second home. I almost had a mental breakdown with my degree, turns out I didn't like it so mom told me to relax and my brothers told me to be with them for at least this year.

"This apartment is huge. How can you afford this?" Arthur asks completely shocked. I was one year older than him but he is competitive.

"I worked, a lot. I got a good opportunity and I took it since the scholarship covered all my expenses I basically put it in my pocket" I say shrugging. I made a comfortable amount, I am good with computers and therefore I just ended a computer science degree.

"I'm happy for you" He says happily.

"You can call us if you need something. We will let you get used to this and we can schedule a dinner or lunch sometime this week" Mom says as everyone had walked through the house and seen it all.

"Thank you. I will text you, I just have one more box to put in place and the moving is done" I say happily while I walked them to the door. I say my goodbyes and they leave.

I laid down on the couch and turned on the tv, the last week was intense with all the packing, moving, cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and a million more things. I didn't even see Max the whole week. I don't think he knows yet, maybe Charles told him. I heard a child and remembered Victoria had two kids so maybe she is in Monaco with Max. Victoria is really sweet, we used to talk a lot when I went to watch Charles.

I was about to sleep when I heard a heart-wrenching cry. What the fuck is happening next door? Is someone dying? Can a baby scream this much? This sounded like a toddler tantrum, Jesus Christ. An hour went by, the cry got harder, then stopped, then screams and cry again. Should I go there? I mean, it sounds really serious. I went to my kitchen to grab a glass of water and have some kind of break from the crying. I thought my bedroom was closer to Max's and not the guest bedroom. Poor Victoria.

I decided to go check if there was anything they needed, I had just done grocery shopping so I was stocked up in everything.

"Claire. What are you doing here?" Max's mom asks as she opens the door surprised to see me.

"Sophie! I am the new neighbor, is everything okay? I heard so much crying and yelling, is it Luka or Lio?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"No, they are in the Netherlands. Olivia is throwing a tantrum, we can't seem to calm her down, I'm so sorry. We didn't even know he had a neighbor now. We will try to calm her" Sophie says apologetically and I'm confused. Who is Olivia?

"Who is Olivia?"

"Max's daughter. She is almost 5 but her mom gave up her rights and left her soon after she was born. It was for the best, he is trying his best. I'm so sorry you have to hear this. This is one of the bad days, she is mostly an angel" I could see the sadness in her eyes, the noise got quieter and I see a little girl showing up curiously.

"Who are you?" She asks with her red puffy eyes staring at me, she had her father's eyes. Jesus, I felt like I was seeing Max when I looked at her.

"Hello. I'm Claire, the new neighbor, and daddy's friend too" I say kneeling down to her height and she takes a few more steps in my direction.

"You are pretty. I am Olivia" She says touching my hair and I smile.

"You are gorgeous, what a beautiful name. Why were you crying, baby?" I ask and she shrugs.

"I wanted hot chocolate but we ran out and dad says I can't have it until tomorrow" She says with tears appearing again.

"Hey. Don't cry, I have some in my apartment, I will go get it for you and you can have it today. Is it okay?" I ask and her eyes shine with happiness as she smiles nodding.

"Who is it?" Max asks coming in with an exhausted look on his face and he gets quiet as soon as he sees me. "Claire, long time no see"

"I moved next door. I heard a lot of crying and screaming, I thought it was your nephews, I wasn't in on the daughter thing. I didn't mean to intrude" I say as Olivia was leaving for the kitchen.

"I am so sorry, I didn't know someone was moving in, I just came back from the Netherlands, and she wants something we don't have and grocery shopping has to be done tomorrow. I am going crazy" He says running his hand through his hair while looking down, this is a Max I had never seen.

"I have the hot chocolate in my apartment. I will go get it so she will get to sleep. If you need anything just knock" He looked at me and I see how grateful he was.

"I would owe you one. I'm just so tired today and she didn't calm down with anything. It's really hard" He says and I turn around to go from our hallway to my door and open it.

"You can come in, it's all tidied up for now" I say and he nods following me.

"I would say welcome to the building but I think you are regretting it already" He says letting out a laugh while I looked for the hot chocolate.

"Nah, I'm happy to know someone here. Plus, she is cute. I like her, she is just acting out. She will grow out of it. You can just knock if you need help. I will be around a lot this year" I say and he smiles.

"I will see you around. Thank you for this" He says as I gave him the chocolate powder. I took him to the door and he left.

So Max Verstappen has a daughter? Well, I was speechless for the first time in a long time. I guess I will see more of him than I expected.