The Monarch - m.v.

- 9 -

Max's POV

I spent the past few hours with Sophie's family today and with Christian as well, we've been showing them around the Red Bull drivers academy facility and getting her brother fitted for his gear. If I'm being honest, I absolutely love spending time with just them and getting to know them on an even more personal level.

"This is Sebastian Vettels car?" Lucas asked excitedly. "Yeah man, wanna hop in?" I suggested. He looked at me with his huge brown eyes, "really?" He asked. I nodded and assisted him into it.

"Wow...he won his world championships in this?!" "You know your drivers kid! Dad raised you well I see." Christian said. We all laughed a bit and continued on outside.

"You know Max, you're a great guy." Sophie's father said to me quietly and holding me back while everyone went off to look at the track. Her father and I just stared out into the view of the mountains. "I appreciate that sir, especially coming from you." I told him.

"I'm sure I'm very intimidating, being the King, Sophie's father, all of that. But truthfully son, I want you to know you're very much on my good side. She's always had the hardest time with love. I remember her mother and I just trying to reassure her one day she'd find someone amazing so thank you as well for being that guy." Wow. I'm speechless, hearing that compliment was something i needed to hear but didn't know I did, if that makes sense. Kind of like a weight being lifted off my shoulders unexpectedly.

"You're too kind. You're daughter, like I always tell you, really deserves the best treatment, she deserves to be treated like a Princess, no pun intended." I nudged his arm with a slight laugh, hoping to get one out of him as well but he abruptly said, "Queen. Treated like a Queen."

"I'm sorry, you're right. I didn't mean t-" Was all I could say before he interrupted, "I'm just kneading with you kid, don't worry. I mean she does deserve to be treated like a queen since she is my daughter and the heir BUT I wasn't getting mad at you. Come on kid." He said while patting my back and walking away.

"You know, I never imagined a royal family to be this relaxed. Always heard you guys were but first hand is so different." I told him as I tried to catch up.

"Well I became King at 18 unexpectedly as most know so as an 18 year old king would, you modernize the monarchy, the rules, whatever it is. All that stuff that was put in place and what not, came from the medieval days, do you know how long ago that was?!" He said with a huge laugh. He had a point and it was a funny one.

"Honestly, I am all here for it. I love it." I told him. "There's a huge gala for all royal families happening in England right before the Imola race, thought I might ask if you'd like to join us? We can fly all together to the race." He suddenly asked, a gala?

"Like all royal families from all over, gathering at a fancy black tie dinner?" I clarified. He laughed and gave a nod, he knew I was shocked by what he had just said, once again.

"Absolutely, have you told Sophie or spoke with her?" I replied. "No, I'm thinking we keep it a surprise until the day? It's the fanciest dinner of the year so this is when she dresses up the most besides her wedding of course."

"Wow, absolutely. I'd be honored to attend with you guys." "Perfect. I'll let your team know the plan. Speaking of teams, if you were curious about the Kelly thing, so far I haven't heard anything which no news is good news." He reassured. That's great to hear, if I'm honest the whole Kelly thing has died down a bit. Enough to where I will forget about it at times. We continued to talk a bit more regarding racing and Lucas here at the academy. We eventually all met up and went out for dinner with them and the team.

*after dinner at the hotel*

After dinner, her family went back to Belgium and I stayed back. I'll be going back to Monaco tomorrow morning with Christian. "Hey schat, how was New York?" I asked Sophie as she answered the FaceTime call I sent her. She was in the car leaving the airport and heading home.

"Amazing! A bit hungover but I didn't drink too much. I remember everything haha" she reassured, she was makeup less with her hair thrown in a messy bun. I couldn't resist taking a screenshot, "oh no, max!" She yelled jokingly.

"You're too beautiful I couldn't help, but that's good! Tell me all about it!" She started to explain everything, what they talked about in the interview, what club she went to, what songs were playing, what she ate, when I say everything, everything. I loved how she always over explained things and it's just because I love to listen to her talk especially since she does in Dutch now more than before.

"I'm so glad you had fun, I'd love to go sometime." I told her, she agreed. "There's so many places we've got to visit, we should make a list." She was right, we talk about new places to travel to for fun and not for work but never plan anything out. Definitely got to start that.

"Oh I'm home, I'll call you later?" She asked. "I gotta head to bed in a minute but I'll text and call you in the morning schat. I love you." I told her.

"I love you!" She hung up and before I could even open another app on my phone, Christian started banging on my door along with a few other people.

"Hey, why are you banging so h- wait why are you taking my phone?!" As soon as I opened it, my phone was snatched out of my hand by someone. I couldn't tell who it was because they ran off after taking it.

"What just happened?" I asked Christian who was standing in front of me still. He gave me a smile but not a happy one. One of those scared smiles.
He stared at me like that for a minute while I furrowed my eyebrows at him. Then it hit me.

"What did Kelly do?" I asked starting to feel the rage come over me. "Max sit down." Christian said trying to push me back into my room. "No what did she do?! What happened?!" I yelled loudly. "Shhh, you'll make a scene son, other people are on this level." He said continuing to push me and eventually getting me to sit in a chair. I wasn't going to sit in this chair much longer with the rage that was running through my veins. I already know and can feel in my gut it has to do with Kelly. I saw a few other team members enter the room with all the luggage.

"We're not speaking of what happened, I'm taking your phone for now so you don't find out but we leave in 10 minutes to go to Belgium. Get your shit so we can hurry to the airport." He said while leaning against the table sitting to my right. When he said we were needing to go to Belgium immediately my emotions and focus shifted.

"Is Sophie okay? Wait. Why Belgium?! What happened!" I shouted. "It'll be fine I promise." Christian reassured. I sat there for a second before he snapped me out of me zoning out. No, nothing will be fine, I can feel it.

What the fuck is going on? Is Sophie okay? Did Kelly do something? What about her father or mother or brother? They were all in transport from separate places but what if something happened to them?

Hiding it from me is only going to make this worse. This is going to be a dreadful flight.

————-
Hello!! I apologize for being absent, tried to make this a juicy chapter to make up for it.

Any ideas on what happened?!