Foggy Mirrors | Max Verstappen

Chapter 20 - THE PRESENT

"You never slept much, even as a baby." Natalie said as she approached Leanne, who was sitting downstairs. Opting for that after Isa and Checo had retired for the night as well. She didn't want to sit sleeplessly in the chairs before their rooms, she would rather die than hear that. So really the living room was the only place, sitting by the kitchen table, watching the circle the liquid swirled in.

"I'm surprised you remember." Leanne muttered, as her mother pulled out a chair and sat down next to her, the grin on her lips almost hostile, causing the daughter to title her head to look at her mother with scepticism in her eyes.

"I just wanted to let you know, Leanne that I understand you. I really do." Natalie began to speak, before she rested her hand on top of Leanne's but the younger one was quick to pull away, but that didn't bother her mother much. She just kept on talking when all Leanne ever wished for was for her mother to stay silent, to disappear and never come back.

"I have to say that knowing makes me feel amazing. You looked down at me for years, but all you are is a hypocrite." Natalie said, causing Leanne to furrow her brows, before she realised what her mother thought she knew, but that couldn't happen. Not now, not ever.

"What are you talking about?" She asked barely, as if that would hide her fault. Not everyone was as blind as Isa after all. But Isa's obviousness to what was happened made her sloppy. They should have been way more careful.

"Verstappen men." Hearing it from her mother's lips, nearly made her throw up. She didn't want her to feel superior, she didn't want to have anything to do with her, not now, not ever. "I really get it. They are something else, something to behold. It's just rich that you chastised me for being with one, when you go and do the exact same thing."

"I take that he is not your brother. Or you are even kinkier than I am." Natalie said calmly, which caused Leanne to get up from her seat, her chair knocked back by the force.

"Shut up!" She hissed at her mother. Natalie was the last one, she would allow to scold her for any of her life decisions.

"I must say I am impressed by my daughters. One is sleeping with a married man more than ten years her senior, the other one is fucking her own brother." Natalie said and Leanne was never a violent person, but in that moment in that moment she thought about hitting her own mother.

"He is not my brother." Leanne pressed through clenched teeth. Even though her mother didn't deserve to know.

"Yeah, I would tell myself the same thing if I would be you. But you do remind me of Jos sometimes, you know. Max does too, but he's also so different. Even as a teenager, that build, these eyes. I wouldn't have said no. I wouldn't have denied him anything." Natalie said and Leanne knew that this was her trying to provoke her. She wanted her daughter to show a reaction, she wanted Leanne to lose it once as she was cursed to lose it all the time. She wanted to rip that control from Leanne just once in her life.

"You lusted after a teenager with your husband right next to you, you are pathetic and a creep." The daughter said instead of losing it totally, but she did curl her fingers in a fist, her nails digging into her palm to remind her to keep calm, to remind her that this was exactly want Natalie wanted. But she would not get a raise out of Leanne, she would not win. Leanne would not lower herself to Natalie's level.

"I dare to admit, I thought about him quite a bit, when I had to endure your father. I just knew that Max would be a beast in the sheets. Strong and harsh, demanding and unapologizing. Isn't that the case? You would know, right?"

"Stop talking about him like that." The anger in her veins was burning. Leanne knew she had to leave this situation, she had to leave or she would do something she would regret later, not because of the woman sitting at the table being her mother, but due to her never wanting to be so low. Leanne was herself, she wasn't her mother's daughter, or her father's. She was... she was Max's Lea. That's what she truly wanted to be and she had to act as this person would.