Victor DeLuca

Victor's POV

I had everything now or so the world believed. When my name flashed across Forbes lists, when paparazzi stalked me outside glittering galas, when executives tripped over themselves to curry my favor in boardrooms that hummed with power and air-conditioning, the world saw a man who had conquered it all.

But i remembered a time when no one even saw me.

Back then in high school, i was just a wiry boy with crooked glasses, perpetually hunched beneath the weight of too many books. I smelled faintly of chalk and printer ink, my backpack always bursting with half-finished science projects. My classmates saw "the nerd." But i only saw her.

Max.

Max with her easy smile, the kind that could thaw winter mornings. Max with her untamed confidence, walking down high school hallways as if the world had already signed over the deed to her. I could still recall the sting of watching her from a distance, never daring to step closer, never brave enough to admit how my heart hammered whenever Max’s laugh echoed down the corridor.

And now?

Now i was worth thirty-seven billion dollars. I had carved out an empire of technology and media, transforming from the invisible boy with ink-stained fingers into one of the most photographed men alive. The magazines called me charismatic, dashing, untouchable. They compared me to gods of Olympus in their glossy pages. But behind every staged smile, every carefully orchestrated interview, i still carried that hidden thread of longing an old name etched into the foundation of my soul.

My penthouse stretched across the entire top floor of a Manhattan skyscraper, walls of glass framing the city like a living painting. Every morning, i awoke to the muted glow of sunrise brushing against steel towers, and every morning, i performed the same ritual.

I steped into the marble bathroom, stare at the man in the mirror, and search for remnants of the awkward boy i used to be. My jawline was sharper now, sculpted by personal trainers and discipline. My glasses were long gone, replaced by vision corrected with lasers. My once unruly hair was trimmed to perfection, my wardrobe hand-stitched by Italian artisans.

Yet some mornings, when fatigue carved shadows under my eyes, i swore i still saw that fragile boy staring back. The boy who had loved Max silently, hopelessly.

It was strange, the details memory chose to preserve. I couldn’t remember the algebra problem that had stumped me on my sophomore final exam. I couldn’t recall the precise date of the homecoming dance i hadn’t attended.

But i remembered Max’s smile.

It was an ordinary Tuesday, the kind of day that smelled faintly of cafeteria pizza and damp gym clothes. I had been crouched at my locker, trying to rearrange my books in a way that wouldn’t send them spilling onto the floor.

Max had walked past with her usual friends. She was as beautiful as ever. I had prepared myself for the sting of being overlooked, the way i always was.

But then it happened.

Max’s gaze flicked down, caught mine for the briefest moment, and she smiled.

Not a cruel smile. Not pity. Just… warmth. A flicker of recognition that said, I see you.

I had gone breathless. It lasted only a second before Max was gone, swept down the hallway in a tide of noise. But for me, that second had been seismic.

I carried it like a secret flame ever since.

I knew someone like max would never go for a guy like me but i still wanted to try my luck. I decided to ask her out. I had my speech ready and i went to school that day. We were having a pep rally and there was a football match so i decided after the match, i will ask her out.

When the match was over, i saw her talking to someone, i moved closer and saw it was the football captain, Alex. I could not hear what they were talking about but after a few seconds, a smile broke from Max face and she hugged Alex. That was when i knew i was too late.

I decided to forget about her but it was not easy for me. I thought that when we graduated, everything will be fine but then i saw they got married. That gave me the motivation to change myself from the nerd looking guy i was back then to who i am now.

I had flings, of course. Women and men who threw themselves at me, dazzled by wealth and status. But none of them lasted. I had them just so i could not think about max every seconds.

Sometimes, in the quiet hours of dawn, I imagined what it might have been like to confess back then. To walk up to Max in the hallway, to stammer out the truth that had burned my tongue for years. I wondered if Max would have laughed. Or maybe—just maybe—She would have smiled again, that same kind smile that had once changed everything.

But i had never tried. Fear had chained me. And then time had swept Max out of my orbit, leaving me to chase ghosts.

One evening, as my car wound through the city streets, my phone buzzed with a news alert.

I almost ignored it. There were always new names, new disruptors clawing for the crown. But something made me click the link.

The post i saw made all the color drain from my face. It was something i never expect to see.

"Celebration of life, you left us too soon, you shall forever remain in our heart, Max. There was a picture of her attached to the post. My mind went blank, my heart sunk, my hands were shaking. I could not believe what i was reading. It had to be a joke. There was a date and venue attached to the post. The Burial was taking place tomorrow. I had to see for myself if it was true or not.

I leaned back against the leather seat, the city lights blurring past the tinted glass. For years, i had buried the past beneath layers of success and sophistication. But now, with one news, the foundations trembled.

Victor DeLuca, the man who could buy anything, command anyone, control everything suddenly felt powerless.

Because if it was Max, the girl who had shaped my entire life, then destiny wasn’t done with me yet.

And neither, perhaps, was i.