Eliana Moretti had learned how to live with a broken heart.
At twenty-six, she had everything a woman was supposed to want. A career in fashion marketing with a Milan-based brand, a sleek little apartment overlooking the Arno, and friends who constantly told her she was lucky,beautiful, smart, independent. She smiled when she was expected to. Dated when she was pressured to. Laughed at the appropriate jokes. But underneath the surface, she carried a quiet ache no one saw.
A love that never had a beginning, but somehow never ended.
She had fallen in love at seven years old,ridiculous, perhaps, to anyone else but she never forgot him. His name had burned itself into her bones like it was etched in fire: Kai.
He'd been just a boy then. Eight, maybe. Ragged sneakers, untamed hair, and the saddest eyes she had ever seen. She was in Toronto for a short school holiday, staying with her parents at a downtown hotel while they visited old friends. One afternoon, while the adults talked over wine and appetizers, Eliana had wandered outside.
She wasn't supposed to. She was rarely allowed to be alone. But the air had smelled of adventure that day warm, with the tang of city life and distant food trucks. And then she saw him, sitting on the curb across the street, kicking an empty soda can. Alone. Silent. A quiet storm in human form.
And for reasons she couldn't explain, she'd walked straight up to him.
Their conversation was short. Innocent. Childlike. He was wary but polite. She told him her name. He told her his. Kai. Just that. No last name. No family to mention. And when her mother came running and scolded her for talking to a stranger, she hadn't cried not for the punishment,but for the boy whose eyes were screaming for something no one else seemed to notice.
That night, while curled in her hotel bed, she whispered a promise into her pillow:
"I'll love you. Even if I never see you again, I'll love you."
And she did.
For nearly twenty years, Eliana carried that promise like a secret treasure. She returned to Italy when the holiday ended, begged her parents to let her stay with her aunt in Toronto, but they refused. That city, and that boy, disappeared into the past.
But not from her heart.
The world turned, and life swept her along with it,graduations, heartbreaks, promotions, fake smiles, polite kisses, and unspoken regrets. No man ever held her interest long enough to touch her. No one compared to the boy with the storm in his eyes.
Then, three years ago, she saw him again.
Or rather ,she saw the man he had become.
It was a random moment. A headline on social media. A photo of a tall, muscular striker with fierce eyes and a sharp jawline. Kai Renzo. One of the most talked-about names in international football. A beast on the field. A legend in the making. She wouldn't have recognized him by the face,it had changed. Hardened. Matured. But the name hit her like thunder.
She stared at the screen for hours, heart pounding like a drum. The boy from Toronto had become a god.
But he wasn't alone.
He had a child. A son. There were rumors of a woman,no wedding ring, no official partner,but he was clearly devoted. She found pictures of him holding the child, smiling down at him like he was his entire world.
Eliana had closed her laptop and cried.
For days, she told herself to let it go. To stop romanticizing a memory. She didn't know him anymore. Maybe she never truly had. He was untouchable now,famous, admired, rich, constantly surrounded by models and fans. What could a quiet, introverted woman from Florence possibly mean to a man like that?
Still, she couldn't stop.
Every night, she found herself scrolling through his photos. Watching his matches. Reading every interview. She memorized the way his lips moved when he spoke, the tattoos on his forearms, the names of his teammates. She lived in his digital shadow.
Loving him in silence. From a distance.
Men asked her out. Her friends tried setting her up. But she couldn't bring herself to feel anything. The dates ended politely, the kisses were cold, and she always came home lonelier than before. No one understood her type, because she couldn't explain it. Her type was one man. One memory. One ghost of a boy who had become a legend.
She hated herself for it. Hated how obsessed she felt. But every attempt to move on only made the ache worse. She even considered therapy once. But what would she say?
"I'm in love with a man who doesn't know I exist."
Instead, she buried it.
She worked. She exercised. She smiled. She kept the secret to herself like a sacred wound. And still, every night, before she fell asleep, she looked at his photos. Prayed for his safety. Wished for something she couldn't name.
Until fate finally twisted the knife.
Three weeks before her birthday, she ran into him.
She hadn't expected it. She was just returning home from a trip to Paris, waiting for her connecting flight in Milan's airport. She saw him from across the terminal, surrounded by fans, cameras flashing like stars exploding. He was taller now. Broader. Even more beautiful than the screen could capture.
Her feet froze.
Her body forgot how to breathe.
But she didn't approach him. Didn't ask for a selfie or an autograph. She just walked past. Eyes down. Heart thundering. He didn't recognize her,of course he didn't. She was a stranger to him. A forgotten whisper from another life.
But she felt his gaze follow her.
Just for a second.
It meant nothing. She told herself that a hundred times that night. And yet… it lit a spark in her chest she couldn't extinguish.
That spark was still burning when her friends begged her to celebrate her upcoming birthday with a weekend getaway,just them, a hotel, and a night at a club. Eliana almost declined. She hated crowds. She hated loud music and empty flirtation. But something inside her whispered, "Go. Let go. Try."
So she said yes.
She packed her things.
And three nights later, she walked into a dimly lit club with no idea that fate was about to change her life forever.