The Billionaire Who Forgot How to Love
Chapter 1: The Man Who Loved Too Much
Rain came down hard. Cold. Relentless. Like judgment.
Elias Thorne stood alone under a flickering streetlight. Water soaked through his coat, but he didn't move.
This—this was how it would end.
Thirty-nine. CEO of three companies. Owner of a silent empire. And still, completely alone.
No wife. No kids. No friends. Just titles, numbers, and a hollow name.
He stared up at the tower behind him—glass and steel. His legacy. The place he'd sacrificed everything to build.
And for what?
To be forgotten?
He walked slowly down the sidewalk. His shoes splashed through puddles. The night air was sharp. The world moved around him, fast and uncaring.
On the corner, he saw her.
An old woman, hunched over. A red shawl covered her head. Groceries spilled across the road. Cars splashed past her, ignoring her completely.
Elias stepped in.
He bent down, picked up the cans, helped her gather her things.
"People don't stop anymore," she said.
He gave a small, tired smile. "They're too busy chasing things that don't last."
She looked up. Her eyes were dark and calm. They studied him. Deeply.
"You're hurting," she said.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not. You've been kind in a world that punishes kindness."
He helped her to her feet.
"You don't owe me anything," he said.
"I know. But I still want to give you something."
He shook his head. "No need. I don't believe in miracles."
She placed a hand on his chest. Warmth spread under her palm.
"If you could go back… would you?"
He hesitated.
"Everyone says yes," he murmured. "But going back means feeling it all again. The pain. The betrayal."
"And yet, you still wish it."
He looked her in the eyes.
"I do. God help me, I do."
She smiled.
Then the world went dark.
He woke up gasping.
The scent hit first—pine and cheap laundry soap.
Then sound. Off-key singing. Cereal bowls clinking. A creaky door.
Then sight.
His ceiling. The old one.
He sat up fast. Chest heaving.
His room. His old desk. The cracked lamp. The same peeling poster.
His hands were young.
He rushed to the mirror.
A nineteen-year-old stared back.
He touched the glass.
"I'm back…"
On the desk sat a notebook. Open. Familiar handwriting on the first page:
"Don't waste it this time."
He stood in silence for a long time, staring at the reflection.
His heart thudded in his ears. Not from fear. From disbelief.
This wasn't a dream.
The calendar on the wall read April 3rd, the year he started college. The year before everything went wrong.
He reached for his phone. It was an old flip model. No fingerprint scanner, no facial recognition. Just buttons and plastic.
It buzzed with a text from his younger sister.
Lila: "Don't forget Mom's birthday tomorrow, dummy. I baked the cake. You better show up."
Elias sat down slowly on the edge of his bed.
His mom was still alive. His sister still talked to him. He hadn't become the man who forgot what love looked like.
Not yet.
But he would have. He remembered clearly now. How success swallowed him. How people used him. How he sacrificed family for profit.
This time… he wouldn't.
He closed his eyes and breathed.
He didn't need to chase power.
He just needed to prepare. Build in silence. Watch who he trusted. And protect the people who mattered.
This time, he would live quietly.
Build quietly.
Love carefully.
If at all.
Downstairs, the smell of fried eggs and burnt toast filled the air.
He walked into the kitchen, barefoot, still stunned.
His mom was humming to herself, flipping pancakes in her worn-out robe.
Lila sat at the table, scrolling on a tiny phone screen, earbuds in.
Neither noticed him at first.
Then his mom turned.
"Elias? You're up early. You okay?"
He couldn't answer.
He just nodded.
And then something cracked in him. A sound. A feeling. Something warm and painful.
He walked up to her and hugged her.
She tensed. "Well, that's unexpected. What's gotten into you?"
He didn't let go.
"Nothing," he whispered. "Just missed you."
His mom pulled back slowly, looking him over. "You sick or something?"
He laughed, choked and hoarse. "Maybe a little."
Lila glanced up. "Is he crying?"
"I am not," Elias said.
He absolutely was.
Later, in his room, he opened his old laptop. Slow. Dusty. Still running on outdated software.
But it was enough.
He remembered companies that hadn't yet launched. Names that would become giants. Stocks that would explode. Innovations still years from release.
He began to write.
Not just ideas. Plans. Timelines. Market shifts.
He built blueprints for businesses he would start in silence. Under other names. In other hands.
He didn't need to be seen.
He just needed to control the game.
Quietly.
Brilliantly.
This time, no one would know his name until it was too late.
He returned to campus two days later.
The halls looked the same—same flickering lights, same cracked floor tiles, same loud students pushing through the corridors.
But to him, everything had changed.
He wasn't the naive boy walking into his first class. He wasn't just Elias Thorne, scholarship student with average clothes and quiet habits.
Now, he was a man with two lifetimes.
And he was watching everything.
He noticed how his economics professor limped from an injury she wouldn't get for another six months.
He noticed the computer science club—two awkward freshmen who would someday build a billion-dollar app and leave everyone behind.
He noticed her.
Alana.
She walked through the courtyard like she owned the sky. Confident. Gorgeous. Smiling like she'd never been the storm in his life.
In his last life, she was the one.
Until she wasn't.
He watched her pass, heart tight. Part of him still felt it—the longing, the ache.
But the other part, the wiser part, stayed still.
He wouldn't make the same mistake.
Not this time.
She didn't notice him.
Good.
Because this time, Elias Thorne wouldn't be the man begging for love.
He'd be the man she'd never understand.
And when fate came for him again…
He'd be ready.