The Goodbye that broke me

The realization

I screamed the moment I saw Liam bending over for a fellow man. The were not distracted.

“So Liam is a gay”

These two were so overwhelmed with the pleasure, that they didn't notice when I stepped in.

I couldn't Believe my eyes.

nothing had prepared me for what I walked in on that night.

The shock hitted me so hard like a slap.

I stormed out of his house, my chest burning with anger but I never said a word.

This wasn't the first. He uses s*x toys

I had never had issues with the fact that he was using s*x toys.

I don't know why, But maybe I think it is because Chloe has always convinced me that there was nothing bad about it. But when it comes to the fact that my man is bending and moaning loudly for another man, I couldn't just take it.

“This was a phase I would also overcome” I consoled myself

I was bruised Inside my heart.

“Maybe the stranger was the lucky one, but the sad thing was that I cannot recognise him another day.”

With a drink in my hand, I laid on my bed, tears trickled down my eyes and I drifted to sleep.

Eric's POV

My jaws clenched tightly as I kept thinking about that had happened the previous day. The girl that kept staring at me at the mall.

“It looked like she was a stalking me, because I kept seeing her”.

“f**k!” The girl tried so hard to win my attention but she couldn't.

She was too naive.

The image of the girl at the mall kept playing before my eyes But I didn’t have time to sit with it. Not now. Not when everything I’d built was under attack.

I jolted out of my thoughts like I'd been slapped.

My phone buzzed, a notification, another headline twisting the knife.

"Veriton Tech CEO Caught in AI Ethics Scandal"

"Anonymous Leak Suggested Fraud, Manipulation at the Top"

Bullshit!!!.

When the lie’s loud enough, no one stops to check the facts.

I push off the couch, grabbing my jacket off the chair.

I hitted the speed dial. Maria my secretary answered on the second ring, her voice clipped and already wide awake.

“Get everyone in the war room. Twenty minutes PR, legal, engineering, I want them all there, even if you have to drag them out of bed.”

“On it,” she says. “Mr Eric, the media…..”

“I know.” I cut her off, pinching the bridge of my nose. “And I want every surveillance log from the data center. Whoever pulled this stunt didn’t just want to ruin the launch… they came for me.”

I hang up the call.

I stare at my reflection in the window, the city lights burning behind me. I look like hell, my jaw tight, eyes tired, collar wrinkled from hours of pacing. And underneath it all, that same sick feeling in my gut.

Because I know something no one else did.

This wasn’t random. This isn't a business rivalry.

Someone knows me. Personally, intimately enough to know exactly where to hit.

I left my penthouse in a rush, my chauffeur was already waiting. I had to rush to the company to sort this out. Rain smeared the city lights into a blur as we sped through downtown. I didn’t say a word the whole ride.I was too busy, I tried to keep my mind from spiraling.

My office feels like it is closed in cold glass, silent walls, and screens flashed chaos in every corner

The war room was already lit as I walked in. Screens lined the walls, each displayed a different piece of the chaos: trending hashtags, news headlines, live forums dissecting my life like I was a dead animal on the table. Everyone looked up to acknowledge my entry.

No one said it, but I saw it in their eye it in their eyes

“Are the rumors true? I asked

“Let’s keep this focused,” I said, my voice flat but sharp enough to cut the tension.

“Maria, where are we on the video leak?”

“It's a deep fake. We have confirmed it through three forensic tools,” she said.

She flicked the footage onto the central screen. Here I am,my voice, my face saying things I never said. The illusion is perfect. Too perfect.

“It has to be an inside job. The footage uses real audio from your interviews, stitched with AI. Whoever made it knows your cadence. Your expressions.”

“What about the emails?” I asked, jaw tightening.

“Splice. Faked headers. Whoever did this had access to our internal system structure. Someone with clearance.”

“So, we’ve been breached.” I concluded looking around the table, forcing myself to stay composed. “Has the board seen this?”

“They're waiting for a statement. So is the media,” Maria said.

“Mr Eric… they’re not just coming after Veriton. They’re coming after you.” Mr Jason said.

I knew this already. I felt it in my bones. “Someone wants to erase me. Not just from the company but from credibility, from relevance. From existence.

And worst of all? They were succeeding.”

“Spin the narrative. We don’t deny the leak. We highlight the tampering. We push transparency by bringing in a third-party cybersecurity firm. I want a name behind this

by the end of the day.” Taking a deep breath.

Maria nods, already typing.