The Competitor Who Knows My Truth: Broken Masks: Chapter 3

He finds me at my lowest moment

I find Sarah on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not on it. Under it, sitting on the rocky shore of Crissy Field, staring out at the dark water with empty eyes.

The pill bottle beside her is open. Empty.

"How many?" I ask, dropping to my knees beside her.

"Not enough." Her voice is hollow. "Never enough."

[waves against shore]

I call 911, then hold her while she cries. Hold her while the paramedics check her vitals. Hold her while she tells me about the prescription that started after her back surgery, about the panic attacks that came with the divorce, about the way the pills made everything stop hurting for just a little while.

"I killed your company," she whispers as they load her into the ambulance.

"You saved yourself," I tell her. "That's more important."

But as the ambulance pulls away, the weight of everything crashes down on me.

No company. No future. No idea what comes next.

I sit on the same rock where I found Sarah, watching the lights of the city blur through my tears.

"I thought I might find you here."

Ethan's voice cuts through the sound of waves. He sits beside me without asking, close enough that his warmth seeps through the night air.

"How did you know where I was?"

"I know you," he says simply. "When you're hurting, you go to water."

He's right, and that terrifies me almost as much as everything else.

"She's alive," I say, not looking at him. "That's what matters."

"And you're falling apart."

"I'm fine."

"Maya." His voice is gentle. "You just lost everything. You're allowed to not be fine."

The kindness in his tone unravels the last of my control.

"Three years," I whisper. "Three years of sixteen-hour days and maxed-out credit cards and believing I was building something that mattered. And it's gone. All of it."

"Not all of it."

"What's left?"

He's quiet for a long moment. Then: "You."

"I'm not enough."

"You're everything."

The words hang in the salt air between us.

"Why are you here, Ethan? Come to gloat? To watch the competition self-destruct?"

"I'm here because..." He runs a hand through his hair. "Because I've been lying to you. To myself. About everything."

[heartbeat, steady]

I finally turn to look at him. His face is shadowed in the moonlight, but I can see the tension in his jaw.

"What do you mean?"

"The conference three years ago. When you shared your AI vision." He stares out at the water. "I didn't steal your idea, Maya."

"Yes, you did. You—"

"I'd been working on the same concept for six months before that night. But when I heard you talk about it, saw the passion in your eyes..." He closes his eyes. "I knew I had to meet you."

The world tilts sideways.

"That's impossible."

"I approached you after your presentation. Asked if you wanted to get coffee. You said no—politely, but no. Said you were too focused on your work to get involved with someone in the same field."

Memory flickers. A tall man with kind eyes and a nervous smile, asking me to coffee after the biggest presentation of my career. I'd been so focused, so driven, that I'd barely looked at him twice.

"You were just another face in the crowd," I whisper, horrified.

"To you, maybe. But you were..." He finally meets my eyes. "You were everything I didn't know I was looking for. So I went home and threw myself into my work, told myself I'd prove I was worthy of your attention."

"By becoming my competition."

"By becoming someone you couldn't ignore."

The truth hits me like a physical blow.

"Three years of warfare because I wouldn't go to coffee with you?"

"Three years of falling in love with the only woman who ever saw me as an equal instead of an opportunity."

[soft intake of breath]

"Ethan..."

"I know it's insane. I know I should have told you sooner. But somewhere along the way, fighting with you became better than fighting without you."

He stands, brushes sand from his jeans.

"I withdrew my bid for the Meridian contract this afternoon."

"What?"

"It's yours. The investment, the future, all of it. Sarah's recovery doesn't change the fact that your technology is better than mine."

I stagger to my feet. "You can't do that."

"I already did."

"But your company—"

"Will survive. Yours needs it more."

"I don't want your pity."

"This isn't pity." He steps closer, close enough that I can see the storm in his dark eyes. "This is me finally fighting for the right thing."

"Which is?"

His hand cups my face, thumb brushing away tears I didn't realize were falling.

"You," he breathes. "It's always been you."

And then he's kissing me.

Soft at first, tentative. Then deeper when I melt against him, when my hands fist in his shirt and pull him closer.

He tastes like whiskey and regret and the promise of something I never let myself want.

When we break apart, I'm shaking.

"I can't accept the contract," I whisper against his lips.

"Why?"

"Because I think I'm falling in love with you too. And I don't know how to do that without losing myself."

His smile is soft, understanding.

"Then let's figure it out together."

But as he kisses me again, as I let myself imagine a future where love and ambition can coexist, my phone buzzes with an email from Meridian Capital.

Ms. Chen, we're pleased to inform you that after careful consideration, we're prepared to offer joint funding to both Nexus AI and Cross Technologies, contingent on a proposed merger...

I pull back from Ethan's embrace, screen illuminating both our faces in the darkness.

"Did you know about this?" I ask.

The look in his eyes tells me everything.

He didn't just withdraw his bid.

He proposed something far more dangerous.

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