Page 29 of Cutthroat

“Take it out! Take it out! Take it out!” Eden screamed as pain radiated from every orifice of her body. She knew childbirth would not be easy, but thecontractions she was experiencing felt as though she was being ripped in half.

Never in her life had she experienced this type of pain. She had no idea that this level of pain existed. The contractions were so intense that she was on the verge of passing out, but she fought hard to remain conscious. The pain was overbearing, but she knew that bringing this baby into the world would be worth it.

“Get this fucking baby out of me!” Eden screamed as boulder size sweat beads ran down her forehead. She knew.

“I don’t know why you wanted a natural birth. You saw how hard that shit was on me,” Eve laughed as she held a cool cloth against Eden’s sweat drenched forehead.

Jermaine didn’t care about the profane language spewing from Eden’s mouth. The only thing he cared about was finally having a family of his own. He had lost his entire family when he was twelve years old. Now he was bringing new life to the Shelton name.

“You’re doing good baby,” Jermaine said proudly as he allowed Eden to squeeze his hand. He was so excited; but more importantly he was proud. He thanked God for restoring the love and trust in his marriage. Envy tried to destroy his life, but it hadn’tworked. Just the thought of her had darkened his mood.

Jermaine gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to think of her, but at this very moment Envy was on his mind heavily. As he stood in the delivery room, he thought back to the day he knew Envy had to go.

****

“What is going on here?” Jermaine screamed as he stormed into his office.

The sight of so many unfamiliar people rummaging through his office let him know that everything Cassidy said was accurate. He had participated in some unsavory acts in his office, but those acts were with consenting adults. Nothing he had ever done had ever been with someone that couldn’t vouch for themselves. This sight made him sick to his stomach

“Jermaine what-”

“Cut the shit Harold. Someone called you here, but I guess it was too much for you to call me and inform me of this bullshit. I had to learn about this from the fucking news,” Jermaine screamed angrily.

A vein throbbed in the middle of his forehead. Harold knew by the way it pulsated that Jermaine waseither on the verge of blacking out or having an aneurysm. Harold knew that he could have called but why would he? He and Jermaine were not friends. They were colleagues and that was it.

“How was I supposed to call when they confiscated our phones until the investigation was over. All phones had to be secured,”

“If you wanted to, you would have, since you keep a second phone secured under your chair,”

Harold smirked.

“I have to look out for the best interest of the company. We cannot have an attorney that’s frolicking with minors,”

“Pertaining to the matter at hand, Mr. Shelton has not done any frolicking of the sort,” said a voice that neither Jermaine nor Harold were familiar with.

“I beg your pardon?” Harold asked, caught off guard by the third voice.

“I didn’t mean to intrude. But I’m Agent Blankenship. I’m the information and security technology analyst. Sadly, it appears that Mr. Shelton is the latest victim of AI Fakery.

With different applications such as Midjourney, DaVinci or Dall-E3, a person can generate an image that looks exactly like another person. But it won’t be the actual person. Think of it as a virtual body double.

Though the images appeared to be 100% authentic, there are inconsistencies that prove that the image is not authentic. Prime example, if you look at the image here, you can see that the hands appear to be fused together.

The image here shows a mouth with four rows of teeth, and to simply prove that this was a fake, I used an application called AI Background Removal and the image was dissolved.

Mr. Shelton, your system was compromised and that’s how someone was able to plant these falsified pictures,” Agent Blankenship advised.

“Are you serious?” Harold asked.

From the high-pitched sound in his voice, Jermaine knew that Harold asked more out of irritation than actual concern. Jermaine heard what was said, but he didn’t speak. He was too angry to say anything.

“Mr. Shelton, I do apologize that this has happened to you. Unfortunately, even though we’veproven that the images are fake, this matter is not over. Someone did take the time to create and plant Pornographic images of you in a compromising position.

We now have to investigate why that is. Was Deep Fake created as a personal attack or professional one? Either way, we have an investigation to conduct. Also, a scan of your emails did show that some nonwork related engagements were discussed. You will have to speak with HR about those findings,” Agent Blankenship informed.

Jermaine heard none of the conversation after the words Deep Fake. Fury overtook him when he realized who was behind this. The two words jarred a memory that instantly made him shake. He thought back to the text where he first heard the words.

Text from unsaved number:I got two words for you: Deep Fake. Come over here now or I’ll have Eden thinking that you were here

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