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The voice from behind Envy’s back made her spine stiffen. She didn’t recognize it. The flatness of the voice was cold and unfamiliar.

Her eyes nearly bulged when she saw her sister. Text messages between her and Jermaine played in her head. The last thing she remembered was walking into her sister’s home to sleep with her husband. Somehow, she believed that sharing this knowledge would keep her safe.

“You might want to let me go before Jermaine gets back. I mean he did invite me here,” Envy smirked. Even tied up she was still a bitch.

“Jermaine invited you here. Are you sure? Oh, you mean those text messages that I sent from his number?” Eden asked as she pulled out her phone to show Envy the messages on the text changer app.

Envy’s stomach roiled. She had never seen this version of her sister. She was terrified but she refused to give in to this fearful tactic.

“Yeah, I called you here. He doesn’t know if you’re in Hell or Haiti’s at the moment. But don’t you worry, Jermaine is also getting a dose of my medicine as we speak,” Eden laughed as she turned on the small basement television to the local news.

“Pornographic material containing underage individuals has been discovered on the computer of Jermaine Shelton. Shelton is the General Counsel, meaning he is the attorney for Le Bleu-”

Eden muted the broadcast.

“As you can see, he’s a little tied up at the moment with his own issues. So, coming home to save a person he didn’t know is here, will probably not happen,”

For the first time ever in her life, true fear began to creep into Envy. Eden had never been a person that she took seriously, but now she could see that she either underestimated her or pushed her too far.

“Edy. Eden. I…I-”

“Why are you stuttering? Scared, huh?”

“Scared of you? No,” Envy lied.

“Yeah, you’re scared. You couldn’t hide your fear any more than an alcoholic could hide their addiction through denial,” Eden said coolly. She tried to remain calm, but she was seething. Envy had done everything to ruin her life .

“So, what did you think would happen bringing me here? Did you think tying me up would be the only way we could have a sister to sister, heart to heart conversation? News flash Eden Marie Shelton. I don’t like you! How many of your dudes I gotta take down for you to comprehend that?” Envy shot back venomously.

Eden had already made peace with this revelation. Her sister’s actions had proved this many times over. Her saying it aloud did not ruffle her feathers at all.

“There are tons of sisters that don’t get along. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. The smart ones just stay out of each other’s way. But not you. Not Envious Lilith Merci. You made it your mission to destroy mine and Eve’s lives. Why is that?”

Truthfully, Envy couldn’t answer that question. She never understood why her family made her so angry. Though she had the best of everything, she never seemed to fit in with the Shelton’s. When she was eleven years old, she noticed a difference in the way her parents looked at her. Eve and Eden received looks of adoration, but she received looks of aggravation and resentment. She couldn’t understand why.

She was polite, received good grades, and was just as pretty as her sisters but that look had done something to her. She had seen it too many times. When she asked about it, she was brushed off or ignored. But her sisters were never dismissed. Her father had taken any answers to the grave and her mother completely disregarded her after his death. Because Eve and Eden seemed to be highly favored, she made it her duty to ruin her sister’s lives.

“Y’all deserved it. Especially you.”

Eden’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s right. Mommy and Daddy treated you and Eve like you were better than me. Treating me like I did something wrong or like I didn’t belong-”

“Bitch because you didn’t belong!” Eden blurted. “You’re not like us! You’re not like us! You’re not like us!” She repeated.

Envy looked shocked. She blinked rapidly as if doing so would help her understand what was said.

“Wha…what?”

Eden could feel pressure building in her pelvis. She was so excited. She relished the look of hurt and confusion on Envy’s face.

“Before, I get into that, I need to handle this. Being pregnant is hard on a bladder. I literally have to pee all the time. Hold on,” Eden said as she pulled down her leggings and began to urinate in what appeared to be a glass water pitcher.

The hard way in which the urine fell into the pitcher sounded as if bacon were being fried in hot grease.

Envy frowned. This crass behavior was unlike Eden. The foul ammonia scent and the darkness of color seemed as though Eden hadn’t drunk water in weeks. As degrading as this behavior was, the only thing that she could truly focus on was the, “you didn’t belong” statement.

“Sorry about that. I felt like I was going to burst at the seams. But as I was saying, you’re not like us. You are the product of daddy’s affair with some trashy bitch. My mom just took you in because your real family didn’t want you,” Eden said cruelly as she held up a copy of Envy’s real birth certificate.

Envy’s heart cracked.

Never in her life did she ever expect to hear something so cruel. Sadly, this was the first time she had ever seen her Birth Certificate. She only needed it to get her Driver’s License and the woman she thought was her mother provided it and took it back. She had no idea who the woman listed on the document was. The emotions running through Envy felt foreign to her. Without warning she burst into tears .

Eden was not moved by her sisters’ heaving shoulders or body racking sobs. It filled her with elation knowing how devastated she truly was.

“Sucks to be you, h’uh. Your mother didn’t want you; daddy didn’t want you; my mother couldn’t stand you and you did me and Eden wrong even though we did nothing to you. On top of that, I found out about you slipping Jason a GHB. You a real sheisty bitch. But guess what, you ain’t the only one.” Eden laughed as she threw the pitcher of urine into her sister’s tear-streaked face.

Envy screamed in disgust as the hot foul-smelling urine saturated her face and entered her mouth. Vomit galloped up her throat and raced to the nearest exit.

“I know you didn’t think you was going to get away with wiping cum on my face. That little ass whooping I gave you, was nothing compared to what I have lined up for your trifling ass,” Eden said menacingly. This was only a small sample of the degradation that she wanted her sister to experience before the real fun began.

6 months later…

“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 the contractions 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’t worked. 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 was either 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’ve proven 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

“That dirty bitch,”

****

“OUUUCCHH!!” Eden screamed as she snatched her hand away from Jermaine’s tight grip .

“I’m sorry baby! I’m just excited!” The lie was believable. The memories of what Envy had done to him had him so angry that he had forgotten where he was.

“The head is out,” The doctor interrupted. “One more hard push and-”

Before the doctor finished her sentence the sound of cries from a brand-new set of lungs filled the room. Eden fell back exhausted.

“It’s a boy! Congratulations Mom and Dad,”