Chapter 2 - The Illumination
"What the hell is this?" Kalin demanded, his face flushing a dangerous, mottled crimson. "Get your hands off my wife, Sterling. And you—" he pointed a shaking finger at me "—I told you to apologize to Tamson."
"I don't think Mrs. Thorne has anything to apologize for," said the woman in the black suit. She stepped forward, pulling a sleek tablet from her leather folio. "In fact, since Sterling Global finalized the acquisition of the Vanguard Hotel at 8:00 a.m. today, we’ve spent the afternoon upgrading the internal security systems."
She tapped a button on her screen.
Behind Kalin, the massive projector screens that had been proudly displaying the gold Thorne Industries twentieth-anniversary logo abruptly flickered.
The ballroom gasped as high-definition, silent security footage illuminated the screens.
It was a top-down angle of our exact corner of the ballroom, recorded only three minutes prior. Five hundred guests watched in rapt, horrifying silence as the digital version of Tamson approached me. They watched me stand perfectly still. They watched Tamson sneer, step back, and deliberately tip the glass of red wine over her own chest before theatrically throwing herself to the marble floor.
The footage looped. Over and over again. The lie was completely, surgically exposed.
Tamson scrambled backward on the floor, her hands covering her mouth, the color draining from her face. "Kalin... Kalin, it's a deepfake! They altered the video!"
Kalin looked at the screen, then at Tamson. For a fleeting second, I saw the humiliation fracture his ego. He had been played by his mistress in front of the entire city.
But Kalin was a narcissist; his anger could never be directed inward. He turned his fury back to me.
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"You set this up," Kalin hissed, lunging toward me. "You colluded with him to embarrass me!"
Silas stepped effortlessly between us, blocking Kalin’s path with a terrifying, immovable stillness. "I highly suggest you do not take another step, Kalin. Embarrassment is the least of your concerns tonight."
