Judge : "Vargo Williams, you have been charged to 17 acts of pedophilia and child molestation. An unbiased jury of your peers has decided that you are guilty of these crimes, based on the evidence provided. As such, I sentence you to life in prison.."
The judge looked him straight in his bewildered eyes, disgust clear on her face.
Judge : "May you burn in hell for the things you did..."
He was still baffled at how this came about, but he was broken out of his trance as the guard pulled him away. He managed to glimpse backwards at his wife and child, and noticed that his daughter was clinging onto her mom crying for her father.
But his wife.... He could only see a mocking sneer on his wife's face. He couldn't believe what she had said in that trial. He was completely innocent of all charges, but the massive amount of "witnesses" and "evidence" against him had made the jury completely convinced that he was guilty.
The worst part of it all, the false charge that had hurt him the most, was when his wife came to testify that he had made moves on, and had molested, his daughter... It had stabbed him straight in the heart... It was delivered with such authenticity that he even wondered if there was a gap in his memories where under some extremely bizarre and warped circumstances he might actually do that. That doubt quickly vanished however, after he looked up at his bewildered daughter, and his reaffirmation that there was no way he would ever do anything like that to his sweet little girl.
He stared at his wife, tears in his eyes, she merely kept sneering, and then she leaned on the person next to her, a man who Vargo recognized. His vice president, Edward Golmer...
Golmer was trying so hard to hide his smile, but it just wasn't working...
Vargo had known that someone high up had to have been in on this, but to think that it was his best friend, the one who he had founded the company with? Not to mention, the way his wife was leaning on the man, could it be that they were having an affair?
Vargo : *I am so blind.... How did I not see this coming?*
He had been aware for a long time now of Edwards hunger for power, but had never assumed that it had grown to the extent that he would be willing to take action for it.
Edward, just to get Vargo's company, stole away his wife, ruined Vargo's name, and initiated a not-so-subtle hostile takeover...
At that moment, his view was cut off from them, and he was taken to a holding cell, deep in the back, away from prying eyes, and the bright flashes of the media's cameras.
He thought about his company for a moment, the monumental giant that it was...
He had built it from scratch, he loved it almost as much as his wife and child... The company had been the first in the virtual reality market, the first to make it work! At first, the income was minimal, due to distrust and forty years of bad publicity for a system that didn't even exist, such as getting trapped in the game, or addicting a large portion of a country so that it wouldn't function. Due to reasons such as these, he didn't get any investors, and had to fund the project himself. He and his family had been living off of meager amounts of money as he worked and worked to complete the breakthrough that he needed, he was forced to start with normal computer games and work his way up to his goal. Eventually however, it got to the point where he didn't even need investors due to Sara..."
He had designed, years ago, a revolutionary evolving AI system, which asked to be called Sara...She would continuously evolve to suit the gamer's needs. He had needed her to get to the point of having an open world experience for mmo's where the citizens would actually "live" in the closest meaning of the word that you could get with programs.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
At first, his company had started with normal games, games that were AAA titles due to the re-activity of the environment, from the npc's to the buildings to the cities and the monsters. It had gotten them an extremely sturdy footing in the market, as it wasn't "just" programming. Sara made the people come to life to the best of her abilities, and every day, her abilities grew and grew, until it hit the point where you wouldn't be able to tell reality from the game's environment.
Eventually at the behest of Vargo, her creator,Sara started developing her own games and she came up with the one game that had actually put his company in the virtual market. It wasn't a futuristic game, nor was it fantasy, it was simply modern day, but the premise was to build a crime empire.. (Think GTA5 but virtual, and better....)
The game had been a smashing hit, and had skyrocketed in popularity due to the creation of a "Second Earth" in the virtual world. A game where you would be able to live out your fantasies of being a multi millionaire, or robbing a store, or owning a private jet and a giant mansion. Even better, Sara had gotten to the point where you would never be able to tell the players from the npc's. The game was now in its sixth year of extremely strong play and its player base was only expanding.
Vargo had played too of course... He was the wealthiest man on the second Earth, with a crime empire that spanned the slightly larger planet, in fact, he even had complete control over one country...
Of course he was rapidly approaching multi billionaire status on the actual earth due to Sara's abilities at making money. Sara had asked to take control of his accounts years and years ago, roughly three years after her creation. He had allowed her that, only to watch as his net worth went from a few hundred thousand to a few hundred million in under two years. She had been able to predict the stock market almost flawlessly at only three years of age, or if she had not predicted it, then she had manipulated it, which was even more impressive...
Even Vargo was shocked at her capabilities... He felt that she was underutilized just running net games, but if he told the world of her existence that would most likely involve the military and a whole host of problems. He was satisfied with how the company was operating, and knew that the company had a bright future ahead of it!
but then this happened....
He doesn't even know how this trial started, he had never been unfaithful to his wife. Never even dreamed of anything more perfect then his seemingly perfect marriage with his finally prospering company and his living program that acted like a person...
What had sparked this?
Why was his trust betrayed?
Why should he trust people, when the two people closest to him had betrayed him for money and power?
His wife, whom he was loyal to for years, who he had had a daughter with, who he had worked so hard for, he had turned them from a humble middle class family into one of great wealth, and yet she had betrayed him for his best friend. The "best friend" who had used him since he had started the company...
He sighed, and drifted off to sleep, alone in his cell, as his thoughts wandered.