Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

‘She’s the woman Agnas was in love with during the last phase of his life. He was heartbroken because of her and that’s just pushed him more into depression. The weight of his stardom crushed him in the end.’

Aiden thought in his mind and his thoughts were only stopped by the words of Anna. While speaking, she had somehow gotten emotional and he could see on her face that this was a moment of grief for her in her life. 

“Those articles ruined my married life. My husband didn’t listen to me and divorced me. I tried to talk to Agnas about it, tell him to explain but his numbers weren’t working. I reached out to his agent but he told me that Agnas didn’t want to see me. The next time I heard of him, he had passed away but my life was already ruined.”

Aiden blinked his eyes hearing that. Something was wrong. 

“What do you mean his agent told you that Agnas didn’t want to see you?”

“It is what it is. His agent told me that Agnas just played with me and didn’t want to see me. Do you understand why I hate him now?”

“Yes… no, I mean no. There’s a misunderstanding.”

Aiden said and Anna’s face froze right there. She was wondering what type of a misunderstanding there was. In her mind, she had explained it as clearly as possible. 

“What misunderstanding?”

“Agnas never told his agent that he didn’t want to meet you. In fact, he really wanted to meet you and apologize. He even fought with a reporter due to that article after he found out about your divorce.”

“Don’t just say anything!”

“I’m not. Agnas is a good person who’s misunderstood. He never wanted anything bad to happen—”

“Bullshit!!”

Anna shouted then calmed herself down in the next moment. She looked at Aiden for a second before sighing. 

“You and him… I don’t want anything to do with you celebrities. You people have everything but nothing. Please leave. I promise I won’t give more interviews. Just leave me alone and don’t ever try to whitewash his image in front of him. You might be able to fool others but not me.”

Anna looked at him with concealed anger and pain in his eyes. 

That was the end of it. 

No matter what else Aiden said, she didn’t listen to it and soon, Aiden was thrown out of her house. 

He walked up to the car where Wade and Tom were standing. Sasha was sitting inside. 

“How did it go?”

“She said she won’t do more interviews.”

“Then that’s good. At least no new interview would spring up. I think the marketing team would be able to control whatever damage was done. Let’s get out of here.”

Wade said but then, he noticed that Aiden’s expression was strange. 

“What happened?” Tom asked, also noticing it. 

“I need to do one thing for Agnas. A very important thing.”

***

Did Agnas get his peace in the afterlife? That was a question that Aiden would sometimes think about. He didn’t have the life he wanted and for a long part of it, he was in pain. 

So, did he find peace in the afterlife? Aiden didn’t know the answer to that question. 

But he knew one thing. 

That Agnas won’t like if Anna kept bearing such bitterness in her heart. At the same time, no matter what he said it won’t have any effect on her. 

So, he went straight to one person that Aiden felt would have the answers to this situation. 

“Joseph, sorry to ask you to meet me so suddenly. Were you busy?”

Aiden asked as he walked inside Joseph’s room. He was sitting at the sofa with the piano adjacent to it. 

He had flown straight to New York to meet Joseph as he was the only person who knew Agnas well. 

“No, I watched [Agnas] in the morning in a theatre. The occupancy was pretty good and people seemed to have enjoyed it. You have made a good movie.”

He smiled as Aiden took a seat in front of him. 

“That’s good to hear.”

“You have not heard how the movie is doing in the theatres?” 

Joseph tilted his head. It’s already been two days since the movie was released, so it was a bit strange. 

“No, I was busy with something. I came because of that.”

“What happened?”

The old musician got serious hearing that and Aiden narrated everything to him about Anna and what had happened. As he was not involved with the marketing, Joseph didn’t know about this. 

With each word, his eyes went wide and wide. 

“Anna is alive. Wait! This is too much to take.”

His reaction told Aiden that Agnas had indeed talked about Anna with him. 

“Yeah and like I told you, there’s been a misunderstanding. She hates him.”

“That… that’s a very tragic thing.”

Joseph frowned and told him about how much Agnas loved her. And how he wanted her to be happy no matter what. 

“Even after she rejected him, he wanted her to be happy. I can’t believe he has a hand in the media articles. Back then, there were articles of people he used to shake hands with once. So, some reporter did it on his own and speculated. As for his agent, I’m pretty sure he lied to Anna.”

Joseph said, anger clear on his face. 

“Are you sure?” Aiden asked to confirm and Joseph nodded. 

“Yeah, he used to control a lot of Agnas’s life. He hated him. You know a bit of it.”

Aiden nodded hearing it and quickly asked. 

“So, is he alive? I was thinking that if he’s alive, we could get him to tell Anna the truth.”

“I’m afraid not. He was already in his 50s back then and used to smoke a lot. I heard he died back in the 2000s.”

Aiden sighed hearing that. If the agent wasn’t alive, then he didn’t know what they could do. 

‘Is there some other way?’

He thought in his mind and an idea suddenly passed through Joseph’s head as he recalled something. 

“I have something that could help.”

He said and Aiden perked his ears. 

“What?”

“You remember the letters?”

“Yeah.” Aiden said. “But there was not much mention of Anna in this. Just a few lines.”

“I know but I didn’t show you all of them. There were a few that I kept hidden as there were a lot of things related to Agnas’s personal life in it. He wrote about Anna in them.”

“Really? Then, we could use them to tell the truth to Anna.”

Aiden said with a smile. 

***

<[Agnas], the biopic of the superstar earned 24 million dollars on its opening day, making it one of the highest opening movies this year. The critically acclaimed movie is being well liked by the fans of Agnas and the critics alike.>

<The movie earns 26 million on the second, taking it past the 50 million mark. Before the release of [Judgement], the movie is looking to do a business of around 150 million dollars, equalling it’s budget but it needs around 350 million dollars to emerge as a clean hit.>

<Will [Judgment] slow down [Agnas]? There’s bound to be a clash of the two titans when the former is released. Currently, Zero International is hoping that it could earn as much as possible before the former comes to the theatres. Till then, the biographical drama is going to rule the North American box office.>

“They are trying to bid our movie with theirs. It’s kind of funny as their movie only earned 24 million dollars on the first day.”

A bald man said as he placed down a few newspapers on the table. His agent looked up at him and gave him a smirk. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s just the media. These days, they are subtly taking a dig at superhero movies and saying how the collections are going down because there are too many of them. It’s their way of asking if [Agnas] will make [Judgment] suffer.”

“It’s ridiculous.” The bald man said. “They heavily underestimate my box office pull.”

The bald man was actually John Strampton, the lead of [Judgment] and a very big A lister. He was known to do huge box office movies. 

“They do and the critical reviews of [Judgement] is giving them power to say things. They don’t understand that it’s not a movie made for critics.”

“I know right. I’m pretty sure my fans are going to love it. A big billion dollar movie. I can already see it.”

John made a wave with his hands in the air. He was very confident that the box office results of the movie was going to drown [Agnas]. 

“A biographical drama can never stand against my movie, especially a superhero movie. You will see [Judgment] is gonna wreck havoc next week.”

He said with a haughty laugh.