“Welcome, our beloved young actress, Katherine Madison!” The Late Night Show presenter, Josiah Austin exclaimed. The audience clapped loudly for her. Although the world-famous star was already in his fifties, he was still attractive to many women. Always in his blue shirt, he grinned, showing all his snowy-white teeth. “She has recently filmed The Inner Self, which is nominated to the Oscar Academy Awards, for Best Actor and Actress and Best Film Editing! Welcome!”
“Thank you, Mr. Austin.” Katherine sat on a comfortable sofa with Josiah.
“Just call me Josiah. Kat, you were followed and taken photos by the Weekdays Entertainment. They claimed that they spotted you walking with the young actor Wallace Wilson. New York Times also saw you walking with a blonde young lad along the Fifth Avenue. How do you feel about it?”
The Late Night Show was famous for talking about actors’ personal life, and their scandals of course. There had been actors scolding the broadcaster, Entertainer, for presenting “wrong information” to their viewers, but none of them succeeded.
“Oh, Josiah, that was a misunderstanding.” Katherine responded. “Wallace is a friend of mine and we were just walking home after a shot for the Fashion magazine.”
“Really? How about when the New York Times saw you walking with the young man to an apartment that doesn’t belong to you?”
“Oh …” Katherine was the first time to deal with this situation. Audience was watching. Usually, the newspapers just took some photos and put it on the headlines of their newspapers. She would certify them through her Twitter account, or even just left it when no one talked about it.
“BBC Entertainment also saw you walking with another young man. Do you have any relationships actually?”
“Emm … I … I don’t have any relationships with any other actors. I won’t respond to this anymore.” Katherine’s agent Carter frowned his eyebrows under the stage. All of a sudden, Katherine regretted her response. She knew trouble were coming to her, bigger than any she had experienced. Carter had never frowned in front of Katherine. He was always smiling — to everyone he met.
Even Katherine’s rival.
“Okay. Let’s talk about your newest production, The Inner Self.” Josiah continued. “It adapts the story of …”
After the show, Katherine returned to her new apartment. It was decorated with hints of blue, her favourite colour. Carter spoke seriously, “Katherine, do you know your response will lead you to a wave of headlines tomorrow? You just said you had no relationships with any actors. This response and your tone are really — really suspicious. Who is that young man actually? The one on the New York Times first.”
“Carter, believe me. He is just a classmate of mine. He was Dave Roover.” Dave was the only son of the richest man in the Fifth Avenue. They actually met in the secondary school. Dave was not quite handsome — but he had many admirers, because of his money. However, these years, Dave still pretended he was not having a relationship with Katherine.
“We were in a group project about music. Since Mr. Roover loves music very much, he proposed to go to his home to do research. And the other one was my cousin, Benny.”
“Alright.” Carter replied. “But the newspapers won’t believe this. Anyway, if this is on the headlines tomorrow, just write something and let others think you are innocent. Act like one.”
“Fine. But I am definitely not hiding a secret.”
But Katherine was.
She did have a boyfriend. Her boyfriend was also her classmate.
Katherine became more careful. She wore sunglasses and wore a black dress. She even moved away from the Fifth Avenue. Though there were no headlines of hers the next day, she was still frightened to be taken photos of. When she caught sight of people taking up their cameras, she would sneak away from the lens.
A week later, Dave didn’t wait for Katherine at the malls. Katherine was anxious. She was on the headlines — again, about responding suspiciously. It looked like Carter was right again.
After doing the annual body check, she didn’t call him, but visited Dave’s apartment directly. The door was opened.
Her eyes opened wide when she stepped inside his living room — bloody with two corpses lying on a blue mat. The mat was soaked with fresh red blood. Some of them was dried, leaving a strain on the floor.
Dave was sitting beside the corpses, sobbing in fear. She walked beside him, and discovered the corpses looked like Dave.
“I don’t want this to happen!”
Katherine sobbed. She swallowed and asked, “Where’s the police?”
“They came this morning to investigate and left just as you came.” The Roover’s servant explained.
“Just let me go with them!”
“Dave, don’t be sad. This is fate. You can’t control this — only God can.”
“I don’t believe in such thing! What should I do now?”
“Don’t be desperate. I am here. I will always in your side.”
All of a sudden, someone knocked the opened door. A group of police came into the area. The head officer said, “Mr. and Mrs. Roover was shot by somebody. We will need to collect their corpses to investigate further.”
Dave, tears still streaming down his cheeks, cried, “Sir, please investigate until you find the murderer! My parents didn’t anger anyone. Maybe they were too selfish and didn’t donate money.” He stopped for a while and exclaimed, “Ah, let me donate all the money to the charity!”
“Young man, this is a kind act of you, but it will not bring your parents back from the heaven. We don’t want any of you to destroy this crime scene, so please move away until further notice. Please pack your personal belongings but don’t move things away the living room.” The officer explained.
Katherine suggested, “You can move to my apartment, if you want.”
“Thank you very much, Kat.” As Dave packed, Katherine still couldn’t believe what she had seen.
The next day, the newspaper store was full of Katherine’s photos. Carter was in a bad mood. He rushed into Katherine’s apartment just after the sun rose from the pitch dark sky. “Katherine!”
She was still lying on her bed, couldn’t sleep all night. “What’s the matter, Carter?”
Carter gave the pile of headlines to her. “Oh … that’s just a misunderstanding! Dave’s parents were killed yesterday … and I just let him live here! We’re just friends!”
“The public doesn’t believe this! See, you were chatting happily Dave on the streets! You know the consequences of being a celebrity, don’t you? Your personal life will be recorded. Everything will.”
Dave woke up. “Kat …” His voice trailed off when he spotted the newspapers. “Oh no … Why can’t I just be a noble man?”
Katherine decided to certify again, that they were just friends. No one believed it, because they all thought Dave was dating Katherine.
The public hated it.
But the scandals were true.
Dave went to check his parents’ will. “All the properties of Pete Roover and Mary Roover will be transferred to Dave Roover …” His lawyer read.
“Can I donate 40% of it to the charities in New York? I just want to let others know that the Roovers aren’t that selfish.” Dave asked.
The lawyer answered, “Sure. That means $4.2 million. Are you sure, Mr. Roover?” Dave didn’t answer. “Mr. Roover?”
“Oh … I forgot that I am Mr. Roover now. Sure. Certain.”
The next day, the headlines were full of Dave — the Roovers donating money! When Dave and Katherine walked on the streets, cameras were filming them. However, they were not hiding in the corners of the streets anymore. The journalists even congratulated them. “Katherine, looks like you got a good friend!” Katherine smiled at them.
What she didn’t know was, the public didn’t accept her to date with a young man with rich yet selfish parents. The public just couldn’t imagine their future star chatting with a selfish person. But now, the young Roover was really generous. The thought of the Roovers being selfish was wiped out.
Carter returned to his gleeful mood again.
This is a short story written by me. All rights reserved. No reproduction will be allowed without the author’s approval.