“I didn’t expect to meet you again so soon.”

Omar said, sitting in front of Aiden. It had been three days since they had met and since then, there was no contact but suddenly, the latter had called him to the cafe.

The only reason Omar even came was because Aiden had said that he had something interesting to show to him.

“Were you busy?”

“Well, that doesn’t matter now. I am curious about what you wanted to show me. You didn’t call me just to drink coffee, right?”

“No, it’s purely for work.” Saying that, Aiden smiled. “You heard about Tyler Reed getting the role of Kai in [Black Saints].”

Omar nodded. As one of the investors in the movie, he did know about it. He was a bit surprised when suddenly, Tyler was assigned the role of Kai but he could already guess what had happened behind closed doors.

That’s why, after taking a wild guess on what Aiden was going to say, he said.

“I’m sorry I can’t help you with that. My investments aren’t large enough to give me enough power to change casting decisions, especially if it’s about Tyler. At most, I could tell you why exactly you were changed.”

“Why?” Aiden asked despite knowing the answer.

“Because you are not Harrison Owens godson. As simple as that.”

Aiden nodded hearing that. He knew that well and even had an idea as to how it could have gone. Tyler feeling bad about his rejection and calling Harrison to get the role for him as the one who actually got it was just an unknown actor with no agency.

With Harrison’s connection, it wouldn’t be a hard job when the role was not even that big.

“I know all that, Omar. I didn’t call you to request you to get me my role back.” 

Even if Aiden had called him for that, there was no reason for Omar to do such a thing for him. They had only met once and didn’t even know each other enough to form a friendship._.

“Then, why did you call me?”

“I wanted you to see this.”

Aiden said, passing his phone to Omar. There was a folder open on it, with some photos in it.

Omar took the phone with some scepticism before going through the photos. With each photo, a shockwave passed through his brain and he struggled to even speak.

“This is…”

“Aren’t they interesting?” Aiden asked and Omar just nodded his head, before asking.

“Are they true? If they are fake, it’s not a good prank.”

“They are not. Apparently, a paparazzi got to know that Tyler was meeting up with his godfather and the latter’s new girlfriend, so he started following him. You do know Harrison Owens is still a playboy in his 60s. The age gap between him and his new girlfriends keeps on increasing.”

Omar nodded as Aiden continued.

“Apparently, the paparazzi who thought he would write an eye-catching article found out that before meeting Harrison, Tyler met a man and saw him buying drugs. The picture of him with drugs in his hand is as accurate as it could get.”

Aiden pointed at one of the pictures in the phone. It was of a man with tattoos all over his body holding a packet with some substance and passing it to Tyler. There was one more photo of the latter snorting the drug in his car.

“This is unbelievable.”

Omar muttered and Aiden couldn’t help but agree. Tyler taking drugs was not the unbelievable part, but it was the fact that the latter was so careless.

“The good boy of Hollywood found with drugs – That’s a big headline right there. As Tyler was going to meet up with Harrison that day, even his name could come up in this if it’s leaked.” Aiden said before adding. “One more thing, the man who sold him the drug has quite a criminal record of his own. I think both of these guys being associated with each other is far worse than Tyler caught buying the drugs.”

“Why hasn’t this been published yet and how did you get your hands on it?”

Omar asked, feeling more curious about the second question. Aiden was not from a prominent Hollywood family from what he knew. In fact the latter was not even from this country, so how did he have this information? It was truly baffling.

“The publisher that got its hand on these photos was apparently going to make a backend deal with Harrison Owens and Tyler after the latter gets a bit more famous. They were playing a waiting game to earn a lot of money in one go.”

“What about my second question?”

Aiden shook his head on that. He couldn’t really mention Uncle Sam’s name here. It was better for him to be a secret.

“I will just say that I have my own ways. Can’t tell you more than that.”

“That’s like saying nothing.”

Omar said but didn’t ask any further. He had his doubts when Aiden had called him here but these photos were truly something very interesting. If done right, it could easily become a big scandal this year.

He even felt like laughing seeing that. He always thought Tyler was just pretending to be a good guy and it turned out to be true.

‘This guy is very interesting.’

Omar thought, looking at Aiden. He hadn’t expected him to dig up something like this on Tyler after getting his role snatched.

Normally, people would just feel disappointed before moving on.

“So, what do you want to do? Upload these to the internet?”

Aiden shook his head at that question. He had no intention of ruining Tyler’s reputation, especially if it meant making Harrison an enemy.

He just wanted one thing.

“I want my role back. Just that. Granite films are very careful in who they associate themselves with, right. They surely don’t want Tyler when he’s like this.”

“But it’s not out that he’s into drugs or associating with big criminals.”

Omar said, wondering what Aiden would reply.

“It’s not out… yet. Would you like it if this article gets out when the shooting of [Black Saints] is going on? Or after the release? Think how it will affect the movie.”

Aiden was just giving out an empty threat here but as Omar can’t be sure of it, it was truly a serious problem that they needed to reconsider.

‘Looks like Tyler ain’t going to get everything he wants.’

Thinking like that, Omar nodded and just smiled. 

“I will do what I can but with these photos, I don’t think Tyler will be considered for the role. From what I heard, his audition was bad in the first place. This is the final nail in the coffin which means the role is as good as yours.”

“I wouldn’t say that until I sign the contract. I’ve been stripped of it once already.”

Omar just smiled at that.

It seems like a random meeting with Aiden had turned out to be something good for him. 

***

“What the fuck happened suddenly?”

Tyler shouted as he banged his fist on the table. Glaring at his agent that was sitting in front of him, he felt like swearing every single cuss word he knew.

“I don’t know exactly. Granite films called – They don’t want you in the movie no matter what. They are pretty resolute in their case and that they are going back to the original actor who got the role before you.”

“But why?”

“There was no explanation!”

His agent shouted back. He was pretty sick of Tyler’s attitude. Although the latter behaved normally in public, he always showed his true face in private, blaming his agent for most of the things that are going wrong in his career.

“I just know it’s something serious enough that they immediately got you off the project. Go check the internet, they were going to announce the cast today but they stalled it.”

Tyler calmed down a bit on that and asked.

“Call Uncle.”

“I did. He’s busy. His assistant said he tried but he couldn’t help. He told you to let go and find some other project.” His agent sighed. “There are several great projects in the market currently. I think we should choose one of them.”

Tyler didn’t say anything about that. There was no response. Just a constant frown on his face. He hadn’t expected that he would lose out on this project and an unknown guy will get it instead of him despite him taking the help of his uncle.

‘I’m sure that fucker did something. Or was it Omar?’

He thought inwardly.

In his eyes, Aiden wasn’t someone who could change the decision. So, his suspicion was on Omar but he wasn’t known to interfere in stuff like this.

He was a thorough businessman who would maintain good relationships with each party and wouldn’t go out of his way to help someone. That’s why, it confused him even more.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

He cursed, ignoring his agent in front of him. His mind hurt from all this.

Standing up, he wore his jacket and headed towards the door. 

“Where are you going?”

His agent asked, frowning at his behaviour.

“To the club. I need to drink to get my mind right.”

Saying that, he left immediately. On the next day, one of the tabloids posted a photo and article of him fighting with a group of guys after getting drunk in the middle of the street.

[Harrison Owens’s godson Tyler Reed fought with a group of college guys in a club, injuring two of them before getting arrested. A video of him fighting is going viral!]

That was the headline on the tabloid.

Although he barely escaped one scandal, Tyler got into another one right after it.

…

//DreamNote//

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