After deliberating for a while, Aiden finally called the agent and asked to meet him face to face. The agent was reluctant and tried to make excuses to not meet Aiden.
But in the end, Aiden was able to convince him.
As they were in the same city, Aiden just drove to a coffee place that was close to the location of the agent.
The agent was already there when he reached.
"It's been a long time since we last met. I don't think there were any introductions before."
"No, there wasn't. I'm Justin Short. Dustin's agent. We have been working together for years now."
Like his name, the guy was short and had features that made Aiden associate himself with a rat. But he looked friendly.
He had always seen him laughing and smiling with Dustin, so it had naturally made a good impression on Aiden.
"I will ask it directly. What's going on with Dustin? He lied to me."
Aiden went straight to the topic and Justin shook his head.
"No, he didn't."
"I got someone to look around. He left the action series shooting in the middle and hasn't even signed any other movie in these past months. That day, his voice on the phone sounded a bit dead."
When Aiden said all the facts like that, Justin wasn't able to say anything for a while. He had never thought that Aiden would use his connections to find details about Dustin.
He didn't know how to talk his way out of it now. Still, he tried.
"You should not have snooped around."
"I had to. I know something bad is going on with Dustin and—"
"What will you even do after knowing it? Don't you think there's a reason why Dustin lied to you?"
Justin interrupted Aiden and said. He stared into his eyes and hoped that he would leave it be.
But Aiden looked down and sighed.
"If there's something bad going on with him, I will try to help. I know there's a reason why he would lie as he never does that but maybe because of that, I want to know. Even if we don't hang out often, he was still a nice co star and someone who doesn't forget to congratulate me even if something small happens. If he's in trouble, I will help because I feel like I can."
Hearing that, Justin laughed, not in spite. But it was as if he had heard a man talking about fighting a lion.
"You can't help him even if you are an A-lister. Even if big studios want to work with you and talk sweet things to you."
"Why?"
"Because you can't go against the American Press association. The APA are not the guys to fuck around with and I can say this because we already tried. Nothing came out of it!"
A silence took place between them suddenly after that sentence that was filled with a suppressed angst.
Justin had revealed something important to Aiden and it seemed like he was regretting it now.
"The APA? What have they done?"
Aiden asked but Justin stayed silent. He took a glass of water that was on their table and gulped it down.
APA or the American press association was a very powerful organization in Hollywood. It had started as a non profit organization of journalists and other notable figures that wrote and reported about movies and its stars back in the early days of cinema.
A lot of influential people have joined the organisation since its inception and one major thing about it was that it hosted the annual Golden Globes awards.
The award show was created by this organisation and has since become the second biggest in Hollywood.
Though, Aiden didn't understand how APA was involved with Dustin. And Justin seemed like he wasn't going to say anything more.
"You didn't answer my question."
"I can't do that."
Aiden frowned seeing his attitude.
"I have enough information to find out what happened with Dustin. You can just say now when you blurted out that it had something to do with APA."
Hearing that, Justin wondered if he should believe Aiden but the man had indeed found out other information on Dustin.
So, maybe there was nothing to hide.
"I will tell you about this but please try to take it calmly."
"Okay."
"It started as a luncheon…"
Justin kept talking about what had happened for the next ten minutes and Aiden didn't interrupt him even once.
It was because he didn't know what to say.
Before coming here, he had rolled around with a few ideas as to what could possibly be happening with Dustin. And his best guess was that a jealous influential actor was trying to sabotage his career.
But when he actually heard what happened, he was shocked to the core.
"They said they would launch an investigation and they did. But they won't share the findings with us and just asked us to sign a non confidential agreement to never talk about the incident. I saw them threatening him that if he ever said anything, they are going to end his career. The whole organization is keeping it very tight lipped."
Justin finished his sentence with that and Aiden could only say one thing.
"Can you take me to Dustin?"
***
"Why are you here?"
Dustin looked in shock as Aiden stood at his doorstep. He had changed apartments a few weeks ago, so he should not know his address.
But there he was, standing with his usual laid back but calm vibe.
"He brought me here."
Aiden looked besides him and Justin appeared with a face that looked like he was ready to apologise.
"Justin, why are you with Aiden?" Dustin asked, having a lot of questions rightfully.
"I called him. Let's not talk here. Can I come in?"
Aiden asked and although Dustin wanted to say a lot, he nodded. They walked inside and sat down but before Dustin could ask questions about why Aiden was here, he opened his mouth.
"You lied about being on the sets."
Dustin was stupefied hearing that and just realised that Aiden being here meant that his lie was found out.
He wasn't able to say anything in his defense.
"I met Justin due to that." Aiden said and Dustin looked at his agent. "He told me everything. About the APA and what happened."
"Justin!"
"I had no choice. It just came out. I'm sorry."
His agent quickly said and tried to apologise. He didn't know how Dustin would take it as he had told him to hide it from Aiden.
But he wasn't able to help himself during his conversation with Aiden.
Dustin just glared at his agent and didn't say anything. He decided to deal with him later and instead turned to Aiden.
He didn't know how he felt about Aiden knowing this.
"He told you everything?"
"Yes. You should have told me about it."
"Trust me, I wanted to. I wanted to tell it to a lot more people but it wasn't wise when an entire organization threatened to end your career."
Dustin said. Aiden could clearly see that the trace of goofiness that he would often show was nowhere to be found.
He looked like he had lost a lot of weight and wasn't acting like his usual self. Which was understandable.
He had clearly gone through a lot of sleepless nights in the past few months.
"How did that happen? I heard the basic gist from Justin but I wanted to hear it from you. Is it true that APA held a half-hearted investigation?"
"They did." Dustin muttered with anger. "Those bastards. They laughed at me while asking me questions. One of them even whispered to me that it would have been better if I had stayed silent. In the end, I don't know what they found but they just asked me to sign a document and get it over with."
"Did you sign it?" Aiden asked.
"No, I didn't. It's still in my house. After that day, the phone stopped ringing about any new offers, so I'm just out of work and depressed."
It was an usual tactic done by Hollywood biggies to suppress someone. The usual term for it was 'Blacklist'.
Even if there were a lot of factions or cliques in Hollywood, they still worked together sometimes. Especially at the very top. If there is any major falling out, some studios could blacklist a person and they would never work together.
For a person like Dustin who wasn't at the top nor have major connections, an organisation like APA, which has a lot of people from different factions, could easily destroy his career.
And that was happening right at the moment.
After a while, Dustin started to narrate the story of what had transpired that day.
"It was a luncheon. A director I once worked with invited me there, saying I would be able to meet a lot of big names. I went as it was a chance to spread my name and get more work with prominent people. I didn't know that I would stumble across such a vile scene…"
***
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