Alter Ego: His Sultry Lover

Chapter 60: Victim of Stalking

Divided? No one was divided. No one even knew what was happening. Just that Cage and Keira were probably not married. Nothing else was known. It was only the interviewer, who knew the whole story.

“Why are you here? You have not been speaking for the last three or four months. What has made you come out and face the cameras?” he asked.

The screen split into two sections, one section showing Cage and the other showing the interviewer. Cage shifted in his chair, giving a small smile of acknowledgement and straightened his back. After a moment of silence, he began to speak.

“First of all, I would like to clarify something that has been bothering me. Everyone keeps calling me this word, but I don’t feel like I deserve this tag. I am not a victim. I know that the word goes with the sentence, and I don’t think anything in my life can make me think that way about myself. I was not a victim of stalking.” His voice was firm.

“A subject of stalking, perhaps?” The reporter amended. Cage conceded, not fussing about it.

“I know whatever I say will be used against me.” What? Who would hold it against him for speaking up about their problems? “I have to be honest that I am uncomfortable with the situation.” They could see him gulp and felt uncomfortable themselves. It seemed like the man was having a hard time. “I don’t like to confront situations… I am not a confrontational person. I have never had a fight in my life.” His voice was only caught because he had a microphone on him.

“He looks so tired,” Katherine commented, looking at the bags under the man’s eyes.

“Poor baby,” Angelina muttered.

“White shirt, dishevelled appearance and dark circles? They really wanted to drive the point home. He is the victim… his PR team want you to know, but this superstar is not willing to accept that he is weak, that he could have gotten hurt from this whole process.” Lily explained.

“Whatever they did to him… he looks like he has been through a lot,” Katherine said gruffly.

“And Lily is a cynical old lady,” Angelina added.

“There is no grace in what I am doing right now,” Cage said in the television. “There is no grace in sitting here and testifying for my character.” ‘Baby, we know how good your character is. No one was saying that you are bad,’ Angelina thought. “By implication making somebody else be wrong. I don’t think that’s graceful.”

“As long as the bitch get’s what’s coming to her, it’s alright for you to defend yourself.” Katherine muttered to herself.

“I was also very afraid… that my words would be misconstrued if I come across as strong, they might term me as aggressive… if I come off as emotional… they will say I am weak. The list goes on… it has been very confusing few weeks. It’s been four months. I think I have had enough.” His eyes sparked with determination that had not been there before. The people in front of the television moved to a more comfortable position. It seemed that this would not be a simple five minute meeting with the press. Cage was going all out to explain himself.

“Because you think your silence will be seen as cowardice?” The reporter asked, writing something down on the piece of paper in front of him.

“I have just had enough. I need to say what I want to say.” Powerful. He said it with such authority that the reporter looked at him with slight surprise.

“Enough of what?” he asked, impressed.

“I can’t describe it. I have been pretending to be alright because I have to live up to my star personality… as Kevin Heart who pays no attention to such matters,” he stopped and gave a penetrating gaze to the camera, telling others how fans would pressure the actors to live up to this cool image they had formed in their mind. “After a while, I realized that I was pretending that it wasn’t affecting me. It affected my sense of wellbeing. That’s not being a hero or showing strength. It’s fake. It was about time I did something,” he finished.

“When did you snap?”

“Using a word like snap?” Katherine said in a low voice. “He is looking for trouble. As if Cage is overreacting. Isn’t he making a slight judgment if he phrases it in that way?” Katherine asked turning to look at Lily, who was acting as their in house media specialist.

“He is just grilling him. This is just the beginning. Knowing this guy, he will ask some very tough questions.” Lily shook her head. “This is just the beginning. I can only imagine how infuriated you guys are going to be by the end of this show.”

Cage began speaking on the screen, “There were a lot of times when I wanted to say the truth… I won’t blame others because they advised me to stop. This probably is the only situation that has the ability to shift my center. I am a stable person… In that state of mind, to come out and talk was not advisable. So… It’s not that I am comfortable now, but one has to grow realize that some things need to be done.”

“Do you see how nervous and all over the place he is?” Lily asked.

“Some people take it as him trying to hide the truth, I am sure. Keira is so going to misconstrue this and make Cage look like the bad person.” Katherine could actually see people thinking that way. Just because she had complete faith in the actor did not mean that Keira and Cage shippers and Keira’s personal fans would let go of the matter so easily.

“But he is speaking from his heart!” Angelina protested.

“I thank you for being frank with me about being uncomfortable in front of me.” The reporter gave a small laugh.