Page 3 of Creed

Jonathan stormed out of my dressing room and Jake squeezed my shoulders. “I won’t lie, Death’s Door was a goodmovie, but a sequel is reaching. It’ll end up being tossed out anyway.”

He was right, and I couldn’t help but wonder what Ashton was thinking. Death’s Door was based on the true events of a serial killer in Oregon. That man and the two cops portrayed in the film were long dead. It happened in the 1980’s and it was a well known case.

“I know, and I don’t want my name tied to that project.” I never wanted to be in the position where I was fighting for parts in movies. I’d retire before that happened to me. I had rather go out on the top than miserable at the bottom of the Hollywood cesspool.

Jake leaned down and kissed my cheek. “See you in an hour.” He walked away and shut the door behind him. Twenty minutes prior, he had his hands on my bare breasts and two minutes prior he was acting like the big brother he usually was with me. I just finished a nude scene with only a tiny piece of fabric covering between my legs and that was all I was wearing. My ass and boobs were on full display for the camera. I had never been all that bashful about my body. That didn’t mean I shared it with just anyone. I had two lovers in my lifetime, so the real Morgan was much different than the Morgan the public wanted me to be in real life.

I played everything from prostitutes, to adult film stars, to the more innocent characters like an innocent little daughter of a preacher. In real life, I was more like the daughter of a preacher than the other roles I played. I had been a cop, a secret agent, and I even sang when I played the role of Tawny Lucas. It was my real voice when I played an up and rising country music singer. I was what the industry called a triple threat. I was also a sure thing and didn’t bring any baggage onto the set. I learned along time ago to turn down roles that involved costars with drug and alcohol addictions. I made sure my ability to decide who I worked with was in my contract. I also never had to suck a dick to get the roles I wanted, and that wouldn’t change. To be honest, I was exhausted. I loved my work, but I had been working nearly seventy hours a week for a few years. I was burned out on doing what I loved, and was losing my inspiration. I was twenty nine and had not met any of my goals. My five year plan was written ten years prior, and I had not done one thing on that list. I wasn’t married, I had no children, and I didn’t have that quiet home on a lake. I could afford one, but had nobody to share it with, and that person wouldn’t be found in California. A great deal of people in the industry thought I was a snob, hell even the public thought I was a snob, but it was untrue. I simply chose not to surround myself with ungrateful and greedy people. I would admit to turning my nose up at certain Hollywood types. I was better than the people who had everything but snorted it all up their noses. Many people thought I should have more sympathy for that type of person, but they were like poison. They were toxic and had a tendency to take others down with them. I was just in a better place and knew to be thankful for everything I earned. I didn’t whine and cry to the media that my life was so hard as a famous person. Get real, we had it better than most people in the world and I sure as hell wouldn’t shove it into the faces of people who worked their fingers to the bone and never got ahead financially. I was rich and money could solve a lot of problems. There was nothing to complain about when there were starving people in the world. If given a choice to either have dinner with a whiny starlet or a homeless person, I’d choose the homeless person in a heartbeat. Just because I was spoiled didn’t mean I didn’t see real people’s pain. Hollywood was fake, and I had much rather chose to spend my time around real people.

After taking a shower and washing the layers of makeup off my face, Lindsey, my hair and makeup artist, offered to let me sit back and she would take care of me. I was thankful because I really was exhausted. Jake begged me to have dinner with him and his parents. They flew in from Nashville and would often ask for me to join them when we were at the same location. He had very sweet parents, but they always tried way too hard to get Jake and I into a relationship. The thought of that made me laugh. Jake didn’t do relationships, and he was like a brother to me. Well, a brother I was just naked with, but still, he was like a brother off set. That didn’t stop the paparazzi from constantly spewing false claims out there for the world to see. Although, I could understand why most people thought we were in love. There was still posters of the two of us as teenage lovers from back when we played boyfriend and girlfriend on the television series. We were seen on the street together and he had also been seen leaving my home in the morning. No, he never slept in my bed. He stayed in the bedroom he claimed when I bought the place, and we had movie night once a week.

As Lindsey worked her magic, I couldn’t help but think about regrets. My regrets may not have measured up to most of Hollywood, but they still weighed heavily on my heart. I regretted the many times in my life I had done things to earn the reputation of a snob. I refused to believe I was a snob. Just because I had standards didn’t mean I was not kind and respectful. So, what if I didn’t want to be a statistic of child acting? I was grateful for everything I earned in my life and especially the fact that I didn’t grow up with the many burdens that come with being a child actor. I didn’t end up on drugs like many child actors because my parents were always at my side. I was never sexually abused or taken advantage of financially.Jake and I were two of the few former child actors that survived our childhoods unscathed.

I sat patiently as Lindsey worked on my hair, and checked my phone for the twelfth time that afternoon. I left several messages for my best friend back home, Callie, and she had yet to have returned my call. I worried about her constantly, and something inside me was screaming with worry. Callie and I met in preschool, before I became an actress. She was my very best friend in the world, but unfortunately, she married her high school boyfriend. She gave up all of her dreams to become a novelist when she married him. A few years after they were married, they had a little girl, my goddaughter, Addie.

Addie would be one of the reasons for my hiatus from Hollywood. I’m her godmother and I hadn't seen her since she was barely a toddler. Of course I spoiled her by sending gifts, but I never got to see her. I was always too busy, and when I had offered on several occasions to fly Callie and Addie to me on location, Callie refused. Her husband rarely allowed her out of his sight.

I knew that asshole Shane didn’t treat Callie right. I had known it since high school. When I begged Callie to break up with him, I almost lost her as a friend. I saw bruises on her in high school and she always denied that he got rough with her. I even offered her a job working for me and to bring Addie to LA, but again she refused. I reminded her constantly that leaving him was an option and I’d even finance it. I had gone as far as offering to pay for her to go to college, but again she declined, saying she loved him too much to leave.

I had a horrible gut feeling things had gotten worse. It all started with a nightmare one night, and ever since then it got harder and harder to reach her. That was why my hiatus wouldbe spent back home instead of at a nice Caribbean Island or jet setting around the world. I could have taken my family on an extended vacation, but something told me Callie needed to be the focus of my time back home. Things at home needed my attention and I couldn’t ignore that gut feeling and the feeling of homesickness. Not just for my family and Callie, but I missed the town and the peace of rural living.

The Road Ahead

Morgan

Malibu, California

One Month Later

The sun was just about to put itself to rest for the night as I watched it settle beyond the pacific ocean. It was one of the many moments of reflection as my visit home drew closer. My love for acting had been fading for much longer than I realized. It felt like time was slipping away faster than the sun was fading beyond the sea. I should have felt at home as I listened to the waves crash just on the other side of my infinity pool. That was supposed to be my home, but how could a place so quiet and lonely ever feel like home? My beach house stayed unoccupied most of the time and I had been living my life from one hotel suite to another around the world.

The only place that ever felt like home was thousands of miles away. It was a modest farmhouse surrounded by cornfields that was warm and filled with laughter and unconditional love. Right about now, the best family on the planet were likely tucked comfortably into their beds for a restful night sleep. My dad probably had my mom wrapped safely in his arms as they slept. My sister just graduated college and was likely curled up in her childhood bed. My brother, on the otherhand, was likely the reason of yet another woman’s walk of shame home from his apartment above the bar. The little creep had really earned himself a reputation in our small town.

Cold Springs was a very rural area. It consisted of a Catholic church, a bar, a VFW Hall, and a general store. It also had the lake until some rich guy bought it and made it part of a gated and very private community. He bought a massive amount of land that consisted of several farms. The lake itself was over five hundred acres, but that didn’t include the actual land. Mom said it was a company that built motorcycles, and they were some sort of club of sorts. They were the focus of quite a few speculations and conspiracy theories. Everyone that lived in that community rode motorcycles and rode around like they were part of some sort of gang. I had to admit, it was suspicious as hell. They never caused any kind of trouble, and surprisingly enough, they were rumored to be very kind and respectful. For a small town like ours, I was sure it was the biggest thing to ever hit the county.

When I said the town was small, I meant it. Their only news source came from the church in the form of a weekly newsletter that spread everyone’s business. Everyone had their fifteen minutes of fame in that newsletter, especially me. From what I understood, I was added to the weekly prayer list because of the nude scenes in my movies. Everything else was to announce who had dinner at someone else’s home or updates on people who moved out of town. The next town was thirty minutes north of Cold Springs. It was called Clarity, and that was where we went to school, shopped for groceries, and visited restaurants. There was a small hospital, a few dive bars, the county courthouse, the feed mill, and about anything else people might have needed.

I missed the people, and among those people lived Callie and my goddaughter Addie. That gut feeling you get when something is wrong kept nagging at me. Callie hadn’t returned my calls in weeks. I called her mother who said she saw Addie that morning and everything seemed normal. It wasn’t, and I knew it wasn’t because Callie always called me back. We spoke at least three times a week ever since we were kids. I told my best friends mom that I’d call the Sheriff of Sinclair County, who happened to be my uncle, for a well check on Callie if she didn’t call me back within twenty four hours. She then explained it was normal for Callie to go days and days without calling. No, not with me and I knew something was wrong. Callie didn’t have the best childhood. Her dad left them when she was two and her mom was an alcoholic that always brought unsavory types home from the bar she worked at as a bartender.

Shane Doyle, Callie’s husband, was always a creep and he controlled everything Callie did, like what to eat to when she could leave the house or call her mom. He was damn good at alienating Callie from the people that loved her dearly. Not as much with me though, he liked taunting me and taking the phone from Callie to propose some seriously sick sexual opportunities for all three of us. I’d tell him to fuck off then he would laugh and hand Callie the phone back. The only reason my best friend was allowed to keep her friendship with me was because her husband had sexual fantasies that included me, and he always asked for money that I knew wouldn’t benefit anyone but him. Sick bastard.

All I could think about was Callie and Addie, my family, and the loneliness I had been suffering for many years. My career stopped mattering as much to me the more I worked. I burned out and was more than ready for a new phase in my life. I had been considering retirement for quite a few years in hopes offinding something more fulfilling and meaningful. I wasn’t sure what that was yet, but hoped the hiatus would help me figure that out.

After finishing my glass of wine, I walked into my quiet home and made my way upstairs. What should have been a peaceful night sleep turned out to be anything but peaceful. I had a terrible nightmare about Addie. In it she was screaming and crying for my help. It wasn’t bad enough that I was screaming and crying in my sleep, oh no, the night had something else planned for me. Yet again, it was my alarms that woke me from the nightmare. My bodyguard and the police responded quickly and took a crazed fan into custody. He claimed he was my current boyfriend and accidently locked himself out at the gate. It was far from the first time that happened. I lost count how many times I was woken up in the middle of the night and forced to run to my panic room. It was just another reason why Indiana was calling my name. No matter how many times something like that happened, I never brushed it off. It was scary and I knew if a crazed fan ever made his way inside, I’d probably be raped and quite possibly killed.

I had a body guard that lived above my garage and I was thankful for his quick actions, but was still unable to sleep for the rest of the night. It made for a long trip home the next day. Jason, my bodyguard, loaded my bags as I walked out of the beach house wearing my large dark sunglasses, a blazer dress, and kept it comfortable in a pair of white sneakers. My black hair was styled down in loose waves, and I wore minimal makeup. I knew what was in store for me at the airport and knew I’d be in the tabloids by morning. Every time I traveled the paparazzi were always waiting to catch the best shot so my fashion choices would be scrutinized. Don’t get me wrong, I loved fashion, but I was looking forward to wearing jeans and a plain t-shirt everyday when I got back home. It was the one place where I could be the real Morgan Rossi.

The moment I sat in my first class seat on the commercial airliner, Jake called and told me to see the latest news from Hollywood. I opened the app for TMC and there I was, plastered on the front of it. The picture was from two evenings prior when Jake and I had dinner with Ashton, my costar on Death’s Door.

Is Morgan Rossi the center of a new love triangle? Is a scandalous pregnancy driving her into an early retirement?

The black haired beauty known for her shocking blue eyes and her role as Darcy McLeary was spotted leaving Breton Brasserie, a well known French restaurant. She was spotted on the arms of both Ashton York and Jake Meadows last evening. Could there be love blooming in Hollywood once again?

Rumor has it, the Death’s Door actress is considering retirement from the industry at just twenty nine years old. She has turned down several roles and has refused to reprise her role in the sequel to Death’s Door. Is this because she has finally decided to go public with her relationship with Hollywood heartthrob Jake Meadows, or is there now a spark with her Death’s Door costar Ashton York?

Some fans have noticed what could be a baby bump under her gorgeous cocktail dress.

I ignored the rest of the article and looked at the photo of my supposed baby bump and it was obviously photo shopped. I then scrolled down to the comments. I knew I pissed off a few people in Hollywood when I talked Ashton out of reprising hisrole in Death’s Door. I was seeing the article as my punishment. Sometimes a few Hollywood types would tip off the paparazzi when someone pissed them off. I wouldn’t have doubted who it was, none other than Nicole Powers, Jonathan’s witch of a wife.

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