Twisted Fate

Chapter 2

Rhea's POV

At home the television was on in the background while I was cooking., some reporter was droning on about some poor celebrity. I enjoyed the occasional trashy magazine, but couldn't help feeling terrible for the poor celebrities whose lives were hounded day in and day out. The argument they chose the life irritated me to no end. Yes, they choose to be actors, performers, etc. They didn't choose to have their privacy invaded every day or to have horrible stories made up about them. The worst was when it ended up ruining the lives of the celebrity and all so a magazine or TV reporter could have their fifteen minutes of fame. When I was younger, I remember wishing to become famous, now I'm glad I didn't, I couldn't have dealt with no privacy.

After dinner, I sat down to review my notes for the day , trying to organize them as best I could. Most therapists probably didn't, but I wanted to go through and rewrite them so they made sense when I referred to them later. It normally took a couple of hours to organize, and by the time I was done, I could barely keep my eyes open. That was until my eyes landed on Bill's file. He kept crossing my mind and wasn't sure why. I'd counseled celebrities before always considering them as being normal people. They'd never intrigued me more than any other clients I had.

In my mind I knew they were people who just happened to be well known, however growing up in a culture that idolizes celebrities it was hard to overcome the reaction of being star struck. The hardest part about counseling celebs was most had superiority complexes, which I had to work through before any real therapy could begin. Fame hadn't seem to change Bill in that way. It hadn't seemed to affect him at all, which was interesting. It was quite the opposite of most people.

Bill's problem wasn't going to be breaking a superiority complex, but breaking through an emotional barrier that he'd built. I knew he was only there to help his daughter, but he was going to have to help himself first. It was going to be tough on the both of them, but very beneficial in the long run. After breaking through the emotional barrier, the treatment would proceed much faster. The hardest part for most people was admitting they needed help since many had the preconceived notion that therapy was only for "crazy" people. Many were afraid of having anyone finding out they saw me. I had to reassure them a few times, I can't give anyone information about them.

I'd set a rule early in my career to never research any of my clients online so as to not cloud my judgement. However it wasn't long before I was typing Bill's name into Google. The first few articles I found were all about his dating life. It appeared he seemed to always have a girl by his side. This was difficult for me to believe, that he was a serial monogamist. Of course, I'd only seen him for one session so I couldn't be sure.

Further digging seems to prove my instincts were right. He hadn't been seen with a woman since his wife had passed away. He donated to many charities, rarely went anywhere without Evan, and gave up acting to raise her. Some articles were about his wife's funeral, none being of good taste. It made me sick to my stomach to see the pictures of him and his daughter at the cemetery, watching her be lowered into the ground.

This should have been a private moment, yet some paparazzi were ruthless. There were also pictures of them exciting the funeral home. Bill's face was set in stone, while his daughter looked like she refused to be apart from him, not that I blame her. It disgusted me this was how he was treated because he was well known. It never ceases to amaze me how low some paparazzi would go. Dealing with them in everyday life would be hard enough, but to know that the worst moment in your life was being caught on camera just for a little money was sickening. It's almost like those people had no souls at all. I don't know how someone could feel good with themselves for capturing that moment. Those are the same people who get angry if their privacy is invaded.

I found an unofficial biography for him. Bill has grown up in an acting family, with his father, two older brothers, and one younger pursuing acting as well. The rest either went in a different direction or were too young to decide yet. Leave it to me, to have no idea who they were. I was one of those people who only focused the actors that I was interested at that moment in time. Through my research they appeared to be a household name for the general public. I recognized his brother from True Blood, which I used to watch religiously. It surprises me that I'd forgotten a name as unique as Skarsgård.

Bill had met his wife while working on a movie. The story almost seemed too good to be true. His wife was an assistant for Bill during a movie, falling in love quickly. They dated for four years before getting married, then about a year and half later Evan was born. There were pictures of the three of them everywhere. From grocery shopping to vacationing, smiles adorning their faces. It was as if their lives had been picked from a fairytale.

The first picture of his wife stopped you dead in your tracks. It was Evangeline, my college girlfriend...I was stunned, how was this possible? What I found out hurt me more than I thought. She had started dating him only a month after she'd broken up with me. While I'd been heartbroken, she'd gotten over me in such a short amount of time. Although she might not have been looking and it happened. I burst out in tears. Even though it had been years since we'd dated, it hit home that she was gone. How could she be dead? She would have only been thirty when she passed away.

It took me a few minutes to regain my composure. I couldn't help but research more. It was like something had overtaken me to find out whatever I could about Bill. Even though I knew I shouldn't because it had the possibility of clouding my judgment, it was all I could do to not look at every article I could find, I was a woman obsessed.

It seemed Bill had taken a step back from acting after his wife's... I mean Evangeline's death. It'd only been a short amount of time, but it didn't appear he wanted to jump back in quite yet. He'd almost fallen off the grid for the last three months. When paparazzi asked him when he was going to return, he stated he didn't know if he was ever going to. Interviews for IT popped up, clicking one, I could see in his eyes that he loved acting. He has the personality to be an entertainer, unfortunately it seems his passion has fell to almost none. I'm sure it was hard for him to imagine returning to acting especially since Evangeline and he had met on a movie set. I knew it was wrong to have looked him up, but I was gonna have to not let it affect me.

I hadn't realized how much time I'd been researching until my phone dinged, signaling it was going to die. If I went to sleep right this second, I'd only be getting five hours. This was unfortunate considering I wasn't someone who could run on little sleep. I knew I'd regret it in the morning. Shutting off the light, I curled up with my cat, Tyler, trying to fall asleep right away. My brain however had different ideas, all I could think about was how horrible I felt for Bill. My last thoughts before drifting off, was how I was going to act professional at the next meeting. Thankfully, I had two weeks to prepare.