Dom could hardly believe he had persuaded Jackson to go on a chat show again. He had decided he liked this new Jackson Reed, the sober one who was a devoted father, the accommodating one who happily did what his agent suggested, the happy one who had finally moved out of L.A. However, Jax wasn't a complete pushover quite yet. For some reason he had rejected Ellen and chosen 'Live with Kelly and Michael' instead. He had said something about wanting to be on a daytime show. Dom didn't care, either show would do to help showcase his newly redeemed image. Sometimes he thought back to those awful months of desperately trying to keep the lid on Jax's secret and could hardly believe it had happened. Instead of falling apart Jax had blossomed and Dom would never have predicted that outcome.
The show was filmed in New York and so Dom had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:15am to watch it live online in L.A. When he stumbled into his lounge room bleary eyed he found Gary already settled on the couch noisily slurping up Cheerios.
"How long have you been up?"
"Since 5:30. Was scared I was going to miss it."
Dom raised his eyes to the heavens. Gary really was Jax's biggest fan. If Dom had been less self confident he might have gotten jealous.
"It's already started. Kelly's wearing a fabulous dress."
Dom sat down next to him and noted that Kelly's dress was indeed fabulous. It was red, and teamed with nude pumps was seriously classy.
"Oh, oh here he comes!" squealed Gary as the studio audience started to go crazy and Kelly yelled, "Calm down ladies, calm down!
Jax looked super relaxed, Dom noticed with relief. His smile was warm and genuine and he made a cute joke about the rotating chair he was sitting on. Kelly looked a little star struck. It took her a while to actually speak, but soon she was into the groove and the two hosts and Jax were chatting happily.
"How does it feel to win an Oscar?" Michael asked.
"Surreal. I never ever imagined I would achieve something like that. God, if I had known when I was just starting out ..."
"Tell us about how you did start out."
"Well, I was in a night club in Atlanta and this sketchy guy approached me ..."
"Bet that happened to you a lot!" Kelly laughed.
"You would not believe how much! I had a whole routine of how to get rid of them. But this time the guy was a genuine model scout."
"As opposed to a fake one?" asked Michael.
"Yeh. I met a lot of fake model scouts, believe me. They all wanted to take photos of me and do other things I can't mention on daytime TV."
"And how did modeling treat you?"
"Pretty well, as a matter of fact. Within a year I had a contract with Calvin Klein."
"A year?" Kelly asked, amazed.
"Yup. It was a meteoric rise."
"That must have been difficult to cope with at ... how old were you?"
"Nineteen when I started out, and as everyone now knows, I hadn't had a very stable childhood."
"That's an understatement."
"Yes, I tend to use understatement a lot. People don't really want to know the reality of it. It makes them uncomfortable."
"A hope you don't mind me asking, but why did you keep your childhood a secret?" Kelly asked.
Gary's spoon froze halfway to his mouth, a Cheerio escaping and plopping onto his lap. Dom let out a strangled expletive. He had told the show in no uncertain terms that they must not broach that subject. What the hell was going on?
"No Kelly, I don't mind," Jax said calmly. "Like I said, people are uncomfortable with the gritty realities of life. I was dirt poor, my mom was a teenage addict, we were homeless, none of that is unusual, but I didn't want it shoved in people's faces. And I was selling a fantasy wasn't I? When I was modeling I was hired to sell an aspirational lifestyle, no one wanted to know where I really came from. And when I started acting, it was the same. The TV show I was on had a glamorous image. Superficial, I know but I was too young to know any better. And then there was the money! At first it turned my head."
"How far did it turn your head?"
"Pretty far. You know, all the usual...parties, booze, drugs, women...I didn't have much of a stop mechanism, hadn't been taught to have one."
Jesus, thought Dom, did Kelly and Michael usually get this dark? Gary's mouth was open. He was completely absorbed by the unfolding drama. No doubt him and all the millions of viewers. Dom had a sickening sensation of vertigo.
"And watching your mom destroy herself hadn't taught you anything?"
Dom closed his eyes to quell the nausea.
"Oh yes, it taught me plenty but it took a few years for that lesson to kick in."
"How did you manage to maintain your clean cut image?"
"I had good representation, very good representation. My agent is a genius."
Dom opened his eyes in surprise and Gary nudged him with his elbow. "That's you, baby!"
"But he didn't manage to stop your secret getting out?"
"That wasn't his fault. He did everything he could and in the end I guess it was inevitable. In fact, Michael, it turned out to be a good thing."
"How come?"
"I learnt a lot about myself and It gave me the impetus to finish my book."
"Oh shit," Dom groaned and put his head in his hands.
"What book?" Gary asked.
"Your book? You've written a book?" Kelly was asking on the TV.
"Yup. It's was published a couple of months ago."
Dom shot out of his seat and into the bedroom.
"Where are you going?" called Gary, but Dom was already back again and standing in front of the TV, his cell phone in his hand.
"I'm calling Jaimie," he said, fumbling slightly as he found her number. But there was no answer.
"How come no one knows about this?" Kelly asked. "Did you publish it under a pseudonym?"
"Not exactly, I published it under my real name - Nathaniel Lee."
"Your son's called Nathaniel, is he not?"
"Yes. He's the all new Nathaniel! The one who won't have to sleep in a car, or dumpster dive for food."
"When you say it's based on your childhood, how much did you include?"
"Pretty much all of it."
"And why did you use your real name?"
"Because the book is me. It's got nothing to do with Jackson Reed. Jackson Reed is just that guy with the abs who's posed for a few photographs and made a few movies."
"And who am I talking to now?"
"Nate, of course," Jax said and Gary accompanied the declaration with an astonished, "Holy shit!"
Michael and Kelly looked as shell shocked as Gary. The studio audience were completely silent. "If the book is nothing to do with Jackson Reed, then why are you telling America about it now?"
"That's an interesting question, Kelly. I guess I want to publicly kill Jackson Reed."
Every member of the audience seemed to gasp at the same time. Dom dropped his cell phone on the floor. No, he couldn't, could he?
"Excuse me?" Kelly asked tentatively.
"Metaphorically speaking," Jackson smiled his shy lopsided grin. "I am here to declare that Jackson Reed the movie star is no longer. He is retiring from the game. Nathaniel Lee, the writer, however is just getting started."
"Something tells me that tomorrow, Nathaniel Lee the writer will be topping the bestsellers list," Gary said wryly. "Is that why he's done this?"
"I have no goddamn idea why he's done this!" Dom said, staring horrified at the TV screen.
"You mean you didn't know about it?"
"No I damned well didn't. How could he do this to Jaimie?"
"What's it got to do with Jaimie?"
"When the press see her mentioned in the dedication they'll go ballistic. It won't take them long to find out who she is."
"Shit."
"Yes, shit," Dom concurred and retrieving his cell phone from the floor called his sister again.