'Zac Anderson'
Aiden thought, looking at the brown-haired guy walking towards him with the old guy with a cane beside him.
Before coming to the award ceremony, Aiden had researched a bit on the other two authors whose novels had come in the top three. He hadn't found anything about the author of <A devil in the city>, but as Zac had revealed himself, he knew about him.
Aiden had even gone on to read one of Zac's books which he had liked. He could clearly see Zac's talents because of that book.
Though, he still didn't know who the old man beside Zac was.
"James, what are you doing here?"
Uncle Sam said, shaking hands with the old man who was apparently called James. Although there was a smile on his face, Uncle Sam didn't look too happy to meet him.
"I'm here because of my son. He's going to win an award here today. It's a proud moment for me, so I took the flight straight from London."
James said in a heavy British accent, glancing toward Zac standing next to him.
"Zac Anderson, my book <Dumb people> has been nominated today."
There was a smirk on his face as he said that, clearly proud of the achievement.
"That's great." Uncle Sam said and looked at the proud expression on James's face before patting Aiden's shoulder. "Actually, my nephew Aiden here is also nominated."
"Really? I didn't know anybody from your family is a writer."
"Aiden is just trying out writing. He's actually an actor."
"Oh, an actor?" James looked at Aiden with interest. "Broadway? Or are you trying out in movies?"
Just by that one single sentence, it was apparent that James didn't know anything about Aiden. It made sense as he was not from America and lived in London, where Aiden was relatively less known.
The surprising thing was that even Zac showed the same expression.
"I'm trying out movies. Haven't tried Broadway yet." Aiden replied with a smile, not revealing anything.
"Oh, then, if you can't get work here, I can help you get a role in London. There are a lot of theatre groups performing <Hamlet> there."
For the record, <Hamlet> was one of Shakespeare's best works.
"Thanks."
Aiden smiled to himself after saying that. Nowadays, as everyone recognised him no matter where he went, it felt like a refreshing change.
It was then that Zac focused on him.
"So, you are the author of <Behind the scenes>? Aiden Silver?"
"Silvereye. I just shortened my surname for the pen name."
"Oh, okay." Zac said before squinting his eyes at Aiden. "I feel like I have seen you somewhere."
That made it clear that Zac didn't actually know about Aiden. At most, he had seen a poster of Aiden's movie or came across a video of his performance.
It surprised Lisa, who was standing beside Aiden the most.
"He actually doesn't know you. How surprising." She whispered to Aiden.
"It's a big world. Not like everyone is going to know me." Aiden whispered back, and then Zac started speaking.
"Anyway, good luck with the award. I think you might need it." Zac said in a slightly mocking tone, annoyed by Aiden and Lisa whispering in front of him. "As you might know, I'm a veteran author, so there are more chances that I'm going to win the award. I am telling you so you can prepare yourself."
Hearing that, Aiden could only think of one thing.
'Is it a red flag for him? This guy really acts like a proud side character from a web novel.'
Smiling to himself while thinking about it, Aiden looked at Zac.
"I will say the same to you. I might be new, but I'm pretty sure my novel would do well."
"Let's see about it."
After saying that, Zac left with his grandfather James who had also finished his talk with Uncle Sam.
'He's pretty proud, but he's at the same level as me. Level 7.'
Aiden thought in his mind as Uncle Sam suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder. It was so sudden that he yelped in surprise.
"What happened?" He asked, looking at Uncle Sam.
"Beat that bastard's son."
"You mean Zac?"
"Yeah, I want to see him cry as he loses to you."
Uncle Sam said with determination evident in his eyes. Lisa was already face-palming while seeing the interaction between her cousin and father.
"For your information, I'm not going to have a boxing match with him to make him cry. And what even happened? I thought you and James were friends."
Aiden asked the question he was the most curious about and Uncle Sam released him out of his grip before telling his story.
It was something that had been going on for years between him and James.
"The thing is I met James in London when I was doing my college. At that point, I was trying to get a degree in literature to become a writer." Uncle Sam started narrating. Parts of it were something that Aiden did know, like how his uncle's first dream was to be a writer. "Back then, both me and James used to compete against each other. After getting out of college, he and I started sending our manuscripts to publishers, but…"
"No publisher agreed to publish your book."
"Yeah, and his books kept getting published. After repeated failures, I accepted my lack of talent, but James kept mocking me whenever we met. He used to call me to parties just to mock me."
Uncle Sam said, remembering the days when he was young. It was not a good time for him, with his life labelling him as a failure.
"You didn't do anything to retaliate.? You are not the type to not do anything."
Aiden raised an eyebrow, and Uncle Sam smirked.
"I had planned something, but the timing was bad." He sighed. "Your dad asked me to come to Los Angeles to get into Hollywood, and I just settled in America after that. I rarely met James, so I never got the chance to take revenge."
Lisa, who was just listening to the whole conversation till now, finally opened her mouth with a frown.
"Dad, it's been years. Just let it go."
"Lisa, revenge is not something to let go of. It's something you need to take, or in this world, they'll call you a pushover. Even now, James was saying sorry to me, acting as if Aiden had already lost the competition. That guy is too proud and needs to be taken down."
At that moment, Aiden felt like his uncle would have surely flourished in a cultivation fantasy with all the talk of revenge. Shaking his head with a light smile on his face, he opened his mouth.
"I think the winner is already decided, so I can't really do anything about it. We can just wait till the winner is revealed."
"That's fine. I know you would beat the guy. Your novel was pretty good, especially after all the edits you made. I'm just waiting till Zac loses to take my revenge."
***
Slowly, the whole hall filled up with people, and the ceremony started without any delays. Viking publishing had called on a lot of prestigious people working in the literary community of New York.
There were even some executives from Hollywood agencies that had their headquarters in New York.
Soon, the host came on the stage and started the ceremony with a chit-chat before getting onto the main thing.
"Let's get on with the main thing. First of all, let's give applause to the three books, which are just incredible. They are also going to get published soon."
As the host said that, people started clapping. The name of the books appeared on the screen. Uncle Sam patted Aiden's shoulder with a smile on his face.
"Now, for the prizes. The winner of the third place is someone who presented a very cold story to the editors. It was something that made them feel chills while reading through each page. Give it up for <The Devil in the city> by Carl Johnson."
As the host announced that, a black man in a suit stood up with a smile on his face. There was a bit of disappointment on his face as he lost out in the first place, but just standing on the stage was a big thing for him.
In his speech, Carl talked about how he had desperately tried to help his family through the years. Coming from a poor family, it wasn't easy for him to get into a career like writing, but today, he did it.
His book was going to be published!
There were literal tears in his eyes as Carl took the prize. Aiden could see how much it meant for him.
After it was done, only Aiden and Zac were left in the competition. One of them was the winner while the other one was going to go home with the second prize.
"Now, only two novels are left." The host said, looking around the hall. "One is a story of the life of a corporate employee and how he sees life on a day-to-day basis, while the second story is of struggling while chasing a dream. A story based in the heart of Hollywood. Only one of these is going to be the winner."
The host talked about both of the novels and then opened up the envelope with the winner's name.
"So, the book that won the award of 'Vikings New book of the year' is…"
...
