Untouchable ~ A Jared Leto/MARS Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Four

Though Jared's been preoccupied dealing with everyone from his two personal assistants to his management to his lawyer to the police, he's true to his word, sitting me down and telling me the story of how he met and got tangled up with Katia Valkov. It is as he said—a long, weird story, and further evidence that relationships among the Hollywood elite are truly bizarre.

Jared Leto and Katia Valkov met last year in Rome at an fashion event put on by Gucci. Jared was there to shoot an ad; Katia was there with Ivan, who is an investor in the company. She had only done a few minor runway shows in New York, Europe and her homeland of Russia up to that point, and she was hungry for more. Laying eyes on Jared Leto across the room at the gala, that hunger grew to include him.

Ivan, eager to please his daughter and knowing that Jared could do for Katia what all the money in the world could not, arranged a meeting with Allesandro Michele, Gucci Creative Director and a personal friend of Jared's. Ivan requested a test shoot for the two of them for another ad campaign Allesandro was developing, and Allesandro agreed.

The result was dynamite. The camera loved the pairing, and an affair resulted—with Ivan's seal of approval. Plenty of paparazzi, also arranged by Ivan, captured the pair out and about the ancient, beautiful and romantic city—at dinner, strolling arm in arm through Via Del Corso, at the exclusive Goa club where all the beautiful people went to drink, dance, and be seen.

Toward the end of his time in Rome, the rumor reached Jared that Katia already had a man in her life—a husband, in fact—a detail she'd neglected to mention to him. Confronted, Katia merely gave Jared a careless shrug. "He's of no consequence. He won't bother us, darling. We have an understanding, and he keeps himself occupied." Whatever that meant.

Unpersuaded, Jared broke off his relationship with Katia and flew back to America. He then threw himself into working on 30 Seconds to Mars's fifth album. Later, he was in Tokyo filming an independent movie titled The Outsider. By then, consumed with creative energy, he'd almost forgotten about Katia Valkov.

And then one day she showed up in Tokyo, catching him off-guard at his hotel as he returned from a day of shooting. "I thought you'd gone back to Russia," he said blankly. "And to your husband that you somehow forgot to mention to me."

"Old news, darling," Katia said airily, and then fixed him with a look that made his knees a little weak. "We are in the process of divorce." A soft hand caressed his cheek. "I've missed you," she purred. "And I believe you've missed me. Now, shall we go to your room?"

And so it began again. But Jared soon came to realize that Katia was only after one thing, and it wasn't his love. Nor was it his money. In addition to being almost twenty years younger than he, she was also at least twenty times richer. No, Katia was after something much more valuable. She wanted fame. Real fame. Hollywood fame. She had no intention of being dismissed any longer as another Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian, famous for being famous and widely ridiculed as a result. She wanted respect, and she knew how she was going to get it. Jared Leto was the key.

Jared was incensed at the realization that he was being used. He was also put out by the tabloids, the gossip blogs, and even some of his core fanbase, the Echelon, sniggering at a nearly forty-five-year-old man dating a girl young enough to be his daughter. While he was making a fool out of himself, Katia's star was beginning to rise, just as she and her father knew it would, thanks to being seen front and center with a hugely successful, much-sought-after A-list Oscar winner and rock star.

And it all happened very quickly. In addition to the Gucci ad, Katia also landed a hugely lucrative contract with the True Religion clothing line which kept her working in California. She also modeled for Abercrombie and Fitch, appearing in their storefront photos across every mall in the country. She appeared in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit issue, though not on the cover as she'd hoped. She was in a Victoria's Secret commercial, and that's when she began to set her sights on becoming an actress. Ivan began to scout out casting directors and suitable scripts. Jared reluctantly went along with her demands that he find her something to star in.