Page 110 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

“Chase,” Selena says, managing to put so much hurt into the one syllable of his name.

Then Dawn Taylor sends her flying off the bridge, and Selena screams all the way down.

I look over at Chase, but he won’t meet my eyes. What the hell was he thinking, saying all that? How could he cheat on me and then say he’s still in love with me?

“I’m so sorry, Chase and Selena,” Dawn says after Selena gets reeled back up. “You came in dead last, with zero points. Your time in hell is over.”

My heart is in my throat as Selena and Chase make their exit. I can only imagine the talk they’re about to have. And for me, there’s no goodbye, no explanation, no closure.

Too much has happened—in the last thirty minutes, the last day, the last week—and I don’t know how to feel right now. Beside me, Daniel is silent. After that challenge, we both have a lot to think about.

Leah and the crew come up and start taking off our gear. As I go through the motions of working with the crew to take off the bungee cord that got dislodged and the harness vest that saved my life, I glance over at Daniel. He seems quiet, closed off. I see him strip down to his regular clothes, methodically taking off each harness and carabiner and letting them drop onto the blankets we’re standing on. Then he strides right up to Leah.

“Leah, a moment?” Daniel says.

“Yeah, shoot. What’s up?”

“Well, half the cast got food poisoning. A fireworks malfunction injured dozens of people. We lost both the main power linesandthe backup generator in one night. Alice’s bungee cord broke. And there’s the small matter of a death on set,” Daniel says. “Did I miss anything?”

“We talked about this. Accidents happen,” Leah says.

“Anaccidentis forgetting to charge the mic packs overnight,” Daniel says, his tone taking on an edge. “This is criminal negligence. If you can’t guarantee our safety, maybe we should leave the show.”

“What?” I stare at Daniel, but he’s not meeting my gaze.

“You can’t!” Leah cries. “The contract—”

“I’m sure I can find a loophole in the contract, given everything that’s happened,” Daniel says.

Leah’s voice is a hushed whisper when she speaks again. “Okay, let’s not be hasty, Daniel. I know you’re not feeling too hot about everything going wrong on set. But nothing else is going to happen, okay? I guarantee it.”

“Somehow I find that hard to believe,” Daniel says, folding his arms.

“Okay, look. This stays between us,” Leah says. “But those accidents were manufactured. The food poisoning. That was all Seth, fucking dumbass. And the generator blowing up was, uh, engineered, let’s say.”

“Why do all this?” I ask, but I think I already know the answer.

“Drama! Spicing things up! Sometimes it isn’t enough to leave these things to chance,” she says. “And it’s working. The show’s a runaway success.”

“What about the fireworks and Anton’s death?” I say.

“Well, those were actual accidents. Anton half-assed everything he did, and he picked the wrong time to not properly secure the fireworks. For all we know, he was busy swiping right on Tinder when he fell to his death.”

“Okay, then what about the snake?” Daniel asks.

“I can’t control wildlife, Daniel! And with Seth gone, I have twice as much work to do around here.” Leah sighs. “I’m sorry about thebungee cord. I nearly shit myself when that happened. But, look, the people who were screwing things up on set are either done or locked in the pantry, and the show’s almost over. There won’t be any more accidents, I promise. I’m looking out for you. I’ve been looking out for you from day one, remember?”

I weigh Leah’s words in my head. Most of what she said seems plausible, and I know for a fact that she’s telling the truth about Seth being behind the food poisoning.

Daniel doesn’t look ready to drop this, but just then, someone shouts for us to board the helicopter. Leah gives us both two friendly pats on our shoulders, only wincing a little as she does so, and sends us toward the chopper. Daniel climbs in first and holds his hand out to me.

When he helps me in, for a second, I meet his eyes.

He’s still unhappy about what happened earlier.

I don’t know what emotion, if any, he must see in mine. Shock, maybe. I can’t believe that Daniel would threaten to leave. How could he walk away from this? From me? We’d made a promise to each other to stick this out.

But there’s no opportunity to talk over the din of the helicopter as it ascends into the stormy sky.

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