Chapter Twenty-Three
Dec
I ushered Shayla into our resort room, forehead crinkled into a confused frown.
“What’s on this thing?” Liv asked, gesturing to the USB drive in Shayla’s hands.
“I told you, I’ll show you when we get inside. Your TV is like the one in my room, right? It can take cables and flash drives?”
I nodded. Every resort room had a fancy media setup where the TVs could be connected to all sorts of devices. It was great for guests who wanted to do stuff like play a movie off Netflix using their phone. Obviously we weren’t allowed phones or laptops while we were participating in the show, but a USB should still work on the media center.
I took the drive from Shayla and plugged it in. The TV screen remained a plain blue color for a moment, and then suddenly an image popped up. There was no sound, but the image was clear as day. It was a CCTV-style recording of the interior of the resort hut Liv and I stayed in on our first night here on the Starling Islands….and also where we went to have our first experience as a real couple two weeks ago.
I watched in horror as my argument with Liv silently played out in the living room. Then the frame quickly snapped to the bedroom, where I saw every salacious little detail of me taking Liv’s virginity.
“What the fuck? Those cameras weren’t meant to be on that day!” I turned to Shayla. “How did you get this? You haven’t showed anyone else, right?” She was Liv’s best friend on this show. There was no way she’d do something like that, but I had to ask just in case.
She shook her head in response. “Of course I haven’t showed anyone!” she said. My shoulders sagged with relief. So did Liv’s, until a smug smile spread across Shayla’s face. “Yet,” she added.
My frown deepened. “What the hell do you mean?”
She smiled, and I saw Liv’s face turn white. “I’m talking about how I’ve known your deal from the very start. I know you two were just backup contestants brought in at the last minute to fill out the numbers so the show could go ahead. I know you’re really the exec producer’s daughter, Liv, and I know you’re her husband, Dec. I know everything.”
Liv’s hands trembled by her side. “Why…why haven’t you ever said anything? I thought we were friends.”
Shayla sneered. “You know the saying. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I wanted to see how it would all play out before I said or did anything. Honestly, I thought you two would be gone by now. That was the original deal, right? Just play backups for a few episodes, then get yourself voted out? Bow out gracefully? But you haven’t done that. So I figured it was high time to get rid of you.”
My hands balled into fists by my side, nails almost breaking the skin of my palms. “How the hell do you know all this? How did you get this footage?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said smugly. “What matters is that I know everything, and I have all along. I knew how popular you would both be as soon as I saw you, so I knew there was a chance you wouldn’t get voted out quickly. So I had to get close. Sabotage you; get you out of my way. I’m going to win this show with Peter. Not you two. I’m gonna make sure of it.”
“Peter? Your husband’s name is Paul.”
She waved her hand. “Whatever. I always forget it. He’s not my real husband. He’s just a means to an end.”
I gritted my teeth. Christ, she was a good actress. She made herself out to be a charming Southern belle looking for love when really she was an absolute fucking snake in the grass, just waiting for the right moment to strike.
“You’ve been sabotaging us from the start,” Liv said softly. “That day when we went hiking….you convinced me to go in the wrong direction. You hoped we would fail the challenge and get voted out quickly. I bet you’ve been trying to sabotage everyone, haven’t you?”
“Aww, look who’s catching on,” Shayla said with a sarcastic smile.
“You set us up,” Liv continued, her lower lips trembling. “You made sure I went to the hut that day two weeks ago. Made sure Dec was there too. You knew what would happen between us.”
Shayla laughed. “No shit. I saw the chemistry between the two of you. A tiny little push was all I needed to get you into a compromising position.” She motioned to the TV screen. “Anyway, I gather you two don’t want Ellen to see any of that, right?”
She was correct. Not because I was actually cheating on Ellen—our marriage was a sham, after all—but because we couldn’t have her knowing about us just yet. Everything could blow up in our face if she did.
“No, we don’t. So what are you going to do, Shayla?” Liv asked, her voice shaky. “Blackmail us, make us do stuff for you to help you win?”
“No. Blackmail is too clichéd. Too messy. I’m just going to show Ellen the footage outright,” Shayla replied, her voice icy cold. “It’s not official show footage, because those cameras weren’t meant to be on, so she won’t see it otherwise. No one would if I didn’t show them.”
“Can we keep it that way? Please?” Liv begged.
Shayla smiled. “Naw. She’s due back in about twenty minutes, right? I’m going straight to her office and waiting. As soon as she sees that little sex tape, you’ll both be off the show for good. Out of my way for good. Then it won’t be hard for me to win. The other couples are mostly morons. I can get them out of my way easily enough.”
Fuck.
Ellen couldn’t easily remove us from the show, because the contracts were laid out so that we could only leave via viewer voting or emergency. But if she saw that footage, she was bound to come up with a way somehow. I was pretty sure I knew how she’d do it, too. She’d cut the money to my family off, and Amelia would have to leave her treatment program. Then she’d get very sick again, and that would be enough to constitute a family emergency, which would get me off the show early. Liv, too, seeing as she was my ‘wife’ on the show.
Shayla really had us over a fucking barrel. Amelia, too. If anything happened to my little sister because of this scheming bitch, I didn’t know what I’d do.
“Don’t show her,” Liv begged. “Please, Shayla! You don’t understand what’s at stake here. Dec’s sister…”
Shayla scoffed, cutting Liv off. “Just try and stop me.”
She grabbed the USB and briskly stepped out of our room as Liv and I simply stood there staring at each other in shock over Shayla’s betrayal. I finally glanced at the clock, my body flooding with panic. “We’ve got fifteen minutes till your mom’s plane lands. Maybe another five for her to disembark with her stuff and get upstairs to her office.”
“So pretty much twenty minutes till we’re both screwed,” Liv said miserably.
I shook my head. “No, we’re gonna figure this out.”
“How?”
I gritted my teeth. “Go after her. Try and stall her as long as you can,” I said. “I think I have an idea.”