Page 116 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

“Who else? Dawn.” Seth laughs. “Man, I thought you weresmart.”

“At least I’m smart enough not to sleep with someone who’s taken,” I say. My mind is racing with this revelation, but Seth’s not done.

“Of course they’re trying to pin everything on me. They’ve already thrown me under the bus, so why not make everything my fault? Leah and Dawn are trying to come out of this clean, but their hands are just as dirty as mine. Make no mistake, Dawn is the one calling all the shots. All the producers answer to her.”

“But it’s her show. Why would she want things to go wrong?” Before I even finish asking, I know the answer. For the drama, just like Leah said.

“Believe it,” Seth says. “She told me to poison the peppers because they’re one of Selena’s favorite dishes.”

“Wait, Selena?” I ask. Then everything starts falling into place. “So when the generator broke…”

“Leah took out the generator because Selena’s afraid of the dark, and Dawn wanted to scare her. Oh, and you’ll love this, Dawn’s the one who came up with the idea of pushing Chase and Selena together. She roped Bryan into helping her.”

Judging by Seth’s sneering tone, he probably thinks he’s managed to land a blow on me. But after my night with Daniel, it’s hard to be all that upset. I say calmly, “Why was Dawn targeting Selena?”

“You’re really not in the industry, are you? Selena’s hot.”

“Uh, okay?”

“I mean, everyone wants a piece of her right now. People loved her onHottie HavanaandOperation: Bikini.Rumor has it that Selena’s in line to replace Dawn as the show’s host, and Dawn ispissedabout it.”

“How would that even work? The show is named after Dawn Taylor.” I shake my head. “Never mind. Did she do anything else to Selena? Or anyone else on the cast?”

“I don’t think so.” Seth pauses. “It was all just diva shit. Like fighting with Peter over how to run the show, pushing us all to work around the clock when we’re already spread thin. Did you know she threw a tin of cookies at Freya?”

This rings a bell. “Cookies?”

“Or madeleines, whatever,” Seth says. “Fancy ones, dipped in chocolate. Don’t know what her problem was. I wish someone would send me madeleines.”

Something about this feels familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it. I change tacks. “Do you think Anton’s death was really an accident?”

“Who knows? I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re asking,” Seth says. “But if someone did, he had it coming. He was fucking insufferable and an absolute nightmare to work with. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one he was blackmailing.”

I think back to the notebook and the half-written sentence about Dawn Taylor. “Do you think he was blackmailing Dawn Taylor?”

“No idea. I mean, she was acting a little unhinged right before Anton died, but what else is new? She’s always been like that. That’s her whole thing.”

I remember how angry Dawn looked after the fireworks accident. If Anton was blackmailing Dawn Taylor, that changes everything. But of course, I can’t just march up to Dawn Taylor and go, “Hey, girlfriend. Anyone been blackmailing you lately?”

It’s sounding more and more like the key to all of this is, well, Anton’s locker key. I need to know more about what Anton was up to and who else he blackmailed. Lex said that the production assistants hadn’t found his laptop yet. I’m willing to bet that the laptop is stashed awaysafely in his locker. And if Anton thought the laptop was important enough to hide from his co-workers, then I want a good look at it.

But if his key wasn’t in his room, where else could it be?

“Do you know where Anton spent most of his time?” I ask.

Seth laughs. “You’re really playing detective, aren’t you?”

“Someone has to,” I say in my best no-bullshit teacher voice. “Answer the question, Seth.”

“How would I know? The guy was everywhere. Not doing his actual job, mind you. Just fucking around and creeping on people. Even when it was all hands on deck in the Video Village, he was trolling on Reddit or posting thirst traps to Instagram.”

Ohmygod, the Video Village. When Leah dragged me over there, I’d seen Anton on the balcony in his own little world while everyone else toiled away inside.

“Thanks, Seth,” I say, and then I’m hurrying away, back into the dimly lit maze of the villa. I head straight to the Video Village, navigating by memory. When I step inside, it’s just like I remembered it—screens everywhere, editors and production assistants hunched over keyboards even at this late hour. Shawna’s there, combing through footage with Freya.

Shawna looks up, squinting at me. “Alice? What are you doing here?”

“I, uh, wanted to light some incense for Anton,” I say. “It’s a Chinese thing. I heard he used to hang out here a lot?”

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