Season 20, Episode 10 The Book of Luke, Vol. 2 #2
Zara deftly plugged a drive into her laptop as Fortune ushered in Barnes. “I was summoned?” Barnes asked glibly, then halted at the sight of Greta.
“I’m sorry, what the hell is going on?” Troy demanded.
Greta nudged me. “Only fair it comes from you, Sherlock.”
I tried to maintain an even temper as Erika handed me a copy of Melange’s photo. “You’ve been sleeping with my husband. And you’ve been rigging this game for him to win.”
Barnes immediately paled, but Troy just burst out laughing.
“I wouldn’t laugh,” Zara said. “Based on Greta’s pretty thorough documentation of how you blackmailed her, you’ve sabotaged Luke’s game all season.”
“Blackmail and sabotage? Zara, come on, that’s bullshit.”
“Then explain this.” She rotated her monitor to show footage of the mountain in Huangshan, Imogen and I fretting over the pagoda. Zara rewound, indicating Troy on the sidelines. A white speck fell along his leg to the ground; then he gently kicked it toward us.
“We didn’t drop that puzzle piece,” Imogen said. “We never had it to begin with.”
Troy sighed. “No, you didn’t. I found it in the staging area after the Tribulation began. The show couldn’t look bad with the Marco Polo reps there, so I tossed it on the ground. Which is why nobody went home at the next Trial. I kept things fair.”
How was he still so calm?
“Please, you thought Shawn and Luke would let their guards down if one of them was going home and the cameras were gone,” Imogen protested. “Then you leaked the video!”
I watched Barnes. If this was news, he betrayed nothing. No, he’d known Troy had leaked the sex tape, all to leave me as badly exposed as he was. I could have slapped him.
“How does a misplaced puzzle piece affect the competition if nobody goes home?” Troy countered. “As for Shawn and Luke, you’re all in power of your own decisions.”
“But once Barnes was here?” Zara asked coldly. “You think I won’t find footage of you two sneaking around? A sexual relationship with a contestant is nonnegotiable termination.”
“Which is why I’ve obviously never participated in any such thing.”
“That video you filmed of Barnes fucking Shawn at the party says different,” Greta volunteered, flooring the whole room. Not only had Troy been with them, but there was video?
I thought I’d be sick, the nightmare of that encounter twisting into a whole new low. “Did Shawn know he was there?” I managed to get out.
“No, Shawn’s high as a kite in the footage, clearly unaware of Peeping Troy,” Greta said tightly. “Who commemorated the whole glorious show on his phone.”
“Why wasn’t that in your journal?” Imogen asked.
She cut me a guilty look. “I’ve dragged Shawn into enough. But if it’s the only way to take this bastard down, then I know what he’d want me to do.”
“When did you show Greta that?” Barnes asked Troy, finally speaking.
“Are you seriously that off your game, Barnes?” Greta sneered. “He said he’d leak that video next if I didn’t tell Luke about you and Shawn. I figured running my mouth was the lesser evil compared to another TMZ exclusive that left nothing to the imagination.”
Troy inhaled, choosing his words. “I’ll admit I pushed you to reveal a major story, since that’s my job, but claiming I did so with a sexual video is pathetic theatrics, Greta, even for you.”
“So you deleted it, great. Have fun when they subpoena your cloud, Troy!”
As Greta and Troy continued to trade barbs, I saw Barnes’ cool facade fraying, and I knew I had one card left to play. “Barnes, when did you meet Troy?”
“At that stupid wrap party, clearly,” Troy answered for him.
But Barnes’ attention was on me alone. “In DC, about a year after we moved there.”
“Barnes, what are you doing?” Troy asked, finally flushing.
“He wanted to get on Lobby Boys but needed a job in DC to be eligible. He cold emailed me but seemed smart,” Barnes continued. “I hired him and recommended him for filming.”
Troy shook his head. “That’s not—”
“Anyone who worked for me is public record, Troy!” he snapped. “Lobby Boys wouldn’t cast him, but they offered him a PA job. He left my office, and soon enough he got referred for a position on Beverly Blonde in LA.”
“When did you two start sleeping together?” I asked, refusing to lose focus.
Troy’s cheeks burned red as a hot stove now. “Barnes, don’t—”
“After Lobby Boys hired him,” Barnes answered. “There’d been… tension when he worked for me, and since you and I were—”
“You can skip that,” I cut him off. “Then you two…”
“Off and on. Even after he moved to LA.”
“We were consenting adults with no business relationship!” Troy interjected.
“Said every loser before you too,” Imogen added.
Troy drew himself up, seething. “There was no before me.”
I began to do the math. A year after we’d moved into the house, not long after Arjun died… Barnes confirmed it soberly: “Troy was the first.”
“Did we meet?” I asked, fighting to stay unaffected. “When you worked for Barnes?”
“Oh, yeah…” Troy said bitterly. “His royal highness, vacant as a crash dummy, but maybe that’s what happens after a lifetime of head trauma.”
“Do not speak to him like that!” Barnes yelled, but Troy was undeterred.
“You always loved people fawning over you, wafting into the office with your asinine little edits for his speeches, so desperate to be relevant. That’s how I knew you’d fall for that stupid promo photo story.
It wasn’t even me in the photo. I pulled it from the network’s archives in New York, you oblivious dolt.
You might have been the last to see your marriage was a sham, but I always knew.
” Troy scowled. “Even when he fucked those other guys, he always came back to me.”
“Sorry, do you want him to say you’re special or do you want me to?”
Troy looked like his teeth would crack his jaw was so clenched. “We laughed when I pitched you returning to Endeavor. He loved my idea of generating fodder for the divorce—”
“No, Troy made one offhand comment, and the next thing I knew you were in Italy,” Barnes protested, fighting for my eyes. “And he certainly never told me Shawn was on this season, let alone that he would force him on you!”
I ignored Barnes; my feelings couldn’t get in the way. “But, Troy, no matter how much you humiliated me here, you had to know you’d never ride off into the sunset with him, right? You’re not exactly the political wife type, certainly not for Barnes’ constituency.”
“I didn’t care about him being a senator! I told him to leave you and move to LA years ago, but he had to stay in DC because of you—”
“No, because he wanted to be a senator, you moron.”
Spit flew from Troy’s mouth like venom. “You’ll never know him like I do. What he actually wants, who he really is! Who do you think he was making those videos for?”
And then all the pieces were there. “Barnes sent you the sex videos?” I asked, prompting Troy to blink, as if retracing his words. “Troy, I underestimated you. You did realize he’d never leave me, so you needed me to leave him. Barnes, was Elliot Markovich working for you at the same time as Troy?”
“They overlapped by two months,” Barnes said, gravitating to my side.
“So Troy goes west, and Elliot becomes the flavor of the month,” I continued.
“Naturally Troy stays clingy even across the country, so you share some naughty videos to make him feel like he’s still on your mind but mostly to keep his mouth shut…
” It was all so clear now. “You’re Elliot’s anonymous friend, aren’t you, Troy?
The one who ‘inspired’ him to come forward?
I bet Elliot hadn’t even saved his video, so thank goodness for your treasure trove. ”
“That’s a batshit theory,” Troy snapped. “I would never hurt Barnes.”
“Of course not, you were saving him. Liberating him from me and the Senate both.”
“After the Elliot tape broke, you begged me to step down, but I didn’t.
” Barnes’ voice was suddenly soft as he saw it: “You leaked about my credit card at the RNC. You were there in Florida. I joked with you about using the wrong card. I assumed the auditors found it… but now I’m guessing you tipped them off to guarantee my resignation. ”
Troy reached for him, both hands shaking. “Barnes… we’re so close to what we want.”
“I want my family back!” Barnes recoiled.
“I wasn’t going anywhere with you! I might have let you put Luke in a compromising position by casting him, but then I realized that was insane.
The only reason I manipulated you into bringing me here was to protect Luke and fix all the mistakes I made, starting with the night I was dumb enough to sleep with you. ”
“You’re just saying that because he’s here,” Troy said quietly.
“He is here, so compare yourself. Why would I ever choose you over him?”
“Well, I haven’t touched you since you signed your contract, so good luck finding a shred of footage that proves we were involved at all,” Troy replied, eyes glazing over.
“I can help with that,” Erika volunteered from where she stood by Zara’s handheld camera, red recording light blinking. “Should I play it back for sound, Troy?”
“I didn’t consent to being filmed!”
“But, sweetie, you did,” Greta said. “Doesn’t every crew member sign a waiver to appear on camera just in case? You know, for the sake of the story?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he fumed, returning to me and Barnes. “The network won’t fire me over rumors, and I can promise neither of you has a hope in hell of winning that final now.”
Barnes inhaled, defiantly holding his gaze. “Zara, get my phone from your safe.”
“Calling the execs?” Troy laughed as she retrieved it. “They won’t side with you.”
Barnes’ phone burst to life, a photo of me and the kids from the previous Christmas plastered on his home screen. He ignored the rush of notifications, scrolling deliberately until his face darkened. “You probably shouldn’t watch this,” he warned me, handing Zara the phone.
“I’ve come this far,” I said flatly.
Mortified recognition filled Zara’s face as grunts echoed, and I moved to see the screen.