You Lost Us In The Test novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Reveal

Deanna gives back the ring on camera and tells Preston the baby is hers alone, then the episode drops cut to make her the villain who faked a pregnancy.

I opened the door on the chain.

Preston grinned through the gap.

"Surprise," he said.

Kenzie stepped up beside him. Her platinum hair was curled for the camera and her lip gloss caught the hall light.

"Deanna Garvin," she said in her show voice. "You have been part of a Loyalty Lab test."

She swung the phone toward me.

"How do you feel?"

"Like closing the door."

"She's so funny," Kenzie told the phone. "Okay, so here's the twist, babe. You actually did pretty good!"

Preston held the roses out through the gap.

"You passed," he said. "Almost."

"Almost."

"You walked out of dinner, which, okay. But you went to the clerk's office and waited all day. That's loyalty. Mom was impressed."

Kenzie made a little heart with her free hand.

"Eight hours on a plastic chair," she said. "I cried in the edit."

I undid the chain.

I stepped out onto the landing in my socks.

My neighbor in 2B had her door open an inch. The couple from upstairs had stopped on the stairs with their groceries.

Good.

"Say it again," I said. "Louder. So they can hear."

Preston laughed and glanced at Kenzie.

"It was a test, Deanna. A joke. We were seeing if you'd stick. You stuck. So." He shook the roses. "We're good."

"Your mother cooked eleven dishes of chili for a pregnant woman with gastritis."

"It was just food."

"And you texted me that you only said yes because of the baby."

"That was the script!"

"Whose script?"

He pointed at Kenzie.

Kenzie pointed at him.

The couple on the stairs looked at each other.

I took the ring off.

It was a one-carat oval he'd picked because his mother liked ovals. It had never fit right.

I held it up so Kenzie's camera got it.

"Preston Elstow," I said. "I'm giving this back."

He didn't take it.

So I dropped it into the roses.

It slid down between the stems and disappeared.

Kenzie's mouth opened and her eyes went bright. I could see her counting views.

"Babe," Preston said. "Come on. Don't do this on camera."

"You brought the camera."

"Okay. Okay." He put his hand up. "We'll do the clerk on Monday. I'll take the morning off."

"No."

"Deanna."

"There's no Monday. There's no wedding. There's no us."

He laughed, the easy laugh that had gotten him out of every parking ticket since high school.

"You're pregnant with my kid," he said. "You're not going anywhere."

"The baby is mine."

"It's half mine."

"You put it in a script. You don't get half."

I put my hand on the doorframe.

"Here's how it goes," I said. "You're not in this. Not the doctor's visits. Not the name. Not the birth. If you want to be a father, you can talk to a lawyer like everyone else."

"You can't keep my kid from me."

"Watch."

Kenzie swung the phone between us.

"Oh, this is so good," she breathed.

Preston's grin finally slipped.

He looked over his shoulder at the door of 2B, then back at me.

"You'll be back in a week," he said. "You don't have anybody else. Your own mother's on our side."

"I know. I watched the video."

Kenzie stopped breathing for half a second.

Preston didn't notice. He was too busy being sure.

"One week," he said. "You'll call me crying."

"I won't be here in a week."

"Where are you going to go? Your mom's?"

"London."

He blinked.

"Hartwell's London lab," I said. "I start on the thirtieth. I leave in three weeks."

"You turned that down."

"Twice. For you."

I watched it land.

He'd called it my little science thing.

He'd told his father I'd never take it, because I couldn't even drive on the highway at night.

"You can't take my baby to another country," he said.

"Our engagement ended an hour after your mother served the soup. Goodnight, Preston."

Kenzie tilted the phone up toward my face.

"Any last words for the Loyalty Lab family?"

I leaned in close to the lens.

"Next time, try sesame," I said. "That's the one I'm actually allergic to."

I didn't know yet why that made her flinch.

I went inside and shut the door.

I locked it, then put the chain on, then leaned on it.

Through the wood I heard Preston swear and Kenzie hiss, "Keep walking, we got it."

My neighbor said, loud and clear, "Shame on you both."

Then the stairs, then nothing.

I didn't call him in a week.

I packed.

My best friend from the lab came over on Wednesday with tape and sparkling cider.

She labeled every box in red Sharpie. KITCHEN. BOOKS. STUFF DEANNA SHOULD THROW OUT.

My boss sent me the London lab's floor plan and a list of good bakeries.

My mother didn't call.

Brody texted once.

"Mom's really upset. Can you just be nice?"

I didn't answer.

On Friday night I was taping the last box of books when my phone started buzzing and didn't stop.

Forty notifications. Then a hundred.

My friend texted first.

"Don't open YouTube. I'm coming over."

I opened YouTube.

Loyalty Lab's homepage had a new thumbnail. My face, mid-sentence, eyes red, mouth twisted.

Bright yellow letters across the top.

"BRIDE FAILS LOYALTY TEST, FAKES PREGNANCY."

Under it, the counter ticked while I watched.

By midnight it said two million views.

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