I Died for Dad's Reality Show

"The cushion… There's no one on it." The voice on the other end was shaking. "And… we found a shoe next to it."

The director froze for a second and instinctively looked over at Dad.

Dad sat there. His expression was dark as he drank in sullen silence. When he heard John's words, he impatiently snatched the walkie-talkie.

"What's so shocking about a damn shoe? Emma must've tossed it there on purpose to freak me out! That brat. Does she think she can play mind games with me because I tricked her once?"

He yelled into the walkie-talkie, "Keep looking! Widen the search! Even if she dug a hole and buried herself there, you're digging her out for me!"

He slammed the walkie-talkie down and angrily loosened his tie.

"Kids these days are so cunning. Look at Emma, even taking off her shoes just to get me worked up." He grumbled to Alice, "This is what happens when you're too soft on them. When she gets back, I'm grounding her for a month."

Alice rubbed his back, trying to calm him down. She said, "Emma's really too much. She's practically an adult, yet she's still playing hide-and-seek like a child. Didn't she stop to think about how exhausted everyone is?"

The mood in the livestream chat started to shift, too.

[This daughter is way out of line. Her dad went to all this trouble to teach her a lesson, and she's throwing a tantrum?]

[Exactly. She's too bratty for my liking. It's just a reality show. Does she really have to disappear like this?]

[Poor Mr. Locke. Being a dad is rough.]

I stared at the comments, but I didn't feel a thing.

The shoe had slipped off while I was struggling in midair. I was actually lying not far from that shoe, on a pile of jagged rocks. My body was already cold.

It started pouring again. The sky, which was clear just moments ago, suddenly darkened with heavy clouds, and fat raindrops began pelting down in a deafening rush.

The camp fell into chaos as the crew scrambled to drag equipment out of the downpour.

Dad sat under a large patio umbrella, staring at the sheets of rain outside. His expression grew uglier by the second as he grumbled, "That brat. Does she want the entire crew to stand out here and get drenched for her?"

He sliced into a medium-rare steak while replaying the earlier livestream. The screen was flooded with comments like "Badass", "The acting is insane", and "This father-daughter duo really knows how to put on a show".

He watched with great interest, letting out a few smug laughs now and then. "Look at that engagement. Our company stock is definitely hitting the limit-up tomorrow."

He speared a piece of steak and popped it into his mouth. It was the steak he was supposed to have bought for me.

Another 30 minutes went by. The rain was still torrential, and the search and rescue team still hadn't returned.

Dad checked his watch again. His fingers were tapping the table with growing impatience. He pulled out his phone and dialed my number again.

"Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently unavailable…"

He flung his phone onto the couch with a scowl and snapped at the director, "What is she, a sore loser? Is she hiding down there on purpose just to scare me?"

The director didn't dare say a word. All he could do was keep pressing the search and rescue team over and over.

Dad turned to the camera and complained, "Kids these days are totally spoiled. It's just a show, yet she's acting like it's real. She's making the whole crew stand out there in the rain with her."

Just then, the walkie-talkie crackled with a burst of static. A moment later, the search and rescue captain's trembling voice came through. "M-Mr. Smith, we only found a shoe."

This time, he was clearly on the verge of tears. "And the shoe… It's covered in blood."