Chapter 2

I wiped the water off my hands and picked up my phone expressionlessly.

Asher Ford had removed me from his blacklist and was now bombarding me with messages on SnapChat.

[Summer, are you out of your mind? What the hell are you talking about?]

[Turn off that livestream right now, do you hear me?]

[Are you trying to destroy me and Natalie?!]

I didn't reply. I exited his chat window.

I noticed the pinned chats at the top that I hadn't deleted yet.

I had always kept only two people pinned—one was Asher Ford, the other was Natalie James.

My chat history with Natalie James was still stuck three months ago:

[Don't worry, Summer! I'll keep an eye on Asher for you once we're on set~]

I closed my screen and glanced at the comments flooding my livestream, picking one to respond to.

"Is there a fourth toast? Yes. The fourth toast is to myself—for putting my best friend in my boyfriend's production, only to have them announce their relationship. Turns out I was the clown all along."

My words were too pointed to ignore.

Combined with today's trending celebrity news, people in the comments had already started typing out Asher Ford and Natalie James's names.

When I first started the stream, there wasn't a single viewer.

But money talks.

Even two hundred thousand dollars could make a splash loud enough to attract a crowd.

Random viewers entered the stream, confused.

[Random person here—what's going on? Why does a fish-selling stream have so many people?]

[But the fish seller is so pretty! Girl, stop gutting fish and gut me instead!]

Soon, someone filled them in.

[You're late, sis. Looks like we're front row for some major tea.]

[I knew this was my weekday blessing. Not sleepy at all now!]

Of course, there was also a batch of fans spamming the chat to defend them, insisting I was just clout-chasing off "Asher and Natalie Forever."

I let out a cold laugh and kindly replied, "Dear fan, don't you know the golden rule of entertainment? Ask for receipts and you'll get receipts."

Back when we were dating, Asher Ford was a complete nobody—an E-list actor buried six feet under—but he had the self-awareness of an A-lister. He rarely showed his face in photos, probably to prevent exactly this kind of situation.

Too bad he underestimated his own fans.

They were the type to follow their idols with 18x magnification microscopes, never missing a single clue.

Sure enough, the next moment, hashtags like #AsherFordGirlfriend, #AsherFordCheating, and #NatalieJamesHomewrecker exploded onto the trending searches.

Fans analyzed the photos and videos I provided frame by frame.

I marveled internally while casually throwing money at the post to boost it to the top.

The comments in my livestream became polarized.

Some praised me for handling it beautifully, saying cheaters deserved to be exposed.

Others recognized the farmers market in my stream background was near Asher Ford's filming location and thought I was a crazy stalker.

I simply grabbed the last fish from the tank and gutted it cleanly.

The next second, Asher Ford appeared in front of me, fully disguised.

He finally couldn't sit still anymore.

Though his mask and hat covered most of his face, I could still read the fury in his eyes.

The livestream comments spiked the moment his figure appeared.

[Holy shit, is that actually Asher Ford?]

[Still defending him, fans? Your idol just showed up in person.]

Asher Ford's face darkened as he pulled me away from my stall.

A large hand appeared in front of the camera, forcibly cutting off the stream.

In the second before it ended, I smiled at the camera.

"Oh, we're just getting started."