Part 2This girlfriend is not worth keeping.

Almost simultaneously, a notification from Mark appeared.

[Is this the guy you're looking for?]

I clicked the link. It was Leo’s private social media account.

The first picture of Ashley was from six months ago. She was in a hospital emergency room, a bandage wrapped around her head, only half of her face visible.

[I was lost in the darkness, and then you came and lit up my world. My sunshine.]

So that’s why Ashley, our company's top streamer, had to pull out of a major brand launch six months ago. She’d claimed she got into a fight, but it was because of him. My heart twisted.

I kept scrolling.

Five months ago: a picture of a spicy stir-fry, two porcelain bowls, in what looked like a messy basement apartment.

Three months ago: he’d moved into a bright, spacious new place. A photo of a woman’s pale legs, adorned with a luxury watch, draped over his gray sweatpants.

Two weeks ago: a selfie of him with red, swollen eyes.

[I don’t want you to go on vacation with him. I don’t want him to touch you. So sad.]

One week ago: a picture of them cuddled up in a room.

[To prove her love for me, my sunshine actually let me pierce her nipples. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.]

The phone slipped from my hand. All the strength drained out of me.

So Ashley, the woman I’d built from an unknown nobody into a streamer with over a million followers, had been cheating on me all along. She’d even brought her lover into my company, carrying on an affair right under my nose.

The phone rang for a full fifteen seconds before I could compose myself enough to answer.

“Jayce, who is this Leo Chen guy?” Mark asked.

“A new streamer Ashley recruited. Used to be a male model, apparently.”

“Well, that’s weird. Because he’s the registered owner of an MCN company called Sunshine Media. Three million in registered capital.”

Sunshine? I remembered the post about his “sunshine.” Had Ashley set up an entire company for him? No wonder he quit the second I asked about his attendance. He already had his exit strategy planned.

“Jayce, get this. This new MCN just landed a major client. The signing ceremony is tomorrow at the Cloudfall Hotel. And guess who the client is?”

Mark was enjoying this.

“A brand-new company landing a major client right out of the gate?” The more I thought about it, the more a cold dread crept up my spine. A male model couldn’t pull that off. If Ashley was behind this, it was very likely she had poached one of my own clients.

“Yep. A major client. One of the biggest in the city.”

We only had a handful of clients at that level.

“Alright, I won’t keep you in suspense. It’s the Sterling Group.”

“Sterling? You mean my father’s company?” My voice shot up an octave.

“The one and only.”

My relationship with my father, Jason Crawford, had been strained for years. When I left the family business to start my own media company, he hadn’t given me a dime. No one in the industry knew about my connection to Sterling.

In the last couple of years, as my company started to gain traction, my father had made a few overtures to mend our relationship, even offering to partner with me on a few projects. I’d turned him down every time.

Ashley probably had no idea why she had suddenly been blessed with the Sterling Group’s favor.

“Send me the address of the signing ceremony,” I said. “Looks like I’ll have to crash the party.”