Meanwhile, on set.
Chase was waiting between takes when his co-star Tyler kept shouting "holy shit" and rushed over with his phone. "Dude! Is this actually your wife?!"
Chase looked at the screen and froze.
Tyler was shocked. "Holy crap, it really is! I was just watching a random stream and witnessed the scandal of the century!"
When Chase didn't respond, Tyler seemed to realize something. "Though... she probably should've discussed this with you first, right? You're in your rising star phase. Her dropping the marriage bomb like this could affect your—"
Chase murmured, "Finally..."
Tyler was confused. "What?"
Chase grabbed Tyler excitedly and slapped his back. "I finally get to claim her publicly!"
Tyler: "?"
-
-
Back in my stream, all hell broke loose.
After a moment of shock, Sophie's fans started questioning everything.
"LMAO she's a delusional Chase fangirl who faked a marriage certificate."
"Shameless. She knew Sophie was a Chase fan and did this to mess with her."
"So childish haha."
Then one comment appeared: "Wait, they both supposedly graduated from Columbia, but why are the diploma colors different?"
Sophie forced a calm smile. "Probably the lighting."
She quickly changed the subject. "That marriage certificate looks so real though. You're a Chase fan too, right? When I have dinner with him later, I'll get you an autograph."
Her fans went crazy again:
"Sophie, you basically admitted you're meeting Chase!"
"You totally slipped up!"
Sophie smiled shyly and checked her gift counter.
"You guys are too much. Look how you've bullied her. I'm obviously winning today, so let's just—"
Before she could finish, gift effects started flooding my stream. Someone with the username "ChaseNotDrunk" on a new account was sending the most expensive gifts.
Sophie froze.
I froze too.
I checked the gift info. Holy shit—it was the most expensive tier, three grand each.
Who was this rich idiot?
Within minutes, he'd caught up to Sophie's total. She couldn't sit still anymore.
She forced a smile. "Looks like the other side has a sugar daddy. She's clearly better at this game than me. I don't really interact with male fans anyway. Just do your best, guys. It's okay if we lose."
Her passive-aggressive comment riled up her fans, who started sending small gifts.
But dozens of $10-$50 gifts couldn't compete with $3,000 spectaculars.
Everyone watched in shock as the effects kept flashing.
"Real talk, this is the most money I've ever seen on a stream."
"That's gotta be over a hundred grand by now..."
I'd figured out who it was, but before I could stop him, the account commented: "Oops, wrong account. Let me switch!"
The next second, Chase logged in on his verified account with 10 million followers and casually sent ten more spectaculars.
Chase: "BABE! PRAISE ME!"
I was silent. "You're ridiculous."
...
After one second of silence, my chat absolutely lost it.
"HOLY SHIT IT'S REALLY CHASE HAMILTON!"
"CLAIRE AND CHASE ARE ACTUALLY MARRIED?!"
"I'VE NEVER BEEN ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF DRAMA THIS BIG!"
"GUYS I SCREAMED SO LOUD IN MY DORM! THIS IS INSANE!"
Someone stirred the pot: "Chase, don't you know Sophie?"
Chase was blunt: "Who? Never heard of her."
Sophie's face went from pale to red. She bit her lip like she'd been mortally wounded.
Soon another major actor, Tyler Chen, joined and immediately said, "Hey sis-in-law! We should all grab dinner sometime."
The chat went wild again as viewer count exploded.
Since time was up anyway, I ended the battle.
After closing the stream, I sighed. I knew this was just the beginning.