A fashion brand owner who shared the tragic tale of meeting an apparent soulmate on a bus before being brutally ghosted has now been accused of a sneaky act of deceit.
Estefi Rosas racked up more than 3.6 million views on a TikTok video, posted in October, that showed a mysterious dark-haired man stood across from her on public transport in France.
'I saw this guy on the metro in Paris... trying to make eye contact but not working...' she says in the clip. He then looked over and flashed an endearing smile which captured the hearts of thousands of social media users.
'Help me find him,' she begged her followers, prompting a wave of speculation and internet sleuths to search far and wide for the man's identity.
'Did you find him?' one concerned commenter asked. Estefani liked the comment and responded to several others describing their excitement at the apparent meet cute.
'When I finally found the Paris guy, he asked me out. Everything was going insanely well. We saw each other a few more times,' she wrote in another post.
Hearts were then broken earlier this month when the Barcelona native shared updates telling her followers that the mystery guy had 'ghosted' her and that their whirlwind romance was over.
But the more Rosas posted, the more suspicious many of her followers became. Sleuths who uncovered Rosas's Instagram realized that her connection with the mystery man, who she never named on TikTok or Instagram, ran far deeper than she claimed.
He is Marcel Llambes, whom Rosas openly described as her 'partner.' The pair posted multiple times on their LinkedIn accounts about their fledgling fashion brand De Kiska.
Llambes' name was previously listed among the founders on the company's website before being removed - seemingly to hide his involvement from shoppers brought to the page by the pair's unlikely love story.
YouTube videos showing the couple's journey launching the company earlier this year have also been taken down.
Before launching her brand and finding relative social media fame, Rosas' LinkedIn shows she worked as a Marketing Manager in Madrid and the UK, while Llambes worked in sales and set up several e-commerce companies.
In a LinkedIn post from April, Llambes writes: 'Estefanía worked at Amazon. Me in a startup in London that is growing a lot. Everything was going well. But it was not what we wanted. We wanted to build something of our own.'
In another post, he says: '"Starting a company with your partner is the worst idea." That's what they say. And they will probably continue to say it... until it works.'
Rosas admitted in one LinkedIn post that she 'created' the 'romantic story', but no such admission was made anywhere on her TikTok or Instagram, and many of her thousands of followers feel led-on.
The business owner has even cashed in on her internet fame by releasing a song on Spotify called 'Of course he ghosted u', turning comments from people who believed the story that the pair had separated into lyrics.
Some of her followers have described their feelings of betrayal after buying into the wholesome love story before realizing it was a 'PR stunt'.
'Guys, I'm starting to think the drama with the guy was just so that we can look at her clothes?' one wrote. 'They're cute but no need to deceive people. Unfollowing sigh.'
'It is very sad that both of them made up this story,' one person said of the ghosting video. 'They're promoting their brand with a made up story that hurts many people who already went through such a painful situation.'
Another commenter said they had a feeling 'that the story of her falling in love with a guy could have been fabricated to generate views and promote her clothing brand.'
One skeptical follower wrote: 'I think they're catfishing us. Seems a little too perfect.'
On November 10, Rosas shared a TikTok about how their 'perfect' relationship apparently broke down.
Rosas shared a series of emotional TikToks claiming she had been ghosted by her apparent 'soulmate'
Rosas gushed about him traveling to see her in Barcelona and 'the best date of my life' in her viral posts
'The guy I fell in love with, on a bus in Paris, stopped replying after a few dates. Crazy chemistry, he just disappeared.
'It's crazy how someone can feel so real, and then vanish like they never existed.
'I thought I found the one; now I can't stop wondering: was it real for him? Or just me? And the worst part is, I'm just waiting for him to come back.'
At the same time as he 'ghosted' her and she claimed they weren't speaking, Llambes was reposting Rosas’ LinkedIn posts about their brand.
In another TikTok, Rosas claimed that her love interest was working as a photographer at Paris Fashion Week. There is no evidence on Llambes LinkedIn or professional profile online that suggests this is true.
The elaborate story of their relationship also includes a post in which Rosas travels to meet Llambes's family and emotionally reveals that she has a 'crush' on his brother, making things 'complicated'.
In reality, Llambes's brother Roma is also an entrepreneur who runs an AI platform for consumer brands and seemingly supported his sibling's business by building a 'full email campaign strategy'.
Llambes shared posts about starting the company with his girlfriend Rosas seven months ago
Rosas admitted in one LinkedIn post that she 'created' the 'romantic story', but no such admission was made anywhere on her TikTok or Instagram
The vast majority of comments on Rosas' posts are supportive of the couple and buy into their love story, seemingly unaware that all is not what it seems.
The 'story time' trend on TikTok often sees creators tell unbelievable stories of romance and heartbreak in the first person, even if they are fictional or have happened to someone else.
That has led to claims of some users 'gaming' the app's algorithm with tall tales that they know stand a higher chance of being featured on TikTok's 'for you' page of suggested content that is blasted before billions of users.
Rosas uses the hashtag on some of her posts, but never explains on TikTok that they are fictional or her and Llambes' joint connection to their brand.
Meanwhile on LinkedIn, she has proudly posted about selling out her collections and the success that posting the 'romantic story' on social media has brought her brand.
Daily Mail has reached out to Rosas for comment.