Chase Sterling always felt like furniture. The kind you don't notice, the kind that's easy to shove in a corner and forget. He was used to it: people looked right through him, brushed him off like lint. But it only takes one phone call to erase a lifetime of being overlooked. When his estranged family meets a tragic end, Chase suddenly finds himself in charge of the sprawling Sterling fortune. Turns out, riches aren't the only thing the family left him. There's a curse running through his blood, warping love into something hungry and dangerous, impossible to escape.

Vivian Ashford never set out to blow Chase's life to smithereens. Just one decision (a sharp, ruthless move at graduation) was all it took to set their worlds spinning out of control. While Vivian soaks up the Hollywood limelight and collects red-carpet headlines, Chase slips into his new role as Manhattan's most intimidating heir. But no matter how far they run, something keeps yanking them back together, like a stitch in an old wound that refuses to heal.

I'm fifteen when my father tells me we're ruined. Not bankrupt, not struggling, ruined. Past tense, already done, no recovery possible. He sits in his study surrounded by bills and collection notices and bottles of scotch that used to be for celebrating but now are for forgetting, and he explains how Sterling Industries bought out the company his family built over three generations, how the acquisition destroyed everything, how Dominic Sterling personally ensured we couldn't recover.


"He's a monster," my father says, drunk and broken. "Ruthless. Calculating. He sees weakness and exploits it without mercy. We never had a chance."


Chapter 100 - Elise's Secret