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 return to my apartment three days after fleeing to Sienna's, convinced Marcus has calmed down, convinced his middle-of-the-night visit was aberration rather than pattern. I need clothes for filming, need my research notes about the curse, need to prove I'm not so scared of one contaminated man that I abandon my own home.


I'm in my bedroom packing a bag when I hear it. Glass shattering in my living room, loud and violent and unmistakably deliberate. Not an accident. Not something falling. Someone breaking in.


My first thought is robbery. My second is Marcus.


I grab my phone, start to dial 911, when I hear his voice from my living room.


"Vivian? I know you're here. Your car is outside. Your lights are on. Stop hiding and talk to me."


Marcus. In my apartment. Having broken through my window or door, having invaded my space, having crossed the final line between obsession and violence.


Chapter 117 - The Break-In