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.

Chase stands in my living room looking like he's restraining himself from either kissing me or destroying more lamps, the curse making him volatile in ways that prove tomorrow's wedding can't come soon enough for Helena's containment strategy.


"You didn't answer my question. Are you considering running away with Jackson Crane?"


"No. I kissed him goodbye. As in goodbye to the possibility of Paris. Goodbye to escape. Goodbye to choosing safety over you." I move to my kitchen, pour water neither of us will drink. "Jackson offered me plane tickets. Leaving tomorrow at 1 PM. Paris, open-ended, everything I'd need to escape before the wedding. I said no."


Chapter 130 - The Rehearsal Dinner