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.

The sunlight streaming through the windows of the Sterling estate's guest suite costs more than most people's yearly income to maintain, filtered through custom glass that ensures perfect golden illumination for exactly this kind of morning. Everything about today has been choreographed, budgeted, planned down to the minute. A billion-dollar ceremony designed to prove the Sterling family's power, stability, appropriate continuation of legacy.


I'm supposed to be getting dressed, supposed to be preparing for the ceremony in three hours, supposed to be embracing my role as groom marrying the perfect woman in the perfect wedding that will secure my inheritance and protect everyone from the curse's worst impulses.


Instead, I'm staring at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirror, watching my eyes cycle between gray and black, watching the curse tighten its hold as we approach the activation moment Helena has been warning about for months.


Chapter 133 - Wedding Day Morning