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.

Chaos consumes the cathedral the moment Stage Four activates. People screaming, some crying, others just standing frozen trying to process what Vivian's speech revealed, what they just witnessed, what's happening to them as the curse spreads through proximity and emotion.


I feel it activate. Feel the curse surge from constrained presence to active force, feel it spread outward from me like shockwave, feel it touch everyone in the cathedral who cares about me in any capacity. Ethan staggers. Dominic's expression shifts to something wrong. Helena braces herself like she's been hit. Even the reporters covering the wedding look affected, proving emotional investment doesn't require love, just interest, just caring enough to be contaminated.


Elise is being tended by medics but she's staring at me with expression that's equal parts rage and fear. "Stop it. Whatever you're doing. Stop the curse from spreading."


Chapter 137 - Chase Follows