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.

POV note: Chase's cold dismissal of Marcus is the emotional anchor of this chapter. Seeing Marcus through Chase's eyes — the apathy, the curse-deepened indifference — shows the reader how far gone Chase is. CHASE POV is correct here.


I hear about Marcus Webb the way I hear about most things that are supposed to matter to me and don't anymore, which is through my assistant forwarding me a news alert with a subject line that reads "Flagged: Marcus Webb — recommend review" and a body that contains three links to entertainment news sites and a note saying the relevant party has apparently resurfaced.


I read the alert. I click one of the links. I read approximately two paragraphs and then I close my phone and go back to the quarterly projections I've been reviewing since seven this morning, because the quarterly projections require my attention and Marcus Webb does not.


Chapter 182 - "Marcus Returns"