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 double date is Elise's idea, which I know because she told me directly and without apology, which is Elise's mode of operating and one of the things I've always found clarifying about her. "Someone needs to put the four of you in a room together," she said on the phone, "and since none of you will do it voluntarily, I've asked James to arrange it under the guise of a normal dinner party and none of you will know until you arrive."


James is a mutual friend whose primary social function, as far as I can tell, is to invite incompatible people to the same spaces and observe what happens. He is very good at this. He considers it a hobby.


Chapter 189 - "The Double Date"