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 private screening room smells like expensive leather and ambition. Marcus Webb sits beside me in one of twelve plush seats, the only two people in a space designed to make filmmakers feel like gods. The screen ahead is massive, the sound system probably costs more than my first apartment, and I'm trying very hard not to think about how Chase's lips tasted three nights ago.


Three nights since I left his apartment with my sweater inside out and my resolve in pieces. Three nights of Ryan texting me good morning and goodnight like clockwork, steady and kind and completely incapable of making me feel alive. Three nights of staring at my ceiling at 2 AM, replaying the moment Chase's hands found my waist, the way we crashed together like natural disasters.


Chapter 81 - Marcus's Offer