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.

I stand in the gown even after consultant leaves to process cancellation, even after declaring wedding is off, even after admitting I can't marry Jackson despite month of planning designed to make marriage inevitable, standing in ivory dress that's flawless in construction but suffocating in meaning because fabric represents commitment I just cancelled while Chase watches and Sienna hovers and deadline that seemed important yesterday becomes irrelevant through today's collapse.


The mirrors blur again. Not panic-induced distortion this time. Actual supernatural interference. Proving Helena's reflection wasn't hallucination but magical manifestation designed to show truth I was avoiding, designed to force recognition that wedding dress represents prison not future, designed to make suffocation literal instead of just metaphorical.


Chapter 173 - The Dress