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 confess everything to Jackson exactly two days after falling against Chase's mirror with cracks spiderwebbing behind us, exactly two days after demonstrating pattern instead of discussing it, exactly two days after proving I couldn't escape through marrying Jackson by immediately returning to pattern I claimed engagement was designed to escape from.


The confession isn't planned. Isn't calculated decision about timing or approach or how to minimize damage. Just inevitable admission that occurs when Jackson calls asking to meet for closure conversation about ended engagement, when guilt about falling against Chase's mirror hours after ending engagement becomes unbearable, when lying through omission stops being tenable option for person claiming to want honesty.


Chapter 175 - The Breaking Point