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'm awake anyway, having another nightmare about fire and blood, when my phone starts buzzing nonstop.


Twitter notifications. Instagram. Even my email.


I open Twitter and immediately wish I hadn't.


Not for anything I did. For who my mother slept with.


"Sienna Rhodes let her mom sleep with her best friend's ex. What kind of friend does that?"


"Sienna knew about Catherine and Chase. She's complicit in all of this."


"Team Vivian. Sienna Rhodes is a terrible friend for not stopping her mother."


The comments pile up. Thousands of them. People I've never met, judging me, hating me, blaming me for my mother's choices.


Someone found my Instagram. Started commenting on old photos of me and Vivian from college. Happy photos. Before everything went wrong.


"Betrayed Vivian for what? So her mom could get attention?"


Chapter 19 - Collateral Damage