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 cathedral has gone completely silent after the flashbulbs stop, five hundred people waiting to see if I'm actually going to elaborate on the curse revelation or if that was just dramatic objection without substance. The reporters lean forward with phones recording, the society guests look scandalized and fascinated in equal measure, and Dominic Sterling looks like he's calculating how many ways he can destroy me for what I'm about to do.


I don't care. I came here to tell the truth. Might as well tell it completely.


Chapter 136 - The Speech