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.

Six months is long enough to learn how to smile correctly again.


I know this because I've been doing it, the smile that reads as genuine to photographers and journalists and the general public and to Ryan, who is kind enough and perceptive enough that fooling him requires more effort than fooling anyone else, which means I've been working harder at it with him than with anyone, which is its own complicated piece of information that I've been setting aside for later.


Chapter 192 - "Six Months Later"