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 media firestorm starts while I'm still sitting beside Chase's hospital bed. My phone, which Sienna brought from my apartment along with clothes and necessities, explodes with notifications. News alerts. Social media mentions. Text messages from numbers I don't recognize. All of it documenting the scandal of the century unfolding in real-time across every platform simultaneously.


I make the mistake of checking. Make the mistake of opening my phone and seeing what the world is saying about yesterday's wedding disaster, about my objection, about Chase and me collapsing on church steps.


"Runaway Groom Collapses With Ex-Girlfriend at His Own Wedding"


"Cursed Bride Elise Vanderwood Released From Hospital; Engagement Officially Over"


"Fallen Starlet Vivian Ashford Destroys Sterling Wedding of the Century"


Chapter 140 - Media Firestorm