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 new normal lasts exactly two weeks before everything falls apart in ways even the curse can't be blamed for, though the curse definitely contributes to the spectacular nature of the falling apart.


Chase stays at my apartment despite both of us knowing proximity makes contamination worse. We establish routines that feel domestic and toxic in equal measure: coffee in the morning while avoiding touching because his curse-eyes see the red glow intensifying with each contact, separate showers because shared spaces trigger possession attempts, careful distance while eating because feeding together feels too intimate and intimacy triggers the black-eyed state he's fighting constantly.


It's exhausting. Maintaining distance while living in small apartment. Performing normalcy while managing supernatural disaster. Pretending we're fine when we're both clearly deteriorating.


Chapter 143 - "The New Normal"