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 toxic dance returns with a vengeance over the next four weeks, proving Helena was right about our pattern being predictable and self-destructive and exactly what the curse feeds on most effectively.


We break up. Officially. Publicly. I release a statement through my publicist: "Chase Sterling and I have mutually decided to end our relationship and living arrangement. We wish each other well in our separate futures."


The media goes wild. Every outlet covering "Hollywood's Most Toxic Couple Splits Again." Every gossip site dissecting what went wrong, speculating about curse contamination, debating whether this separation will stick or if we'll reconcile within weeks like we always do.


Chapter 148 - The Cycle Begins