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 board meeting is supposed to be routine quarterly review, standard shareholder update I'm attending as former CEO maintaining advisory role, nothing unusual except Dominic has been more aggressive than normal about asserting control since taking over interim leadership.


"The third quarter projections are conservative," Dominic is saying, standing at head of conference table, commanding room the way he's commanded Sterling Industries for decades. "We're accounting for the publicity damage from recent family scandals, the market uncertainty around leadership transition, the—"


He stops mid-sentence. Hand goes to his chest. Face goes pale. The classic signs I've seen in medical dramas but never expected to witness in person, never expected to see my father experiencing.


"Dominic?" One of the board members stands, concerned.


Chapter 149 - Dominic's Heart Attack