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 penthouse becomes a war zone of silence over the next week after I tell Chase I'm leaving. Not the explosive kind where we fight and scream and destroy each other verbally. The cold kind where we occupy the same space while actively avoiding interaction, where proximity without connection proves more painful than separation ever could.


I pack methodically. Not the rushed angry packing from previous fights. Careful organization. Going through belongings accumulated over months of toxic cohabitation, deciding what's mine versus what's ours versus what I'm leaving behind deliberately as statement.


Chase watches. Just watches. Never offering to help. Never asking me to stay. Never attempting reconciliation or apology or any of the cycle behaviors that usually follow our fights.


Chapter 151 - Vivian Moves Out