Between Heartbeats
Celeste Moreau vanished from CEO Jae-won Choi's world three years ago, stealing critical research and a secret: his daughter.
When their child falls ill, Celeste is forced to return to Seoul and strike a desperate deal with the man she betrayed: her medical expertise for their daughter's life. Trapped in his corporate fortress, their past becomes a volatile war of bitter resentment and forbidden attraction.
As corporate sabotage threatens everything, Celeste must decide if the secret she protects is her greatest curse or her only remaining power, and if the man who wants to destroy her is the only one who can save their child.
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Chapter 3
CELESTE
"You're walking back into the dragon's mouth."
Nina's voice was barely a whisper, but it cut through the morning noise of the café like a knife. Her hands trembled around her coffee cup, and her eyes-those warm, kind eyes that had never asked too many questions-were wet with fear.
I sat across from her at our usual table by the window, the one where Luna and I had shared countless croissants and chocolate smiles. But Luna wasn't here now. She was back at the apartment with Madame Laurent from upstairs, blissfully unaware that her mother was about to destroy everything we'd built.
"I know," I said, my own cup untouched and growing cold between my palms.
"Celeste." Nina reached across the table and grabbed my hand, her grip desperate. "You don't have to do this. There must be another way. Another trial. Another-"
"There isn't." I met her eyes, and I watched her face crumble when she saw the truth there. "This is the only way. She's dying, Nina."
The words tasted like poison.
Nina's tears spilled over, running down her cheeks in streams she didn't bother to wipe away. "Then let me come with you. Let me help. You can't face him alone."
"I have to." I squeezed her hand, memorizing the warmth of it. "If something goes wrong, if I don't-if we don't come back-I need you here. I need someone who knows. Someone who can tell her story."
"Don't." Nina shook her head violently. "Don't talk like that. Don't you dare talk like that."
"Promise me." My voice cracked, and I hated myself for it. "Promise me you'll remember her. Remember us."
Nina sobbed, pulling my hand to her chest. "I promise. God, Celeste, I promise. But you come back. You hear me? You bring that baby home."
I nodded, but we both knew I was lying.
I left the café without looking back. If I looked back, I would break.
– – –
The apartment felt different as I packed. Smaller. Like it was already becoming a memory.
One suitcase. That's all I allowed myself. Luna's stuffed rabbit-the gray one with the missing eye that she'd named Monsieur Hopps. My father's research journal, the leather cover worn soft from years of his hands, my hands, hands that had killed for what was written inside. A change of clothes for me. Two for Luna.
Everything else-the life we'd built, the mornings and nights and small precious moments-I had to leave behind.
I stood at the kitchen sink and pulled out the documents. Clara Dupont's passport. Her birth certificate. Her entire fabricated existence on crisp official paper. I'd paid a fortune for these three years ago, and they'd kept us safe.
Now they were just kindling.
I lit a match and watched Clara burn. The paper curled and blackened, and smoke rose toward the ceiling like a departing soul. The ashes fell into the sink, and I washed them down the drain with cold water.
Clara was gone.
Only Celeste remained.
Luna appeared in the doorway, dragging Monsieur Hopps by one ear. "Maman, why are you crying?"
I hadn't realized I was. I wiped my face quickly and smiled. "I'm not crying, mon cœur. Just... thinking."
"About our trip?" She bounced on her toes, excited. I'd told her we were going on an adventure. A special trip to help her feel better. She didn't know what waited for us. She couldn't know.
"Yes. About our trip." I knelt down and pulled her close, breathing in the smell of her hair-strawberry shampoo and sunshine. "Are you excited?"
"So excited! Will there be airplanes?"
"A very big airplane."
"Will there be new foods?"
"So many new foods."
"Will you stay with me the whole time?" Her voice got smaller, and she looked up at me with those eyes that saw too much.
My heart shattered. "Every single second. I promise."
– – –
The flight from Paris to Seoul was thirteen hours of torture.
Luna slept against the window, her cheek pressed to the glass, Monsieur Hopps clutched tight in her arms. I watched her breathe and tried not to think about what I was doing. Tried not to imagine his face when he saw me. Tried not to remember the last time we'd been in the same room-his hands around my throat, his voice in my ear promising things worse than death.
"You can't run from me, Celeste. I will always find you."
I'd proved him wrong for three years.
Now I was walking straight back to him.
The plane hummed around us, filled with strangers living normal lives. A businessman typed on his laptop. A woman read a magazine. A child whined for snacks. They had no idea that the woman in seat 27B was carrying research that could change everything. That she was flying toward the man who would kill for it.
That she was trading her life for her daughter's.
I pulled out my father's journal and opened it to a random page. His handwriting stared back at me-cramped and precise, every letter formed with the same obsessive care he'd given to his work.
"The VX series shows unprecedented neural regeneration in test subjects. But the cost... God, the cost."
I knew the cost. I'd paid it. I was still paying it.
The lights of Paris had vanished hours ago, swallowed by darkness and distance. I pressed my forehead against the seat in front of me and felt everything I'd been slough away like dead skin.
Clara Dupont, the quiet bookshop clerk who baked star-shaped pancakes and never caused trouble-she was gone.
The woman who would step off this plane into Incheon Airport was someone else entirely.
Someone harder.
Someone colder.
Someone who had survived Jae-won Choi once and would do it again.
I was Celeste Moreau.
Daughter of a dead genius.
Mother of a dying child.
And I was returning to the battlefield.
The plane began its descent, and through the window, I saw the lights of Seoul spreading below us like a glittering web. Somewhere down there, in a glass tower that scraped the sky, he was waiting.
Luna stirred beside me, her eyes fluttering open. "Maman? Are we there?"
I took her hand and held it tight.
"Yes, baby," I whispered. "We're here."
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7.7
CONTENT WARNING ⚠️🔞
This book is strictly for a mature audience only. Reader's discretion is advised.
On her eighteenth birthday, Sabrina's life is stolen from her. She was sold into marriage to Scott Wendell, a ruthless and powerful billionaire more than twice her age. A man she's never met. A man who claimed her as payment for a debt she never owed
But the real problem wasn't the vows she took or the marriage document she signed.
It's his son. The revelation that Ace Wendell, the one boy in school that she's always fantasized about, the boy she's secretly loved from afar, is now her stepson.
Now living under the same roof, Sabrina finds herself torn between duty to her marriage and the dangerous pull toward the stepson who has wanted her just as desperately.
7.2
I didn't hear it from my mother or from family... I saw it online, just like everyone else. A headline, a picture, a ring on her finger. And the man standing beside her? Philip Davenport. Billionaire. CEO. Untouchable. The kind of man who takes what he wants and keeps it. Including my mother.
I was supposed to hate him-the man who replaced my father, the man I swore I'd destroy. So I made a plan: get close, get under his skin, make him want me... then watch everything fall apart. It was simple.
Until he looked at me like I was the only woman in the room. Until his touch lingered longer than it should. Until every glance, every word, every moment started to feel like something I couldn't control.
Now I'm caught in a dangerous game of desire and deception, where the lines I drew are slowly disappearing. The closer I get to him, the harder it is to remember why I started. My mother trusts me, my boyfriend loves me, and the man I was supposed to ruin is becoming the one I can't resist, and every step I take only pulls me deeper into something I was never meant to feel.
I wanted revenge. What I got instead was something far more dangerous. And now? I might lose everything. Because falling for my mom's fiancé was never the plan. And if I'm not careful, I won't just lose the game... I'll lose myself.
9.8
They say when life throws you a lemon, you should turn it to a lemonade, even though some things weren't just intentional.
"For the next three years, you will work under my son, Anthony. You will obey him unconditionally and assist him in developing the first humanoid robots. It's all stated in the contract."
Melissa, a brilliant first-class robotics engineer, signs a binding contract to save her only sister who urgently needs surgery. Not only must she work for Anthony-the arrogant CEO of the Morgan Group-but she must also marry him.
Throughout the contract, Anthony treats her like a lowlife, belittling her at every opportunity and even stealing credit for her achievements, convinced she would never dare to leave. But as the three years draw to a close, her supposed knight in shining armor, Josh, shows up as he promised.
Will Melissa walk away from Anthony, reclaim her freedom, and rekindle the spark with Josh? Or will Anthony realize too late just how much he stands to lose when the countdown to their divorce begins?
And what if there was more to the accident that left Melissa's sister in need of surgery-and forced Melissa into this contract?
If you want to feel first hand what it means for a lady to possess her possession, then get over here!
8.8
I was the despised adopted daughter of the Sanders family, hiding behind heavy gothic makeup and enduring their daily disgust.
The day my adoptive father died in a severe car crash, my adoptive mother and stepsister didn't even bother to call me.
Instead, while his body was still warm, my mother filed a multi-million dollar life insurance claim.
"I am not feeding a useless freak for another day. Pack your trash and get out."
She kicked me out into the freezing rain, but that wasn't the worst of it.
My stepsister Cornelia stole my greatest secret. Five years ago, I saved the life of Fidel Vaughan, a ruthless billionaire heir, from a burning estate.
Cornelia claimed my identity, accepted a million-dollar reward, and secured a marriage proposal from him, burning my only proof to ashes.
They thought I was just a helpless, pathetic high schooler they could discard and replace.
But when I hacked the police files, I discovered my father's crash wasn't an accident. It was a targeted hit, and the Vaughan Group had hijacked the traffic cameras to cover it up.
I washed off the ugly black makeup, shedding the disguise of a pathetic outcast.
I am Spectre, the world's most elusive hacker and underground doctor.
I intercepted the billionaire heir's heavily armed convoy in the dead of night. They thought they could steal my life and murder my father, but now, I hold the needle that controls Fidel Vaughan's sanity, and I will make them all pay.
8.4
The night her father is arrested outside their Manhattan townhouse, Amara Bennett's world collapses under flashing cameras and whispered accusations.
Behind the chaos stands one man.
Damian Wolfe.
New York's most feared billionaire CEO - ruthless, controlled, untouchable.
Years ago, Amara's father betrayed him.
Now Damian wants revenge.
He offers her a deal:
Marry him for one year.
Play the perfect wife.
And he will make her father's charges disappear.
It's supposed to be punishment.
A calculated humiliation.
But inside his glass penthouse high above Manhattan, hatred begins to blur into desire.
And when Amara uncovers a secret that proves her father may have been framed, she realizes she didn't just marry her enemy...
She married a man who might destroy everything she loves.
Because in New York, power is everything.
And love is the most dangerous weakness of all.
8.7
I was pregnant with the future heir of the Blackwood Pack, but my fated mate, Alpha Gavin, was nowhere to be found when sharp, tearing agony ripped through my swollen belly.
Instead of rushing to my side, he was in a luxury penthouse with his mistress, Piper.
When I desperately called his human number for help, it was Piper who answered the phone.
"I'm Piper. His future Luna."
Minutes later, I received a leaked audio file of Gavin promising to formally reject me the moment our pup was born.
Before the heartbreak could even set in, my armored SUV was violently rammed off the road by a massive truck.
It wasn't an accident. It was a targeted hit paid for by Piper's pack.
I woke up in the clinic with an empty womb. My pup was dead.
Gavin didn't even show up. He just mind-linked the butler to say he was "too busy" to deal with my loss.
He let his mistress murder our child and treated me like disposable trash, assuming my grief would make me a weak, compliant victim.
He thought he could just bury my trauma and move on with his perfect new life.
He was wrong.
I faked my own death in a fiery crash, leaving him with nothing but my signed rejection papers and the bloody receipt proving his mistress hired the killers.
Now, armed with a new identity and untraceable wealth, I am stepping out of the shadows.
I am going to bankrupt their packs from the inside out and make my former Alpha watch his empire burn.